Right from his inauguration, Donald Trump unleashed slash-and-burn austerity on the federal government — with even deeper cuts planned for coming months. As part of a breakneck eighteen-month agenda to maximize “governmental efficiency and productivity,” Trump has advanced a wide-ranging attack on the way the US government has hitherto functioned, including internationally.
In early April, Trump carried through on another campaign promise to upend global commerce by imposing massive tariffs on nearly every other country. Stock markets plunged, and business confidence evaporated. For a moment, it seemed like the postwar system of global commerce hung in the balance.
Trump’s smash-and-grab announcements sent governments around the world scrambling, faced with rising fears of Washington provoking a global recession.
In response to the initial “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, French premier François Bayrou told Le Parisien that Trump’s moves could trigger a global catastrophe. He warned that large numbers of jobs would be threatened, all of society would suffer, and that the human costs would be “considerable.”
But Bayrou also made sure that the crisis didn’t go to waste. He had already been facing a fierce upcoming budget battle in a bitterly divided National Assembly and quickly used the confrontation to get ahead of the debate. Bayrou warned that looming instability would also mean reduced investment in French industry. “Trump’s policy could cost us 0.5 percent of GDP,” he told the newspaper. France’s government has already revised down its GDP growth expectations for 2026, from 1.4 percent in October to 1.2 percent now.
At the height of the tariff fears, Trump pulled back, announcing a flat 10 percent tariff…
Auteur: Marlon Ettinger
