Internationalism No. 80, October 2025 Page 9 Amid constant contradictions and deliberate ambiguities, Donald Trump has never clarified to what extent his trade war is conceived as an end in itself – new protectionist barriers to stymie global competition – or as a means of international intimidation, serving other political objectives. So far, this duplicitous lack of clarity remains: the powers that have come to terms with the American president, such as the European Union and Japan, and yielded to his main demands, are nonetheless suffering a significant increase in tariffs. The British model After declaring economic war on Liberation Day in April, Trump immediately changed course at the first signs of financial panic, proclaiming a three-month tariff truce. In May, Keir Starmer’s British Labour government was the first to accept the unilateral conditions imposed by the White House. Although it was not contributing to the US trade deficit, the...