Trump's erratic use of tariffs may ultimately undermine the alliances that have allowed the United States to project its power around the globe.

Thursday 2 April 2026 marked the first anniversary of one of the most important policy moves of Donald Trump’s second presidency. In the 2025 Liberation Day Executive Order 14257 issued just over a year ago, the Trump administration completely reworked America’s tariff schedule to address what the Executive Order called the ‘extraordinary threat’ that the US trade deficit posed both to America’s economy and its national security. In the greater scheme of things, one year is not a long time. But it presents a good opportunity to offer an initial assessment of the impact of the Trump administration’s grand protectionist agenda.

Unfortunately, there is little good news to report. Not only has Liberation Day failed to achieve its economic goals, it has also damaged America’s relations with the rest of the world, including with longstanding allies. More worryingly, it suggests that the administration did not think through its strategy in seeking to fundamentally reshape America’s trade relationship with other nations. Nowhere is that more evident than when it comes to the constitutional basis – or, rather, what turned out to be the unconstitutionality – of most of the Liberation Day tariffs.

Many students of trade policy were puzzled when the administration invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as the legal authority for the Liberation Day tariff increases. On one level, it underscored the administration’s longstanding belief that the size of the total US trade deficit in goods and services constitutes a serious threat to the United States and subsequently required an emergency response after decades of neglect. The political point was thus made. The administration may have also believed that the courts would be reluctant to challenge the executive branch’s authority to determine what constitutes an economic emergency. Once such authority is challenged in one realm of policy, it can be challenged in others.

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