Trump Has Alienated Longtime US Economic Allies

Politico is reporting that a new poll shows that 75% of Canadians despise the Felon and no longer trust  the USA.  In fact, half of Canadians now view the USA as a hostile power.  A piece in The Guardian is reporting that Subaru intends to reduce production in the US and ship vehicles to Canada straight from Japan rather than face the Felon's 25% tariffs on autos, and CTVNews is reporting that China is courting Canada to switch to China as it principal trading partner.  Meanwhile, things are little better with European Union nations which are looking at collective retaliation and self defensive measures which could hit American manufactures ranging from military equipment manufacturers to tech companies. While the Felon claims to be negotiating trade deals - none have been announced - China has flat out denied any such talks are occurring.  All this "winning" is turning the USA trade upside down.  Containership sailings from China to the USA are down by 40% by some reporting and some retailers are predicting empty shelves. The perverse side of me would welcome empty shelves at Walmart and other retailers frequented by the MAGA working class base and those who sat home rather than vote since these people either voted for the Felon and the ongoing nightmare or were too lazy to bestir themselves to vote against racism, bigotry and misogyny. . Should congressional Republicans slash Medicaid to pay for the Felon's tax cuts, the just deserts of these voters and non-voters will be even more painful.  Here are highlights from Politico on the EU response:  

President Donald Trump has spent the first three months of his second term imposing his will on the rest of the globe, telling long-time allies that they “don’t have the cards.”

But in capitals across Europe and elsewhere, debates are raging over the hands they could play. Proposals under consideration range from minor irritants to extreme actions that could sever defense and economic relationships that have cemented alliances for nearly a century.

Those include finding alternative suppliers of military equipment and munitions from U.S.-based defense contractors, enacting stronger counter-tariffs, rolling back intellectual property protections for U.S. companies and lessening their reliance on American tech giants, according to conversations with more than two dozen government officials in Europe and Canada, many of whom were granted anonymity to describe high-level discussions they’re not authorized to speak about publicly.

The diplomat added: “We need to strike a path that works without Washington.”

Less than three months into Trump’s term, his pursuit of a transactional, mercantilist and imperialist foreign policy has rattled leaders across the globe. It started with the president’s persistence in talking about annexing Canada and Greenland, his eagerness to end the war in Ukraine largely on Russia’s terms and Vice President JD Vance’s caustic comments describing Europe as freeloaders. But Trump’s market-cratering move this month to impose massive tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners — based on a formula scores of economists found bizarre — caused many longtime allies to shed any last remnants of magical thinking that they could manage or contain this predictably unpredictable American president as they did during his first term.

Leaders from London to Warsaw, Helsinki to Rome, are continuing efforts to de-escalate and maintain productive relationships with Washington — while considering how to “de-risk” by protecting themselves from Trump’s havoc. Their initial moves could be the first cracks in a dam that could break wide open, unleashing a torrent of increasingly punitive actions that, ultimately, could unravel a transatlantic alliance that has tied America to Europe for eight decades and refashion the global order.

[P]rivate Signal messages during the attack on the Houthis laid bare how some of the president’s most senior aides view Europe as “free-loading,” with Vance lamenting that he “hated” bailing the continent out. Trump officials “seem to think Europe is this dying continent that has no future and is not capable of independent action, that Russia is the more formidable power,” said Minna Ålander, a fellow on transatlantic defense and security at the Center for European Policy Analysis. “They may soon find out that the opposite is true.”

Few countries across Europe are more indebted or unconditionally loyal to the U.S. than Poland. And yet, posters are now showing up around Warsaw merging two silhouettes: Putin and Trump.

It’s an indication of the extent to which two months of direct threats and challenges from Washington are rapidly changing public opinion — and the private calculations of government officials — in Warsaw and in other European capitals.

Trump has been pushing NATO members to increase their spending on defense . . . . But the result of his pressure may well be that NATO allies shift their defense investments away from American contracts, shrinking a lucrative financial arrangement upon which the U.S. relies.

Poland, which borders Ukraine and Russia-aligned Belarus, is already spending 4.7 percent of its GDP on defense, the most of any NATO member. And it buys more American defense equipment than any other country in the world.

Warsaw is reconsidering that partnership. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has ruled out the cancellation of any existing contracts, but there are qualms in Warsaw about entering new ones.

“Confidence in the USA has been severely shaken,” said Pawel Kowal, the Ukraine envoy in Tusk’s office. “I don’t think we will be placing any more major orders with the American arms industry for the time being after analyzing our experiences with what is happening now.”

That’s no small statement given how much Poland’s procurement of American defense equipment, Kowal added, has helped to solidify relations with Washington, and the Trump administration in particular. . . . But Kowal says Poland now needs “to diversify our arms purchases” and “to buy in Europe or rely more on our own Polish arms industry.”

“Europe is now going to heavily increase its investments to defense. And it will be very logical that Europe is turning this money to its own economy,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna . . . Many of the countries determined to boost defense spending are loath to invest in America’s defense industrial base . . . . Canada, Portugal, Denmark and Germany have publicly expressed reservations about continuing to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. given that Trump, in the event of a political disagreement, could block access to spare parts and software upgrades needed to keep the aircraft flying and combat-ready.

[E]ven the U.S.-made Patriot system has its challengers. The French-Italian SAMP/T, which takes only two years to produce, is now going through upgrades to put its range on par with Patriots. And confidence about it being a viable alternative has grown after its widespread usage by Ukraine over the last few years.

Some countries — and their citizens — are also looking at how to hit back at individual companies or industries to cause pain or grab headlines in the United States.

Some EU governments are considering weaponizing agricultural and environmental standards to discriminate against American products. They could ban specific products from certain Trump-supporting states, like Kentucky bourbon or Florida orange juice.

In Denmark, a survey showed that roughly half the population has avoided buying American products since Trump’s inauguration. And the country’s largest grocery store operator now marks whether products sold are from European companies on its electronic price tags.

There’s also tourism. Canada is among a handful of countries that have issued advisories warning about traveling to the U.S., going as far as to ask citizens to “reconsider” visiting the States. Passenger bookings on airline routes between the U.S. and Canada are down 70 percent compared to the same period a year ago, a shift that industry analysts believe will cost $2 billion in lost travel and business revenue. Similarly, travel from Europe to the U.S. has dropped by 35 percent in the last two months.

Europe could impose export controls on products made by Dutch company ASML, the world’s biggest provider of photolithography machines which are used to produce computer chips. This would force U.S. manufacturers that use ASML technology — American consumers — to pay more. Other choke points could be highly advanced technology products made by Nokia and Ericsson that are essential to network operators.

Erixon described such moves as “the nuclear option” in a transatlantic trade war, given how intertwined their supply chains are. But, he said, “America is in a predicament because it wants to impose general tariffs, whereas the EU has the possibility of rearranging trade flows.”

There's more in the rest of the article.  Suffice it to say, Europe is not lacking in ability to hit back and cost American consumers more or harm America's defense industry.  As for China's courtship of Canada, CTVNews has this:

China’s ambassador says Beijing is offering to form a partnership with Canada to push back against American “bullying,” suggesting the two countries could rally other nations to stop Washington from undermining global rules.

“We want to avoid the situation where humanity is brought back to a world of the law of the jungle again,” Chinese Ambassador Wang Di told The Canadian Press in a wide-ranging interview.

“China is Canada’s opportunity, not Canada’s threat,” he said through the embassy’s interpreter.

Wang — whose office requested the interview with The Canadian Press — said that China and Canada appear to be the only countries taking “concrete and real countermeasures against the unjustified U.S. tariffs” imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We have taken notice that, faced with the U.S.’s unilateral bullying, Canada has not backed down,” he said. “Instead, Canada is standing on the right side of the history, on the right side of international fairness and justice.”

“China is ready to take this opportunity to work with Canada and all the other countries to firmly uphold the UN-centred international system and the WTO-centred multilateral trading regime, to (oppose) any regressive practices in the world.”

He called Trump’s threats to annex other countries and infringe on Canadian sovereignty “typical hegemonic and bullying actions.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a similar message during a recent tour of southeast Asian nations, who face some of the highest U.S. tariffs.

It will take years, if not decades to undo the damage done by the Felon.