We should be in no doubt now that Donald Trump is ripping up global markets. The only question is how far the rest of the world goes in using it against him.
We really should have seen it coming. Before Trump retook the White House a year ago, one of his key financial lieutenants, Stephen Miran, wrote a detailed if baffling paper about a so-called Mar-a-Lago Accord — a recognition that for the US, the global hegemon, everything is “intertwined”. Trade, finance and defence are three legs of the same stool, and each can be used to reinforce the other in the interests of America First.
Miran was later appointed to chair the president’s prestigious Council of Economic Advisers. He has since snagged a plum role in the Federal Reserve, where he has advocated for Trump’s preferred monetary policy: sharply lower interest rates. True, the administration, and Miran himself, have sought to downplay some of the 2024 paper’s key points, explaining it was just a thought exercise teasing out a collection of options for the new era of US greatness.