KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 14 (IPS) – Trump 2.0 has been marked by an explicitly aggressive exercise of power to secure US interests as defined by him. While many recent trends predate even his first term, his low use of ‘soft power’ has exposed his bullying, extortionate use of American power.
Rule of law?
Trade liberalization has been reversed for at least two decades. Almost all G20 developed countries raised trade barriers following the global, indeed Western, financial crisis of 2008–09.
The US has illegally weaponized more laws and policies, particularly by imposing unilateral sanctions and tariffs on regimes with which it disagrees.
Often, such threats are not ends in themselves, but are actually weapons to strengthen the American bargaining position to secure more advantageous deals.
Under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, members are obliged to grant ‘most favored nation’ status to all other member countries.
On April 2, 2025, President Trump reportedly announced ‘reciprocating tariffs’, responding to others having trade surpluses with the US.
Appealing to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is futile, as the US has blocked the appointment. members of the appellate body Since Obama became President.
Trump 2.0 is also trying to bring wealthy investors and governments – mainly from Europe, Japan and the oil-rich Gulf states – to invest in the US.
Most such investments are in financial markets rather than in the real economy. Such portfolio investments have driven up asset prices, even bubbles.
Trump’s bullying is frowned upon, but it has not been very effective against stronger opponents. As a result, allies have been most affected and angered.
deepening of stagflation
Meanwhile, much of the world economy has never really recovered from the COVID-19 recession, while Western sanctions and tariffs have raised production costs, worsening inflation.
Recent trends have also deepened stagnation since 2009. Many governments and the IMF have made things worse by cutting spending when it was needed most.
The effects vary, generally worse in poorer countries, where the IMF limits policy options and credit rating agencies raise borrowing costs.
US Fed Chairman Powell’s interest rate hike, ostensibly to address inflation, also reversed ‘quantitative easing’, which had kept interest rates low since 2009.
Trump’s aggression has reduced economic engagement with the US, inadvertently accelerating de-dollarization, thus reducing the ‘excessive privilege’ of the dollar.
Central banks around the world have responded predictably, refusing to be counter-cyclical in the face of an economic slowdown, citing inflationary pressures.
Transactional?
Trump’s transactional approach means bilateral, one-on-one transactions, which will further benefit the world’s leading power.
Involving a one-time asymmetric ‘zero-sum game’, such transactions ensure benefits to the US, essentially at the expense of ‘others’. Transactionalism also enables ‘buying influence’, or corruption.
The resulting uncertainty not only in the US, but everywhere else, reduces investment due to overestimated risks, thereby increasing stability. Thus, Trump 2.0 policies have reduced investment and growth.
The entire world, including the US, has suffered a lot of ‘collateral damage’, but the White House seems content as long as others suffer more.
unipolar sovereignty
There has been much debate over unipolar sovereignty and then the transition to a multipolar world.
Three decades ago, the magazine of the influential US Council on Foreign Relations, foreign Affairsargued that the post-Cold War unipolar world was in fact ‘sovereignist’.
Trump’s ‘daddy’ reference to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte shows that the sovereigntist moment is far from over, as America’s ‘No Kings’ mobilization suggests.
Trump’s ‘America First’ clearly opposes multilateralism, raising widespread concerns. He has isolated the US from many but not all multilateral bodies.
On January 7, the US withdrew from 66 international organizations deemed “inadequate, ineffective, or harmful” in addressing issues it claimed were “contrary” to national interests.
Trump’s continued, selective use of multilateral bodies has benefited him, maintaining privileges including, for example, permanent membership of the UN Security Council with veto power.
The UN Security Council’s Gaza ceasefire resolution was used to create and legitimize their peace board, now seen by some as an alternative to the UN!
Trump will not withdraw his trade-related intellectual property rights from the WTO (trips) The agreement holds the key to US tech brothers’ trillions in international IP.
end of soft power
Some of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January 20 comments in Davos are telling:
“Recently, the great powers have begun to use economic integration as a weapon, tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as a form of coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.
“You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subjugation… If we are not at the table, we are on the menu.”
In addition to exercising overwhelming military superiority, Trump 2.0 has increasingly weaponized norms, agreements and economic relationships to his advantage.
Elon Musk’s abandonment of ‘soft power’ accelerated by DOGE has taken off America’s velvet glove.’Heroism‘, exposing the balled fist below.
USAID and other US government-funded agencies and programs have been critical of soft power, promoting the illusion of dominance by consent. Abandoning soft power could greatly increase the cost of achieving America First.
IPS UN Bureau
© Inter Press Service (20260414054817) – All rights reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
