Dealing with Trump

A MONTH BEFORE MOVING into the White House, United States President-elect Donald Trump has already issued several geopolitical threats. He has promised to slap 25 per cent duties on all imports from Mexico, Canada and China. Since Chinese goods are already subject to high US tariffs, the new duties will be on top of those.

- MINHAZ MERCHANT

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was rattled enough to fly to Florida to explain to Trump that the number of illegal migrants crossing the Canada-US border was miniscule. The two men spent three hours over dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Will Trump change his mind on Canadian tariffs? Unlikely.

His advisor Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX founder, ironically crossed the Canada-US border without a visa when he was a student looking to do a startup in Silicon Valley while pretending to attend Stanford University. Musk never attended any classes at Stanford but his student status enabled the South African-born entrepreneur to stay on in the US under a grey interpretation of immigration law. But Musk is no admirer of Trudeau. He posted approvingly on X (formerly Twitter) that Trudeau was certain to lose the 2025 election in Canada.

Trump’s threats aren’t confined to Mexico, Canada and China. He issued a warning to the BRICS countries not to challenge the global supremacy of the US dollar by promoting a rival BRICS currency. The warning was aimed principally at China and Russia but also tangentially at India, Brazil and South Africa, the other key membercountries of BRICS.