The world according to Trump

No method, just madness.

We’ve all heard it, and for a while, it was tempting to believe. No matter how nutty US President Donald Trump’s statements or actions are, there is a reason. He’s a business guy. He makes deals. He might be rude, crude, a little unhinged, but he has a plan. He’s smart. He knows what he’s doing. Just wait. You’ll see.

This week has laid that theory to rest. There is no method to Trump’s madness, just a load of crazy. If Trump wasn’t the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, he would be treated like your drunk uncle at the family Christmas party. That’s nice Donnie, (patting him on the head), yes sure you’ve got the key to achieving world peace. Let me get you a pillow.

Unfortunately, Trump is not this person. He is the President of the United States of America, erstwhile defender of the free world, which is rapidly becoming a pariah state. Every day of his administration brings a fresh hell, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker. It’s bad for business, bad for security, and just plain exhausting.

Let’s review this week (which technically isn’t even over yet). On Monday, Trump announced that 25% tariffs would take effect the following day against Canada and Mexico. On Wednesday he did a U turn and suspended tariffs on the North American auto sector for one month. On Thursday he did the same for tariffs on all goods covered under CUSMA, for Mexico in the morning and Canada in the afternoon, until April 2. He then claimed that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was using the tariffs to stay in power, when Trudeau will no longer be leader after Sunday.

While all this was going on, the markets crashed. On Monday alone, the S&P 500 sank by 1.76%, wiping out all its gains in 2025 and triggering hundreds of billions of dollars in losses. I doubt that much fentanyl was stopped at the US border, but hey, this is allegedly a drug war, not a trade war, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, so perhaps someone’s keeping track.

What was gained? What was achieved? Answer: absolutely nothing. Unless you count all the investors who made money shorting the market, every time Trump farted. It is to weep. The French politician Claude Malhuret said it best, likening Trump to Nero with his jester, Elon Musk, hopped up on ketamine, fiddling while his government burns to the ground.

Trump did other things too. He said he’ll consider revoking the refugee status of 240,000 Ukrainians, so he can deport them to a war zone. He told fellow NATO members that unless they pay their 2% of GDP on defense spending, the United States won’t protect them if they are attacked. And he stopped sending intelligence to Ukraine, so the Russians can kill more people who now won’t see them coming.

On Tuesday, Trump gave an address to Congress peppered with lies, like the US spending $350 billion on Ukraine and DOGE defunding research into transgender mice (facts: the US spent $119.7bn and the mice were transgenic, not transgender). His Republican minions applauded, while Democrats feebly raised little paddles calling him a liar. It was the sorriest political spectacle the Capitol has seen in our lifetimes.

And that was just in the span of four days. Four days, of the seventh week of the next four years. At this rate, I’m not sure we will all be around to see the end of it. Or what will be left to see. Trump’s tariffs, if imposed, will cost the average American family an extra $1600 - $2000 a year. They will wreak havoc on the economies of the countries that he says should spend more money on defence, leaving them less able to do so. He will give a free pass to Russian President Vladimir Putin to do as he pleases in Europe: why stop at the Donbas, when you can have the Balkans? Or Finland? Or Poland? And through it all, the continued uncertainty will keep capital in limbo, with investors too spooked to take risks in America’s world of crazy.

The rest of us, living outside the United States, will just have to make other plans. Canada will have to smarten up and do all the things we should have done anyway: drop internal trade barriers, find new markets, buy more Canadian stuff, become more productive and beef up our military. Europe will have to defend itself alone, without relying on the US. The free world will have to create new alliances to replace NATO and the G7. The Commonwealth, La Francophonie, all could take on new life and new meaning. Authoritairianism will have a field day: China could fill the void left by the demise of USAID in Africa, spread its tentacles further through the Pacific, and swallow Taiwan. Russia may try and recreate its Soviet Empire. A new world order awaits, and it’s not going to be pretty.

But that’s what happens when your leader is mad: like King Lear, you end up awash in death and destruction. Only this isn’t a play, it’s real life, for us and our children. And it’s for them that we must persevere, and hang on to whatever sanity we can, until the king is no longer on the throne.