radiofree.asia

Trump’s latest tariff chaos exposed America’s biggest weakness

Donald Trump has once again seen fit to pursue extreme tariffs, throwing the world’s financial markets into chaos:

The latest tariffs come after Beijing imposed additional restrictions on so-called ‘rare earth’ minerals. Trump hasn’t just hammered the stock exchange, then. He’s also drawn attention to the US’s greatest trade weaknesses – namely its almost total reliance on Chinese rare earths:


Chaos following Trump’s latest tariffs

Following Trump’s move, the stock markets lost $2tn in value over a singe day. Trump also triggered one of the largest crypto crashes in history.

Commentators have noted that China imposed the restrictions on rare earths after the US added a ‘50% rule’ on export controls. Paul Triolo commented on this:

The Chinese are responding directly to US escalation on export controls with the 50 percent Rule rolled out last week. It was clear they would respond to this, which was a clear violation of the agreement in Madrid not to take new measures. This was a deliberate move by those favoring decoupling at Commerce to up the ante, and neither the White House or Commerce were fully informed, let along about the potential, actually, certainty that Beijing would respond.

He added:

Beijing’s response was delayed by National holiday but is direct response to US action, which was not approved at cabinet level. Clearly no one told the President that Beijing would respond and strongly to breach of solemn agreement at Madrid.

Expanding on why the US may not have understood that China would respond, Bloomberg researcher Steve Hou said:

I think part of the “miscalculation” btwn US and China stems from the different constitutions of US and Chinese govts. China’s govt is more top down/centralized and its policies are consistent mostly. US govt can be more decentralized with different power centers, factions and varying degrees of hawkishness. Hence, policies are not necessarily mutually consistent. And Trump famously likes it this way, team of rivals.

So from Beijing’s perspective, the US seems inconsistent and repeatedly reneges promises. By this point, I think Beijing also understands that this is just a feature of US govt, but they are like “we don’t care, we’ll respond to your policies in their entirely as tho they are made from a unified perspective, even if they seem at times mutually contradictory and inconsistent. And I’ll set policies in response accordingly.”

Speaking on this latest flare up in the trade war, China’s Commerce Ministry said:

China’s stance is consistent. We do not want a tariff war but we are not afraid of one.

Trump’s response was less succinct:

Rare earths

Although they’re called ‘rare earths’, the issue isn’t actually that these minerals are scarce:

While the US is working to increase its domestic capacity, they could be as much as a decade behind China.

CNN reported on the use of rare earths:

Rare earths are ubiquitous in everyday technologies, from smartphones to wind turbines to LED lights and flat-screen TVs. They’re crucial for batteries in electric vehicles, as well as MRI scanners and cancer treatments.

Rare earths are also essential for the US military. They’re used in F-35 fighter jets, submarines, lasers, satellites, Tomahawk missiles and more, according to a 2025 research note from CSIS.

Trump tariffs expose the scam economy

While all this was happening, an as-yet unidentified individual made £190m in profit by pre-empting Trump’s tariff announcement:


As the YouTuber Coffeezilla highlighted in the following video, it seems certain that the individual must have known of Trump’s plans in advance:

The latest Trump administration has been linked to several alleged scams. As reported by the Canary, people criticise Nigel Farage and his Reform Party for wanting to copy Trump and his administration. Reform is also responsible for scandals of its own making too:


Rock and a hard place

Trump’s capitalist supporters are suffering as a result of his decisions. At the same time, China seems to have a much stronger hand than the US does.

It seems certain that Trump will have to back down; the only question is how much damage he’ll do in the meantime.

Featured image via rawpixel

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.