Trump’s tariff strategy is built on quicksand
Donald Trump sees higher tariffs as a core economic goal and as a lever to extract concessions from other nations. Both aspirations are flawed.
Donald Trump sees higher tariffs as a core economic goal and as a lever to extract concessions from other nations. Both aspirations are flawed.
His muscular, nationalistic mission to ‘make America great again’ will excite and horrify many Australians and throw an unpredictable factor into our electoral equation.
By invoking the Almighty, Donald Trump has positioned himself and the White House within the most powerful idea that inspired the republic.
The outlook is uninspiring, neither as bad as the Coalition insists nor as good as Labor pretends. But the risk is a nation heading into a trajectory of despond – without a robust course correction.
Conservative Liberal leaders are highly effective at attacking Labor. This has been obvious for years. Yet progressive apologists typically don’t get it.
The national accounts figures released this week are grim, but will it spur the Albanese government to reset policy – or is it locked into its flawed agenda?
Anthony Albanese’s character as a tactical and transactional leader has never been more evident. His biggest problem is incrementalism in an age of transformation.
The stakes for Australia cannot be denied – the more Donald Trump succeeds, the more Labor’s policies will look feeble, ineffective and missing the big picture.
The wild ride about to engulf US politics will have loads of blowback across Western democracies, including Australia.
The PM, somehow, needs to fashion a working relationship with the new president, while Peter Dutton’s problem will be his populist conservative base whose obsession will go into overdrive.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/paul-kelly