1 week Ago By Nicholas Cecil
Nigel Farage compared Donald Trump ’s trade war to Liz Truss ’ disastrous economic policy as he declined to say if the US president was “chump or champion” on tariffs . The Reform UK leader, an ally of Trump who attended his inauguration , said both the US president and Ms Truss “did too much too soon”. He also questioned whether America or China would win an economic trade battle of the superpowers.
Trump has faced a huge backlash against his wave of tariffs despite blinking and scaling them back while at the same time hiking levies on China to up to 145%. Asked if Trump was “chump or champion” over his stance on tariffs, Mr Farage told LBC Radio: “It remains to be seen. “I’ve never agreed with the tariff policy.
“I do understand though that China poses an existential threat to the West economically...
“I think Trump did too much too soon, rather like Liz Truss did a couple of years ago.” Ms Truss’ “mini Budget” in September 2022 sparked economic mayhem in Britain and she was forced to resign as Prime Minister shortly afterwards. Trump performed a shock U-turn earlier this week, announcing a 90-day pause on some higher rates on 75 countries, after his tariffs sparked a hike in the cost of US government borrowing, as they hit the bond market, having already wiped trillions off stock markets.
“I have never in my life before seen stock markets fall quickly and bond markets fall at the same time,” Mr Farage added. “So, there is little doubt that Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, who is also a friend of mine, played a decisive role in saying..
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we have got to ease back on this. “As for the slugging it out with China, who is going to win, right now, I just don’t know.” Stock markets have seen a rollercoaster ride this week, falling, then soaring when the tariff pause was announced, before falling back in the US and some other countries.
In London, the FTSE 100 was up around 1% on opening Friday, as was the Dax in Germany and CAC 40 in France. But fears of global recession were swirling around the world as Trump squared up to China for a full-blown trade war. The US president said the United States could make a deal with China, but he reiterated his argument that Beijing had “really taken advantage” of the US for a long time.
“I’m sure that we’ll be able to get along very well,” he added. China’s president Xi Jinping stressed: “There are no winners in a tariff war,” with Beijing having hit back earlier with an 84% import levies on US goods. The mayhem and uncertainty in the meantime extended some of the most volatile trading since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 index ended 3.5% lower on Thursday and is now down about 15% from its all-time peak in February. Asian indices mostly followed Wall Street lower on Friday with Japan’s Nikkei down 4%, though markets in Taiwan and Hong Kong turned positive.
A sell-off in government bonds, which caught Trump’s attention before Wednesday’s pause, picked up pace on Friday with US long-term borrowing costs set for their biggest weekly increase since 1982. “Recession risk is much, much higher now than it was a couple weeks ago,” said Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset at investment fund Janus Henderson..
