President Donald Trump’s core agenda is to reform the Western economy by ending “American globalization,” under which the components of complex products must be manufactured in multiple countries before being assembled. He intends to bring as many factories as possible back to his country so that it becomes capable of manufacturing complex objects from A to Z.
Contrary to what we might think, the First World Trade War is not between Washington and Beijing, but rather between two forms of capitalism.
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After explaining Donald Trump’s efforts against “American imperialism” and against the federal bureaucracy [ 1 ] , I would like to turn to his economic action and particularly to his conception of customs duties.
Initially, Donald Trump was not a politician, but a business leader, and it was as an entrepreneur that he entered the political world in the 1980s. He then published a full-page advertisement in three major US newspapers to denounce the imbalance in trade between his country and China. He thus opposed American globalization, which made the United States the center of the Empire and China “the workshop of the world.”
He entered politics later, first alongside the Clintons, then supporting the Tea Party and finally taking over the Republican Party.
To understand Donald Trump, we must always keep in mind his background: he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but a “Jacksonian” [ 2 ] . And his hobbyhorse is to bring the production of consumer goods back to his country.
It is much easier for us to understand his adversaries in the United States because they almost all act, not from their experiences, but from their single ideology: “American imperialism.”
And we must keep in mind that, generally speaking, academics confuse economic ideologies, which they discuss, with the functioning of the real economy, which they ignore.
When Donald Trump became president and reformed the economy, he announced his intention to Make America Great Again (MAGA), that is, to make America a great power again. He specified that he did not intend to wage wars, but, like President Andrew Jackson, to replace them with international trade. We should therefore understand MAGA not as making America a great military power, but as a great economic power, that is, to make America great again.
Andrew Jackson was neither a free trader nor a protectionist. He saw tariffs as a means not to protect American products from international competitors, but as the only way to finance the federal government. This is exactly Donald Trump’s position today: he intends to eliminate all federal taxes and finance his administration solely through tariffs. However, he allows each state to levy the taxes it deems essential.
With this framework established, Donald Trump is organizing the transition from the old system to the new one according to his method, which he described in his book, The Art of the Deal : destabilizing his interlocutors. He began by announcing widespread and prohibitive customs duties, then agreed to reduce them to 10% for three months, except for China.
Everyone then rushed to his feet, both to thank our good “master of the world” for these taxes and to ask him not to increase them too much. The absolute example of this approach of submission was given by Giorgia Meloni’s Italy. The Prime Minister displayed herself as a groupie of the ogre who imposed everything on her [ 3 ] . On the contrary, the opposite example was provided by China, which first reacted by taking reciprocal customs duties, then changed its mind. It then chose to respond “in the Chinese way”, that is to say in an area where it was not expected: it interrupted its collaboration with the two global semiconductor giants, ASML and TSMC, considerably slowed down the export of “rare earths” used in hi-tech equipment, both civil and military, and banned the import of Boeings.
Without stockpiles, in a few weeks the United States will run out of semiconductors and spare parts for its missile engines, radar systems, guidance sensors, anti-corrosion coatings, target designation lasers, seeker heads, tactical drones, fighter jet engines, and electronic warfare systems.
Without further ado, President Donald Trump exempted high-tech consumer products from taxes: personal computers, cell phones, etc., but not the raw materials and components essential to the military-industrial complex.
That’s where we are. In a few weeks, the military-industrial complex, not just in the United States, but also in the West (including Italy), will have to declare a lockout of its factories.
From Donald Trump’s point of view, the United States is no longer a successful economy because it no longer produces consumer goods, but mainly weapons and “financial products.” It has, in practice, a war economy. He therefore intends to tighten the belt of the military-industrial complex and develop local production, in particular that of “rare earths” and fossil fuels essential to modern industry. Contrary to popular belief, rare earths are not rare in themselves. They exist everywhere; it is the filtering capacities of these minerals that are rare. Today, 90% of them are in China. President Trump therefore finds, on the occasion of the current standoff, the argument for exploiting American “rare earths,” to which environmentalists of all stripes are opposed [ 4 ] . Indeed, it is difficult to extract them without exhausting water reserves and polluting the surrounding regions.
The Fatal Conceit: The…
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Just as the libertarianism of DOGE leader Elon Musk masks Donald Trump’s desire to restore to the federated states functions exercised by the federal government, outside the Constitution, so the positions of his Trade Advisor, Peter Navarro, mask his own economic conceptions. Navarro, a former professor of Economics at Harvard, is a polemicist, known for having warned – by exaggerating – about the imbalance in relations with China. He declared on “Meet the Press” (NBC) [ 5 ] on April 13 that the Trump team is not surprised by the reactions, including those from China, to the increase in customs duties. But this does not mean that President Trump is anti-Chinese.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who fails to understand her political opponents and dismisses them as unscrupulous, money-hungry billionaires, accused President Trump and his entourage of imposing tariffs solely so they could enrich themselves through insider trading. She therefore urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to open an investigation into the personal fortunes of Trump and Musk. She told CNN’s “State of the Union” [ 6 ] on April 13 that the Trump administration’s recent exemption for cell phones, personal computers, and other electronic devices was a “special deal” with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who donated $1 million to her at his inauguration. “As if the chaos wasn’t enough, he’s adding a layer of corruption that’s very visible! ” [ 7 ]
With all due respect to former Harvard Economics professor Ms. Warren, what is happening is neither a matter of corruption nor a desire to enrich oneself at the expense of the poorest, but a war. Not a war between the United States and China, but between two forms of capitalism on a global scale: that of producers against that of assemblers [ 8 ] .
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[ 1 ] “ Donald Trump’s projects (1/2) ”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network , April 15, 2025.
[ 2 ] “ Donald Trump, an Andrew Jackson 2.0? ”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network , November 19, 2024.
[ 3 ] “ Zero taxes at the price of zero sovereignty! ”, by Manlio Dinucci, Translation M.-A., Voltaire Network , April 19, 2025.
[ 4 ] “ Trump Administration Advances First Wave of Critical Mineral Production Projects ”, White House, April 18, 2025.
[ 5 ] “ Peter Navarro says US ‘has no defense other than tariffs’: Full interview ”, Meet the Press , NBC, April 13, 2025.
[ 6 ] “ Warren explains why she called on the SEC to investigate Trump ”, State of the Union, (CNN), April 13, 2025.
[ 7 ] “3273 Howard Lutnick and Peter Navarro assure that the First World Trade War is proceeding as planned”, Voltaire, international news – No. 129 – April 18, 2025.
[ 8 ] “ The War of the Billionaires ”, by Manlio Dinucci, Translation M.-A., Voltaire Network , April 14, 2025.
