Trump’s tariffs could make for closer world relationships. But they may not be the ones he wants

President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted what he calls the return of manufacturing to the United States, hailing companies that have vowed to pour large amounts of money into making everything from computer chips to cars in America.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted what he calls the return of manufacturing to the United States, hailing companies that have vowed to pour large amounts of money into making everything from computer chips to cars in America. But announcements are easy to make. In the long term, why would companies and other countries decide to invest in the US, which has upended the global economic order in just weeks? The United States moved from a stable economy, a trusted partner in trade agreements and global security, to a source of confusion and doubt in mere weeks after Trump assumed office on January 20. Perhaps no one has put it more bluntly than Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Wednesday, when she said at an event in Germany: “The West as we knew it no longer exists.” In other words: The United States isn’t the only trade game in town. Sure, the US is the world’s biggest economy, with a gross domestic product of almost $30 trillion. But China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is at about $18 trillion, according to the World Bank. And the total value of the European Union’s economy is around 17 trillion euros, or about $19 trillion. “We have 166 members in the organization. US trade is 13% of world trade. That means that there’s 87% of world trade happening between the other members of the WTO,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, told CNN’s Richard Quest on Wednesday.