The head of the White House announced a 90-day pause in his tariffs, supposedly "recipro-cal", for most countries, except China

 by Guillermo Alvarado

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has learned an important lesson in the last few days that should call him to prudence, if that is possible for someone whose personality traits include excess and exaggerated theatricality.

In particular, the controversial real estate tycoon had the opportunity to learn that the world is the way it is, not the way he would like it to be, and that any attempt to change it by force would inevitably have serious consequences.

As you will recall, it all started when he wanted to impose extraordinary tariffs on U.S. imports from all countries, arguing that they were abusing the power of the North, when history has shown that it is exactly the other way around.

Last week, he created this trade barrier at 10% for almost everyone, including uninhabited places, and higher rates for certain markets, including the European Union as a whole,

Vietnam and China, creating a major upheaval in international trade, with particular effects on the financial markets, including the U.S. markets.

As the markets were still drifting, Trump assured: "I know what the hell I'm doing," and then he posted on his social networks: "CALM DOWN! Everything is going to be fine," but nothing was going right.

Finally, in the afternoon of the same day, the head of the White House announced a 90-day pause in his tariffs, supposedly "reciprocal", for most countries, except China, where he raised them to 145 points in response to the 84 set by the Asian giant.

Trump's backtracking has calmed the markets somewhat, but not completely. At least it seems that those in his team who understand economics have managed to convince him that a major crisis is coming that will destroy everything in its path.

The main crisis, which is not the only one, is centered on two powers, the United States and China, and the latter has already shown that it will not bend its knees because it has the natural ability to diversify its markets in a short period of time.

Washington should understand that its culture is about 250 years old, which is not enough to confront another with a wisdom accumulated over five thousand years. In any case, we hope that Trump has learned that being the president of the northern power does not make him by far the most powerful man in the world.