Thats not gonna work. Arm-twisting other nations into devaluing the dollar would completely destabilize the world economic order, throwing the entire system into chaos until international diplomacy settled on a new, trusted reserve-currency alternative. Also, the bullying wouldnt be effective. China has already been dealing with belligerent trade policy from Bidens term and Trumps first go-round, and the East Asian giant is now far better equipped to withstand an aggressive trade war with the U.S. than anyone in the Trump administration realizes.
Truly, there are no adults in the room now. Cabinet members are pretending everything is fine; the House of Representatives just passed a massive, ill-advised tax cut; the Project 2025 goons whove been guiding this administration have already written that they want to return to the ruinous gold standard.
Per various insider reports, it was the yippy bond-market freakouts that led Trump to back off on his higher reciprocal tariffs, even as he raised duties against China and kept other, lower universal tariffs in place. Still, Treasury holders are clearly not assuaged, and theyve been antsy for years at this point. Should the U.S. dollar lose its potency, this country would face an unprecedented financial crisis. If you thought recent inflation was bad, just wait until you have to deal with a system where no one wants to even touch the dollar because theres no global faith left, plunging it into near-worthlessness. No gold stashes or governmental cryptocurrency reserves would save us.
Were not there yet. Hopefully we never will get there. But Ill leave the last word to Adam Tooze: For life to continue anything like normally, this narrative must remain, to a degree, a fear rather than a reality.
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"History shows again and again that nature points out the folly of man. Go go Godzilla!" Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult