This article is part of a collection on the second-term president\u2019s approach to the world. Read the full package here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The first 100 days of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s second term have been a test of whether the radicals and neophytes he placed in senior economic posts could accomplish what the so-called adults of his first term could not: remaking the rules of the global economy to serve the president\u2019s America First agenda.<\/p>\n So far, the results have been spectacularly bad. Trump\u2019s trade policy has lurched from empty threats to sweeping tariffs to humiliating retreats, roiling markets and destroying remaining confidence in U.S. economic leadership. Unless the administration can bring some discipline to its approach, Trump will accomplish none of his goals and leave the United States poorer and weaker.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The first 100 days of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s second term have been a test of whether the radicals and neophytes he placed in senior economic posts could accomplish what the so-called adults of his first term could not: remaking the rules of the global economy to serve the president\u2019s America First agenda.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So far, the results have been spectacularly bad. Trump\u2019s trade policy has lurched from empty threats to sweeping tariffs to humiliating retreats, roiling markets and destroying remaining confidence in U.S. economic leadership. Unless the administration can bring some discipline to its approach, Trump will accomplish none of his goals and leave the United States poorer and weaker.<\/p>\n Business leaders and U.S. trading partners had hoped that Trump\u2019s second term would look like his first\u2014certainly more protectionist, but with a coherent approach. But\u00a0Robert Lighthizer<\/a>, the veteran who served as U.S. trade representative from 2017 to 2021, was\u00a0left off the team<\/a>, reportedly because Trump thought he was \u201ctoo scared to go big.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has gone big, but in chaotic and unpredictable ways. He\u00a0threatened 100 percent tariffs<\/a>\u00a0on BRICS member countries if they reduced transactions involving U.S. dollars,\u00a0imposed and partially lifted<\/a>\u00a0tariffs on Canada and Mexico over illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling,\u00a0expanded steel and aluminum tariffs<\/a>, and added 25 percent to the cost of\u00a0most auto imports<\/a>.<\/p>\n The coup de gr\u00e2ce was his April 2 announcement of so-called\u00a0reciprocal tariffs<\/a>\u00a0on U.S. trading partners, reaching 50 percent for some countries. The administration used a\u00a0laughably crude formula<\/a>\u00a0that sent stock and bond markets into a tailspin, forcing Trump\u00a0into retreat<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n No one on Trump\u2019s team has been able to explain the president\u2019s actions, much less constrain them. All are novices in government, except for U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who worked with Lighthizer, as well as White House advisor Peter Navarro, a radical protectionist who never met a tariff he didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n Most of the explaining has been left to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who\u00a0predicted<\/a>\u00a0that the new tariffs would create jobs for millions of Americans\u2014even as some manufacturers blame the tariffs for layoffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has looked lost,\u00a0insisting<\/a>\u00a0the tariff announcement was all a negotiating strategy even as\u00a0Navarro<\/a>,\u00a0Lutnick<\/a>, and others said the opposite. Trump has nonetheless given Bessent a leading role in trying to negotiate new trade deals.<\/p>\n The most serious damage has been to the U.S.-China relationship, which Lighthizer nurtured during Trump\u2019s first term even as he imposed tariffs. This time around, China\u2019s temerity in striking back with retaliatory tariffs has left the two countries in an economic death spiral, with each\u00a0imposing tariffs high enough to block most trade<\/a>. No one on the Trump team looks capable of sorting that mess out.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n