How Donald Trump Is Playing with Global Trade – and Harming His Own Country in the Process

It begins with a letter. Printed on official White House stationery, dated July 7, 2025, signed with Donald J. Trump’s trademark thunderous signature. But what follows is not a diplomatic message, not an attempt at negotiation or partnership. It is a dozen nearly identical threat letters sent to governments around the world – to Malaysia, South Africa, Myanmar, Tunisia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, and even to Bosnia-Herzegovina. In each of these letters, Trump repeats the same sentence structure, the same wording, the same logic: The United States would be willing to continue economic relations – but only on Trump’s terms. And these terms consist primarily of tariffs: 25% on Malaysia, 35% on Serbia, 36% on Thailand, 40% on Myanmar, varying by country, but always with the same tone: Submit to the American market - or pay. “There will be no Tariff,” it says deceptively friendly, “if you open your markets and manufacture within the United States.” Otherwise? Punishment. What is happening here is not an economic dialogue. It is economic nationalism dressed up in bureaucracy. The uniformity of these letters – differing only in names and numbers – reflects a worldview in which diplomacy becomes a copy-paste template and trade a zero-sum game. America as the “Number One Market in the World,” the rest as a burden. That millions of people work, produce, and export in these countries – that American companies invest in many of them – none of that matters in Trump’s writing.

The consequences of these letters are already being felt – not only by the recipients but also by Americans themselves. Trump’s tariff increases may look like protection for the domestic economy on paper, but in reality, they drive up consumer prices, destroy supply chains, and provoke retaliatory tariffs. Several countries have already responded, announced diplomatic protest notes, and some are considering counter-tariffs on US goods. What begins as a threat ends in a slow-motion trade war – paid for by workers, small business owners, and consumers. But above all, it marks an unprecedented break with the United States’ international trade tradition. In a tone reminiscent of autocrats, Trump speaks of the “elimination” of deficits – as if they were not the result of complex global processes but moral failings. Those who object are punished. Those who comply are rewarded – with exemptions, lower tariffs, expedited approval of US investments. It is a system of carrots and sticks that resembles extortion – and a time when the US acted not as a partner but as an empire. Trump deliberately obscures the fact that many of these deficits – to which he clings like a dogmatic accountant – are self-inflicted: through excessive consumption, low savings rates, and decades of offshoring industrial labor to other countries, often by American corporations. But in Trump’s worldview, the blame is always external – and the solution is always tariffs.

The published letters are therefore more than just a bizarre act of foreign policy. They are a window into a mindset that relies on confrontation, dominance, and submission – and in doing so, risks further eroding America’s economic credibility. They reveal a president who sees himself as the ultimate negotiator but willfully tears apart the delicate threads of diplomacy. And they show that the price of this policy is measured not just in percentage points – but in trust, stability, and global economic cooperation. What remains is a bundle of formulaic letters – and a country that, under his leadership, increasingly appears as an unpredictable player. Trump’s signature is boldly stamped on every letter. But what truly lies beneath is: America alone.