From Seoul: While there are fringe anti-Trump tariff protests here in Asia’s most successful liberal democracy, mainstream opinion supports the alliance with the US. The first time I was here, a Korean army general thanked me for my service and for the 340 Australians whose ultimate sacrifice enabled Korea to rebuild following Japanese occupation and later communist aggression. The Republic of Korea is nothing short of an economic, social, and cultural miracle, and the strength of the US has been key to that success.
So, when President Trump went on his tariff tirade and economists all pooh-poohed his economic unorthodoxy, they missed the point.
The West loves to hate itself and President Trump is the self-hating West’s voodoo doll, but when it comes to exercising the military, economic, social, political, and all other types of might the US possesses, Trump has no equal in history.
The tariffs were never about economics. They were always about reestablishing America’s rightful position as the richest and most powerful entity in the history of humanity, led by the most powerful human in history.
If you fear what Trump might do, that’s the whole point.
We’ve experienced too many lame duck presidencies since George W. Bush. I will never forgive the mainstream media for the way they portrayed Bush as a fool while he dealt with the aftermath of 9/11. Neither Bush Senior nor Reagan was treated so unfairly. In hindsight, it was the time when the Left’s dominance of the media was becoming obvious.
Before that, Reagan started a trade war, too, but, along with Margaret Thatcher, he changed the world for the better. And while Professor Francis Fukuyama’s End of History thesis didn’t quite live up to its expectations, for a brief time, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and during Deng Xiaoping’s economic modernisation of China, there was a period where Adam Smith might have been slightly chuffed that his economic ideas were not just abstract theory.
China was never really interested in global capitalism or capitalist economic theory, that’s for sure. At the same time, there was never any reason for China to get all wolf warrior on the rest of the world. As Mao said in his address to the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China on September 15, 1956:
‘We must never adopt an arrogant attitude of great-power chauvinism and become conceited because of the victory of our revolution and certain achievements in our construction. Every nation, big or small, has its strong and weak points.’
Then along came Barack Obama. Naturally, China went off-script.
Before he had even done anything, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Talk about the ultimate participation award. Eight years later, and Obama had handed the West’s glory to dictators as he virtue-signalled his way to policy inefficacy in the extreme.
China’s debt-trap diplomacy and Belt and Road initiative were in full swing as the US congratulated itself on its diversity while doing little else.
Like a true entrepreneur, Trump didn’t get it right first go, but we were making progress until Trump lost to Biden. Clearly, that was an own goal for the West.
According to the House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans, led by Chairman McCaul, Biden didn’t even participate. Instead, he took his bat and ball and left Afghanistan, where:
‘The withdrawal culminated in the Abbey Gate terrorist attack on August 26, 2021, which killed 13 US servicemembers, wounding another 45, and killed more than 170 Afghan civilians. The withdrawal concluded on August 30, 2021, when the last US military aircraft left Afghanistan.’
I like to take a leaf out of Joe Biden’s book and forget about it.
Since the pandemic, however, it is clear the world has become a very different place. The UK and Australia are trying to censor the internet. The UK, France, and Canada have become friends of terrorists by their intent to recognise Palestine and condemn our liberal democratic ally, Israel, while ignoring the hostages, the absence of elections, and the simple fact that Hamas and Palestine are a basket case of tyranny.
Seriously, on what basis would you establish a terrorist state as a legitimate member of the world order?
If the International Criminal Court should be issuing warrants for the arrest of anyone it should be all members of Hamas.
Political leaders who endorse Palestinian statehood under these conditions should be condemned, this includes Sir Keir Starmer, Mark Carney, and Penny Wong.
While the rest of the West is virtue-signalling to their anti-Western voter base, President Trump has been re-establishing America’s position in the global world order.
A few simple measures prove this to be true.
Almost every other Western nation in the world including the European Union, has agreed to Trump’s trade deals. Australia hasn’t because the worst Prime Minister in Australian history lacks the ticker to do anything his Woke Brigade don’t like.
If there is anyone economists should be focused on it is Treasurer Jim Chalmers who thinks the smoke and mirrors of government spending and government employment make us prosperous. According to a recent report by the Centre for Independent Studies, more than half of voting Australians are reliant on government funding to exist.
To put that in practical terms, you are paying for every other adult you meet, and then some.
With such economic whimsy in play, no Australian should even whisper a word about Trump’s tariffs. At least his policy instruments have resulted in US GDP per capita increasing during his term. For example, nominal GDP per capita for the US in 2025 is estimated at USD $89,105.
None of the negative expectations have materialised. Indeed, Politico in the US reported:
‘The surge in growth is a win for an administration that’s been battling widespread perceptions that Trump’s economic agenda is causing more harm than good… But for now, the GDP – the total value of all goods and services produced in the US – is expanding at a healthy clip.’
Compare that to the rest of the West.
Under Albanese, Australia has experienced seven consecutive quarters of negative per capita GDP growth, starting from early 2023. This is Australia’s longest per capita recession in 50 years. Nominal GDP per capita for Australia in 2025 is estimated at USD $65,622.
The nominal GDP per capita for the UK under Starmer is estimated to be USD $50,024 at the end of 2025.
Under Carney and that other bloke, Canada is at USD $54,271.
Even Israel, fighting a war against terrorists on several fronts and against 360 degrees of useful idiots, will manage USD $52,929 per capita while Australia, the UK, and Canada are merely fighting a war against themselves.
To provide some clarity, China’s nominal GDP per capita in 2025 is estimated to be USD $13,915. Although China’s growth is expected to continue, as former Australian Prime Minister John Howard argued, ‘China will grow old before she grows rich.’ Indeed, the evidence suggests that no country has sustained more than 4 per cent growth 12 years after its elderly population exceeded 15 per cent, and China’s population hit this point in 2023.
You can be the judge of which is the more economically sound approach to geopolitics. What’s clear is that Trump is winning, and it has nothing to do with economics.
It has everything to do with ‘FAFO’.
(FAFO is an internet slang acronym for a situation where reckless or provocative actions lead to predictable consequences, often negative ones.)
Freddy Gray from our The Spectator UK mothership is right on the money:
‘With Trump’s international agenda, scratch beneath the hilariously crazy surface and you find a more serious campaign to isolate China, China, China.’
The US is back on top, whatever the measure.
Of course, the self-hating West would prefer to kowtow to their socialist masters. While sitting here looking out at Asia’s liberal democratic miracle, I say thank God for Trump and his tariffs.
And the rest of the West? I say FAFO.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.
