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WHAT IS TRUMP REALLY PLANNING WITH HIS IMPORT TARIFFS?  
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Marc Vandepitte
April 17, 2025
Morning Star
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_ In a revealing speech, Trump’s economic adviser has exposed the
actual strategy behind the tariff policy: forcing other countries to
provide financial support for US world hegemony. _

, Tensions: A Chinese flag flies over a ship delivering goods to the
United States

 

In a remarkable speech on April 7 2025, Stephen Miran, the chief
economic adviser to Donald Trump and chairman of the US Council of
Economic Advisers, revealed the real goal of Trump’s tariff policy:
using import tariffs as a leverage for forcing other countries to pay
for maintaining US world hegemony.

According to Miran, the US provides two so-called “global public
goods” — military protection through its worldwide network of
military bases, and the dollar functioning as global reserve currency.

This role as a world power, according to Miran, is costly, and it is
no longer acceptable, in his view, for other countries to benefit from
it for free. The US wants countries to “pay their fair share,”
under threat of heavy import tariffs as a sanction for refusal.

This strategy is described as a “Mar-a-Lago Accord” — an
informal name for a new global economic order under US terms.

The gist of Miran’s message is that the military and financial
dominance of the US must be preserved, and that it can no longer be
financed solely by the US itself. He argues that it is unsustainable
for other countries to benefit from US power structures without
contributing to the costs.

The US will therefore pressure foreign governments with high import
tariffs until they agree to accept favourable terms for Washington.

On April 2, Trump imposed very high import tariffs on nearly all
countries. A few days later, he suspended that measure for three
months pending talks with the countries involved (a postponement
excluding China). In the meantime, a 10 per cent tariff remains in
place for all countries.

BRETTON WOODS

Instead of reforming or democratising the current world order,
established as the Bretton Woods system in 1944, Trump wants to
reinforce this imperialist structure.

The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 marked the beginning of an
international economic order centred on US hegemony. In a world
devastated by war, the US emerged as the only economic superpower.

Under its leadership, a system was created in which the dollar became
the global anchor: other currencies were pegged to the dollar, and the
dollar itself was convertible to gold. This gave the US an exceptional
position, as other countries had to accumulate dollars to keep their
economies running and to trade, while the US could print dollars
without issue.

The institutions created as part of the Bretton Woods system — the
IMF and the World Bank — were established in Washington and largely
operated according to US interests and conditions.

Bretton Woods formed the economic pillar of that hegemony, Nato laid
its military foundation. Under the guise of collective security
against the Soviet threat, the US gained a firm foothold in Europe
through Nato, with military bases, troops, and a leading role in
strategic decision-making.

Trump wants to preserve US hegemony, both in terms of currency and
military power, but he wants other countries to fund it. Miran put it
clearly: if countries want to enjoy the “geopolitical and financial
umbrella” of the US, they will have to pay for it. The threat of
tariffs thus becomes a kind of tax on foreign co-operation with the US
empire.

TRUMP’S WISH LIST

In his speech, Miran formulated five concrete ways in which countries
can contribute their “fair share” to US hegemony.

First, they can simply accept the import tariffs without taking
countermeasures, thereby generating revenue for the Treasury to
finance public goods.

Second, they can open their markets to US exports and purchase more
US-made products.

Third, countries are expected to increase their defence spending, but
specifically by purchasing weapons and equipment from US companies.

Fourth, foreign companies can shift part of their production to the
US. This spares them import tariffs and creates jobs in the US.

Finally, and most explicitly imperialist, Miran stated that countries
can simply write “cheques” to the US Treasury — in the form of
long-term bonds (loans), such as 100-year Treasury bonds with low
yields, which lose value through inflation, effectively subsidising
Washington.

In his speech, Miran implicitly acknowledged the existence of the
so-called Triffin dilemma: the fundamental conflict whereby a country
that issues the world’s reserve currency — in this case, the US
— must run a structural trade deficit (import more than it exports)
in order to circulate enough dollars for international trade.

However, this deficit ultimately undermines the country’s own
industrial base. Miran admitted that this role has “decimated” US
manufacturing and that the trade deficits have become
“unsustainable.”

Still, the Trump administration wants to both maintain and reform the
system: it wants to continue benefiting from the dominant position of
the dollar, while forcing other countries to bear the costs that this
dominance entails.

CHINA AS THE ENEMY

Within this plan, China is presented as the primary adversary.
According to Miran, Beijing is “the greatest enemy” of the US, and
the economic relationship with China constitutes the central battle in
the global power struggle.

Trump has already imposed tariffs of up to 145 per cent on Chinese
goods and wants to decouple US production from that of China. The US
wants to develop alternative supply chains with “friendly”
countries that, according to Miran, treat US interests “fairly.”

Miran claims that countries with large trade surpluses — like China
— are weak in a trade war because they depend on exports and on the
US market. In his view, the US is stronger because it can replace
imports from China either by sourcing from other partner countries or
by having goods produced domestically (by foreign companies).

According to him, Washington is playing an economic game of chicken
with China hoping that Beijing will blink first.

Meanwhile, economists warn that ordinary US citizens will end up
footing the bill through inflation, while the benefits of this
economic confrontation mainly go to the financial and industrial elite
— as illustrated by the planned corporate tax cuts.

MAR-A-LAGO

With this, the Trump administration is attempting nothing less than to
rewrite the economic foundations of the world order as it emerged
after World War II.

Since Bretton Woods, the US has shaped the world order to suit its own
interests — with the dollar as global currency and Wall Street as
the main beneficiary of international capital flows. This hegemony is
also supported by an enormous military apparatus, with around 800
foreign bases.

Miran and Trump do not want to democratise or share this dominance,
but rather outsource its costs and further centralise its benefits
within the US.

The grand deal Trump hopes to achieve is being called the
“Mar-a-Lago Accord.” The term refers to Trump’s luxury resort
and echoes the Plaza Accord of 1985, when the Reagan administration
forced its allies (Japan, Britain, France, West Germany) to raise the
value of their currencies against the dollar.

That accord had disastrous consequences for Japan: it led to a massive
economic bubble and decades-long economic stagnation. Trump now hopes
for similar deals with his allies but is also aiming for broader
international compliance. It remains highly uncertain whether
countries will allow themselves to be misled again.

China, in any case, has already retaliated in kind and will impose
import tariffs of up to 125 per cent. In addition, Beijing is
launching an alternative to the US-dominated Swift payment system,
which could seriously undermine the position of the dollar in the long
term.

In the next three months, there will be intensive negotiations between
the US and the rest of the world that will be decisive for future
(trade) relations with the US. But also, in the rest of the world,
there will undoubtedly be a great deal of consultation among countries
to determine how to best position themselves — jointly or not — in
the face of this new and unprecedented aggression from the US.

The next 90 days will therefore be very important. The way in which
the world will respond to this brutal trade policy of the US will help
shape the (economic) world order of the coming decades.

NEOCONSERVATIVES

Also important to mention: Miran’s speech took place behind closed
doors at the Hudson Institute, a neoconservative think tank in
Washington DC, funded by wealthy right-wing donors such as Rupert
Murdoch, Charles Schwab, and Harlan Crow.

The institute also receives money from multinationals like Meta, AT&T,
Chevron, and weapons giants like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop
Grumman — all actors with a vested interest in a hard-line foreign
policy from Washington.

Symbolically, four flags waved on stage: those of the US, Israel,
Ukraine, and Taiwan — all key players in the US geopolitical
strategy against China and Russia.

It is crystal clear: Trump’s economic plan is openly imperialist, a
leverage for forcing other countries to pay for a US-led world order
over which those countries themselves have no say.

Through tariffs, economic intimidation, and the punishment of those
who seek alternatives to the dollar system, the US aims to keep
countries submissive. These are typical tactics of a mafia boss.

The Mar-a-Lago Accord is, in essence, an attempt to impose economic
taxes on the rest of the world — to keep an outdated empire alive at
all costs and to provide Trump’s friendly elite with a tax cut.

_Morning Star is a left-wing British daily newspaper with a focus on
social, political and trade union issues.  It is the only
English-language socialist daily newspaper published in the world, six
days a week.  _

* Tariffs
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* Bretton Woods
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* U.S. dollar
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* Hudson Institute
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* China
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