New Great Depression. Why does Trump need tariffs against everyone?

However, it's worth reminding that the last Great Depression made far-right radical movements extremely popular—and that's how Adolf Hitler won democratic elections.

The first thing to understand about Trump’s tariffs on Ukraine is that they hardly affect our economy, as our economic balance is minimal. The main challenge is that asking for money to cover the budget deficit will become harder, and simply invoking our war will no longer work.

Trump’s tariffs are an invitation for all the countries hit by the tariffs to offer something extraordinary. In short, what is your value to the U.S.? This is nothing more than an invitation to a big trade.

During the elections, Republicans and Donald Trump consistently stated that they wanted to change the economic balance and bring manufacturing back home. However, whether this is a successful idea with the US's labor shortage is still unclear, especially with the threats of the U.S. president to deport all illegal immigrants back to their home countries.

Trump launched these tariffs with great fanfare: "The golden age of America is returning. Jobs and factories will come back. This will lower prices for consumers," said the U.S. president.

Trump emphasized that American taxpayers "have been defrauded for 50 years," but now, this will no longer happen. Trump promised that the money raised from tariffs would go towards lowering taxes, paying off foreign debt, and all of this would happen "very quickly." Whether this will resonate with the wallet and heart of the voter—especially Donald Trump's older audience—remains to be seen in the latest American polling.

For now, some conclusions. The abolition of globalization, as it was before, is becoming a challenge for many countries. It is a challenge for China, the main competitor, and for small countries with localized manufacturing, as it shuts them out of the market. Even for Russia, which in the past two decades has cleverly used borderless trade to enrich itself through energy exports.

Although a quick peace in Gaza and a peaceful truce in Ukraine have already been scattered to dust at the embryonic stage, Trump still believes in making America great again. In his ideal world, Germany and France race to send government planes to Washington to quickly settle trade deals over wine and cars.

The U.S. still has plenty of cards to play in this game.

One can keep showing steel balls in the Oval Office to boost ratings, but the Americans have advanced technologies, the dollar as the number one currency, and their military is in far better shape than many armies sitting in NATO waiting for the nuclear umbrella.

Custom tariffs are also preparation for war with China, the likelihood of which is rapidly increasing. So, this is nothing more than bringing globalization back to serve the U.S., as the last two decades have only strengthened China, which is looking to overthrow its hegemonic competitor.

Manufacturing the most important things at home is what you need when you are seriously preparing for war. Ukraine’s experience has shown how bad it is when you have to ask the world for drones, medical kits, tourniquets, bulletproof vests, or even uniforms—because such production has not been a priority for a long time. Or it wasn’t fashionable.

This becomes the leverage through which Trump’s hawks, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, are twisting our arms and forcing us to sign agreements about minerals, where each updated version becomes worse and worse.

With some satisfaction: the world is inexorably moving toward World War III, and strategically, this is in our interests. After all, you can’t just watch our war like a Netflix reality show and think it doesn’t concern you.

So, for those guys and girls of our generation who are filming TikToks in pink underwear, they will soon have to sew uniforms, collect drones, and prepare for assaults on Pacific islands against the Chinese army.

There is, however, a possibility that Trump’s idea will fall apart, like all simple solutions. Yet the world will never be the same—Trump has simply become the yeast that catalyzed processes in the world’s sewer.

Specially for Espreso

About the author: Maryna Danilyuk-Yarmolayeva, journalist

The editorial staff does not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.