Tower of Babel 2.0

The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures.
According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language agreed to build a great city with a tower that would reach the sky. God Yahwe, observing these efforts and remarking on humanity's power in unity, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other and scatters them around the world, leaving the city unfinished.
It seems that we are witnessing the updated version of that event now - Tower of Babel 2.0.

Globalization basically has taken place.
Humanity has almost built its Tower of Babel. People have learned to communicate in unfamiliar languages ​​with the help of telephone translators, but in the ocean of information (lies?) they have ceased to understand each other. Everyone sees their own small part of the truth and is very sincere in their delusions. People do not hear and do not want to hear each other, so they cannot agree and will be scattered across the earth again like in the old biblical myth.

Mr. Trump is also sincere in his delusions.

Mr. Trump as president is very effective in destroying the US and the established global order. The new old president has gone in several directions at once: destroying the foundations of American statehood, democracy, established trade and military (NATO) ties between countries and international institutions (World Health Organization).

Quite unexpectedly, Mr. Trump has attacked the global trading system that the US has built over decades and which has made America the richest country in the world. New US trade tariffs on imports of various goods from 185 countries go into effect on April 5. They will practically destroy the established trade relations in the world. Why is this necessary?

Mr. Trump believes that new tariffs will boost domestic manufacturing, create jobs in the US, close the $1.2 trillion US trade deficit, and simply generate revenue. That's how he sees it, or pretends to see it, and that's how he does his business. Mr. Trump first accuses his opponent of all sins (usually falsely) apparently in order to force him to start justifying himself and gets a winning position in negotiations.

Now Mr. Trump is saying that 1) “They're (other countries - I.C. ) ripping us off,” and he 2) is saving his country and 3) for this all means are good.
And he acts as best he can - short-sightedly, quickly, brazenly, shocking his allies with his rudeness and surprising his opponents with the soft handling. Sometimes he manages to quickly intimidate his opponent (like in the case with the Panama Canal, but sometimes he gets stuck in a dispute with a self-confident opponent (like in the case with “peace in 24 hours” between Russia and Ukraine).

“Project 2025” as a guide to action.

During the election campaign, Mr. Trump made no secret of the fact that he was going to change a lot in the country's domestic and foreign policy to completely transform the US. Having become president, he immediately got down to the business. Time Magazine claims that nearly two-thirds of Mr. Trump’s executive actions as a new president were inspired by the document named “Project 2025”. This is ninth iteration (“Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise”) of “Mandate for Leadership” series which is published by the conservative think tank “The Heritage Foundation.”

“Project 2025” is a political initiative to reshape the US federal government and consolidate executive power in favor of right-wing policies. It is based on the “unitary executive theory” which states that the entire executive branch is under the complete control of the president.
The project's proponents say it would dismantle a government bureaucracy they say is unaccountable and mostly liberal. They are right.
Critics have called it an authoritarian Christian nationalist plan that would steer the US toward autocracy and that’s correct, too.
Legal experts say it would undermine the rule of law, separation of powers, separation of church and state, and civil liberties. That’s right as well.

So it is unclear who is more right here. The truth is multifaceted thing and in this case everyone sees their own facet. Anyway, this is the document which became Mr. Trump's guide to action for "saving the country.”

What is the “Project 2025” about?

A normal person, of course, will not read this 900-page document, so I provide here a short info from Wikipedia:
«The project calls for merit-based federal civil service workers to be replaced by people loyal to Trump, to take partisan control of key government agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Commerce, and Federal Trade Commission. Other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education, would be dismantled or abolished.
The president would then be free to implement Project 25's agenda, including reducing taxes on corporations and capital gains, instituting a flat income tax on individuals, cutting Medicare and Medicaid and reversing President Joe Biden’s policies. Project 25 calls for reducing environmental regulations to favor fossil fuels and proposes making the National Institutes of Health less independent and defunding its stem cell research. It proposes criminalizing pornography, removing legal protections against anti-LGBT discrimination, and ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs while having the DOJ prosecute anti-white racism instead. The project recommends the arrest, detention, and mass deportation of illegal immigrants and deploying the US Armed Forces for domestic law enforcement. The plan also proposes enacting laws supported by the Christian right such as criminalizing those who send and receive abortion and birth control medications and eliminating coverage of emergency contraception.»
I would also add here one of the important things from “Project 2025”: increasing the retirement age for Americans from 67 to 69 years.

US foreign policy (as it is presented in the document) can be described as “America first,” which is actually neither bad nor good since every state should be for itself first. The US is reducing its involvement in multilateral conflicts, reducing the level of military and financial aid to Ukraine, stopping funding countries that do not provide strategic benefits, leaving global institutions (UN, WTO) in favor of bilateral relations with other countries, the main geopolitical and economic rival is China, the main threat is in the Indo-Pacific region, Russia can be used against China and in this case sanctions against it can be softened, Europe is a secondary unreliable ally that should help Ukraine and pay more for its own security, or even better - provide it by itself.

As you can see, Project 2025 is based on isolationist, conservative and Christian postulates. Mr. Trump’s program and actions can be criticized like any other activity, but... Mr. Trump has the right vision of Americans’ dissatisfaction with the Democratic government, a corresponding 900-page action program and a desire and will to act. This explains his amazing return to power after a 4-year break, despite unpleasant personal qualities and criminal cases.

The November 2024 elections showed that 77 million Americans agreed with Mr. Trump’s vision that something needs to be changed in the country, while 75 million, together with Mrs. Harris, thought that everything was fine in the US and it was okay to keep going in the same direction. That is why Mr. Trump became president and everyone in the world (not just in the US) will have to live with that fact at least for the next 4 years.

Trump's new tariffs vs. “currency manipulation and trade barriers.”

Mr. Trump declared April 2 the "Liberation Day," called this day "one of the most important in American history" and proclaimed the imposition of new import tariffs "a declaration of American economic independence":
- The new tariffs apply to more than 185 countries and territories around the world.
- A universal “baseline” tariff of 10% is introduced on the all import into the US.
- The highest tariffs are imposed on 60 countries that allegedly “deceived” America and either imposed their own high tariffs on American goods or set the “barriers” in trade with the US. These are the EU (20%), China (54%), Japan (24%), South Africa (30%), South Korea (25%), Taiwan (32%).
- The universal “baseline” 10% tariff comes into effect on April 5, and the “reciprocal” tariffs come into effect on April 9.
- The US is also imposing a 25% tariff on all foreign cars, which went into effect on April 3.

Remarkably, on April 2 Mr. Trump justified his “discounted reciprocal” tariffs by showing to the world a sign with “unfair” tariffs from other countries, with the caption “including currency manipulation and trade barriers.” In fact, it is the US that is now setting “trade barriers” for other countries and has been manipulating the US dollar for many years, constantly devaluing the world’s reserve currency for the entire world. It is easy to turn the truth inside out and Mr. Trump is a true master of that. However, he can say and do whatever, but it is up to the rest of the world to agree or not.



Experts say that Mr. Trump's tariffs will definitely hit pockets of the Americans, the US dollar and drive up inflation in America. Professor of economics at Harvard University and the IMF former chief economist Mr. Rogoff once said that “tariffs are common in developing countries with weak tax-collection systems.”

Has the US already economically degraded to the level of ”developing countries with weak tax-collection systems?” It's quite possible if you look at the ratio of general US government gross debt to Gross Domestic Product: 124.1% в 2025. This IMF forecast means that the US government will spend 1.24 times more in 2025 than the US people will earn in the same year. In one article I called the US debts “the sword of Damocles over America.” This is the way to collapse.

Trump's trade war with China in his first presidency turned into a fiasco.

In 2018, a similar trade war with China was launched by then President Trump. The US trade deficit in goods reached $891 billion which was the largest on record before the $1,183 billion deficit in the trade of goods recorded in 2021. By the end of Mr. Trump’s presidency, that trade war was widely characterized as a failure.

What should US trading partners do now?

Each country must protect its interests despite the possibility of losing Mr. Trump's favor. It is impossible (and unnecessary) to fulfill the wishes of people of this type, thus it will not be worse. So, it is necessary to conflict, not be afraid to express the true attitude to the US, Mr. Trump himself, and introduce counter-tariffs. Most likely, some countries will do so (China, for example), but someone who is very interested in their exports to the US will agree to America's new conditions and Mr. Trump will win without a fight. Apparently, this is what Mr. Trump's book “The Art of the Deal” about.

The US trading partners must find new, more predictable counterparties for their exports.
China will surely be happy to take America’s place on the global trading stage.