The threat by Donald Trump to tear up the US-UK trade deal, signed less than a year ago, confirms two things about him.
First, that trade policy and tariffs have nothing much to do with structural imbalances in exports and imports and are more an arm of foreign and defence policy. He is displeased with the British response to his ill-starred war in Iran, so his mind turns towards punishment. As many other nations have discovered, the president can be insulting, capricious and vindictive to anyone, and that clearly includes Britain, fond as he is of King Charles. Mr Trump will reach for any weapon that suits his spiteful purposes, irrespective of whether it might prove counterproductive.
