Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ is set to whack US economy

EVEN his most ardent detractors would grant that Donald Trump is a masterful marketer. So it goes for the barrage of tariffs that he is set to unveil on Apr 2. The US president has promised they will mark “Liberation Day” for America – a turning point when the country starts to claw back the respect and money that, he thinks, it has lost over the decades.

In practice, there will be nothing liberating about it. Over the two months since returning to the White House, Trump will have brought America’s overall tariff level to its highest since the second world war, setting the country up for slower economic growth, higher inflation, more inequality and, quite possibly, fiscal trouble.

How bad will things get? Everyone, reportedly including Trump’s closest advisers, is awaiting the final details. The president has swung between hinting at lenience and insisting his administration must take a hard line. Yet, as he has done so, the outline of his approach has come into focus.