'LIBERATION DAY' SPEECH FOR DONALD TRUMP

Rarely in history has someone personified in noun and verb forms—dominated public discourse like the current US president has. Donald J. Trump has put the world on notice, threatening to upend the $24-trillion global trade market with reciprocal tariffs.

- SHANKKAR AIYAR

Global leaders are scurrying across capitals; markets are teetering—the S&P 500 yo-yos between fears of inflation, stagflation, and recession. The price of the much-ballyhooed Bitcoin slid to five digits and good old gold surged to a record $3,100.

The contours of action will only be known on April 2. What is clear is that 'Liberation Day,' as Trump called it, presents the president the opportunity to showcase his world view: might is right and domination must be explicitly acknowledged.

What will he say? Here is a template, paraphrased from Julius Caesar, for contemplation.

Friends, frenemies, and citizens of the MAGA world, this will be tremendous. I come not to mourn globalization, but to bury it!

The good that globalization delivered for decades is now being interred. 'Tis said that America evangelized globalization. If that is true, it was a grievous flaw—and was righted in November. So what if the comportment enabled the US to be a $29.7-trillion economy?

Ambition and domination call for sterner stuff. The US is the superpower, but it has been conned for decades. We had stupid leaders. America defended Greenland, funded Ukraine and has provided a security umbrella to South Korea—whose average tariff is four times ours—and NATO. Our people want to withdraw from NATO—ask why America must bear the costs without returns.