Trump isn’t taking an axe to the American economy; the man’s dropping nuclear weapons on it.
In announcing punitive tariffs on goods from the European Union, The United Kingdom, China, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Norway, Venezuela, Guyana and Cambodia, the President of the world’s largest economy kicked off a global trade war.
America’s poorly educated, who make up the majority of Trump’s political base, cheered their principal’s actions to the rafters, blissfully ignorant of the extraordinary ramifications which the tariff hike will have.
Already, China and South Korea have put aside their historical grievances with their former brutalizer and colonizer — Japan — to co-ordinate an equally powerful response to the inexplicably harmful decision from the commander-in-chief.
The United Kingdom, whose rupture from the European Union has left the UK between a rock and a hard place, is working on how best to respond to Washington.
But this article isn’t necessarily about the rest of the world. Instead it's bout those who were nescient enough to give their vote to the least qualified individual to occupy the White house.
They will be pleased to know that in giving the keys to Trump, they have kick started the process of the collapse of Pax Americana.
The beginning of the end of the American empire might not come by way of armed warfare or insurrection on the streets of Chicago, Brooklyn, Boston, Hope, Omaha or South-Central LA, but by way of economic unravelling.
For far too long, white Americans have been seduced by the notion of America first — a place in which whiteness dominates and everyone else cowers and submits to the whims and caprices of the dominant tribe.
And Trump is doing his level best in bringing this deeply held wish to fruition by cutting the country’s nose to spite its face.
Here in the United Kingdom, the white working class who plumbed for Brexit, are learning the harsh lessons of going it alone in today’s integrated and interconnected world and it is inevitable that the costs of goods from other parts of the world will skyrocket leaving hundreds of millions of Americans poorer than ever before.
And there’s the tax cuts too.
Our protagonist has promised to give some of his country’s wealthiest citizens, the largest tax cuts ever, knowing fully well that this decision will do great damage to America’s finances.
And thus, it is to the title of this piece to which we must return, might imperial collapse be the best thing ever to happen to White America?
Yes and no.
The untold hardships which will be unleashed on a country which has long since given up on its manufacturing industry will be unlike anything folks have ever known.
Its dependence on migrant labour from the south of its borders will become a thing of the past, forcing people to embrace serfdom like never before.
Imperial collapse would also mean that the rest of the globe will look to the likes of China and Russia for leadership and for those of us on the outside, this will be an immensely positive development.
Now who would have thought the interests of white America and the rest of world would have perfectly aligned under Donald Trump?
America’s imperial collapse cannot come sooner.
Foreign Exchange are op-eds from writers who do not live in the U.S. They have thoughts but don't have a dog in the race.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Jeffrey Kass' work on Medium.