Forget Trump’s tariffs, the president’s bond market threat is worse

The Trump administration is engaged in a sort of fast-track austerity ostensibly aimed at improving the government’s balance sheet. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy

When Donald Trump gave an in-flight press conference en route to the Super Bowl last week, it generated a flurry of news, from the fresh threat of steel tariffs to the declaration of “Gulf of America Day”.

Much less remarked upon was a throwaway comment about the US’s financial obligations, which underlined the fact that tariffs are far from the only way in which Trump is jeopardising economic stability.