Is Trump Planning to Reshape the Collective West?

Many outside observers are understandably puzzled: Why would the businessman president of the United States impose additional tariffs on his closest neighbors and allies? After all, Newton’s Third Law still applies — those who are provoked have no choice but to respond in kind.

Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum exported from the EU. In response, the European Commission — the EU’s transnational governing body — published a 99-page list of American goods that would be hit with tariffs in two stages, making them more expensive for consumers and ultimately less saleable. This measure targeted 26 billion euros of transatlantic exports.

Moreover, the Europeans — demonstrating their trademark «Jesuit cunning» — specifically targeted goods produced in states governed by Republicans, Trump’s political allies. Chicken from Nebraska and Kansas made the list, as did soybeans from Louisiana (the home state of House Speaker Mike Johnson). Iconic symbols of American machismo — jeans, bourbon (corn whiskey), and Harley-Davidson motorcycles — were also targeted.

Meanwhile, Canadians are preparing to push back against their southern neighbors, as local businesses, large and small, are uneasy about the possibility of effectively becoming part of a «Greater North American» United States — where they might be swallowed up and fade into oblivion.

The billionaire businessman’s fixation on trade wars was evident in his response to a journalist’s question about whether conflicts with neighboring countries would affect the 2026 FIFA World Cup, whose games will be played in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Beaming, Trump said, «Oh, I think it’s going to make it more exciting». Trump’s team, including his advisors on geo-economic strategy, seems to be following the principle of «No Pain, No Gain», which is the equivalent of the Russian proverb «You can’t pull a fish out of a pond without some effort», or the old French mantra Pour être belle il faut souffrir («Beauty requires sacrifice»).

Ultimately, the list of casualties — such as companies shifting jurisdiction and fleeing from Europe, Canada and Mexico to the U.S., as well as bankrupt or near-bankrupt American companies that have lost export markets — will determine the winner of this tournament.

It is by no means certain that the United States will shed tears when it adds up its revenues and expenditures for 2025. Last fiscal year’s results have just been released. Despite well-known structural and systemic shortcomings (for example, a negative current account balance), the energy majors have seen an upswing. Every day (!), an average of 495,000 barrels of oil products were exported more than the year before. And this may not be the limit, at least until the shale boom inevitably runs its course.

One could joke that America has turned into a «gas station». Alternatively, one could predict that given Trump’s focus on the real economy — especially the oil and gas sector — the United States will increase its competitiveness and partially balance its budget in the short and even medium term. «Dreams come true?» Indeed. Energy self-sufficiency will largely enable the U.S. to twist the arms of its allies and corner them, effectively profiting at their expense.

As political scientist Malek Dudakov notes, Trump’s tariffs will be «a massive blow to the German auto industry or the EU pharmaceutical sector. Brussels is now rushing to strike deals with India and rebuild relations with China. But neither can replace the U.S. The European market has already lost Russia, and China’s market is increasingly difficult to penetrate. Soon it may lose access to the US as well — so Brussels is looking at battles on several fronts».

The British online magazine Spiked, known for its libertarian leanings, is either lamenting or quietly gloating over the discord within the collective West when it reports that Trump branded Brussels, claiming (not verbatim) that «the European Union was created to swindle the United States».

The infighting within the transatlantic family — triggered by the rise to power of nationalist egotist Donald Trump — has caused considerable pessimism in expert circles. Marc Chandler, chief currency strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, predicts that the 47th US president, who is «pulling the rug out from under his side», will bring about the «end of globalization». Meanwhile, Bronwen Maddox, director of the Chatham House think tank (considered undesirable in Russia), believes that the idea of the West as an alliance of liberal democracies «has probably run its course».

Among those most despondent about the upheavals engulfing this post-imperial «club of neo-colonizers» is Michael Clarke, former director of the Royal United Services Institute. His announcement, reminiscent of a funeral oration, is stark: «The West is dead».

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is right to say that the world is at a «crossroads in history». Granted, the unraveling of the unipolar world order did not begin yesterday or the day before. But with the advent of this improvisational, revanchist politician named Trump, the process has accelerated and taken on new significance.

It is no coincidence that Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly highlighted the main issue in Washington’s attacks on Ottawa: «The only constant factor in this unjustified trade war, it seems, is President Trump’s talk of annexing our country through economic coercion. He called our border a made-up line and repeated his dismissive rhetoric about a 51st state».

That last comment is the key to understanding what is happening. The tariff wars Trump has launched are not an end in themselves, but a means to an end. He launched them not only — or even primarily — to balance exports and imports (the US trade deficit with the EU is €198.2 billion). His overarching goal is to reshape the old order.

Along the way, we are already witnessing — and will continue to witness — major changes in the pecking order. This is why the reformatting of what is commonly called the «collective West» began with an escalation of internal rivalries.

We see it in the diminished power of Germany and France, both struggling with deindustrialization and financial difficulties; in the weakening of the once «special» Anglo-Saxon ties across the Atlantic (with prohibitions on intelligence-sharing between Washington and London); and in talk of redrawing borders to suit American interests — claims to Greenland and the Panama Canal, ambitions to make Canada the 51st state, and so on.

It appears that the Deep State, having apparently struck a deal with Donald Trump and his appointed «overseer» (in the person of Elon Musk), has a far more expansive plan. The grand design is to move away from the kind of globalization that has failed to live up to expectations and led to an outflow of investment and production to China, which is seen as a long-term strategic rival. In place of globalization, the United States seeks to consolidate self-proclaimed «liberal democracies» and, ultimately, to create a closed, trans-regional bloc of states of the so-called West under American leadership.

Thus, the answer to the question posed in the title — «Is Trump planning to reshape the collective West?» — is unequivocally yes.