Britain needn’t be cowed by wrecking-ball Trump, it should seize opportunities in Europe, Canada and beyond | Will Hutton

Keir Starmer can help redefine global trade while strengthening new – and old – alliances

‘Liberation Day” was, of course, a tragic idiocy based on a bewildering inversion of reality. The rest of the world has not been ripping off or pillaging and plundering the US, as claimed by Trump launching his salvo of tariffs, the highest for a century. The truth is the opposite.

There is no American “national emergency”. The US still represents the same 25% of world GDP, as it did in 1980. More than half the goods it imports are from affiliates of US multinationals denominated and paid for in dollars, so its deficit is an accounting identity with itself rather than reflecting economic weakness.