![\"Grandiose](\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/trump_tariffs_reuters-320x200.jpg?v=1743707125\")
America\u2019s declaration of trade war on the rest of the world may quite possibly be recorded as the greatest act of national self-harm since, some 600 years ago, China withdrew from maritime trade, abandoning its hegemony over the eastern coasts of Asia and Africa, and barricaded itself behind the Great Wall. A century later, European explorers reached this undefended sphere, opening the way to colonialism and European world domination. Today, as China rises again as a maritime and trade power, Washington, of its own volition, is destroying the global trading system which it had shaped, which had helped America and many other nations achieve unprecedented prosperity. What makes a superpower abandon its leading role, choosing isolation rather than dealing with alliances and solving common problems? Why is Donald Trump trying to alienate all of America\u2019s friends and destroy the structures of cooperation that had been developing since 1945?<\/p>\n
The name which Trump has given the project of his dismantling of the global trade system is most revealing. \u201cLiberation Day\u201d is a direct reference to his inaugural speech on January 21, when he declared, \u201cFrom this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign and independent nation.\u201d As if the superpower was waiting for Trump to secure its liberation. The seeming absurdity of that statement is explained today: Trump wants to disrupt everything in America, to establish his hegemony by making everyone submit to his will, however absurd it may seem. Because he cannot achieve this with constructive policies, disruption becomes an end in itself: He speaks of taking over Canada and Greenland; he speaks well of dictators; he attacks allies and international organizations; he imposes tariffs that will not benefit American citizens. Above all, he never stops trying to persuade the Americans that they are surrounded by enemies, that they need him for their liberty and security.<\/p>\n
In the 15th century, China chose isolation and decline because it was threatened by invaders. Six hundred years later, the United States are jeopardizing their global leadership, and unsettling the whole world, to satisfy the whims of one man.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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