‘Liberation Day’: Trump’s latest tariffs are a power play and strategic shift

April 2, 2025 has unofficially been dubbed “Liberation Day” by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In the name of supposedly “freeing” the United States from “unfair” treatment by other countries on trade relations, as well as from the import of foreign-made goods entering the American market, he declared a baseline of 10-per-cent reciprocal tariffs on all imports.

Although Canada has been exempted from this baseline, it is still subject to the prior 25-per-cent levies on some exports, including steel and aluminum.

This announcement has shaken the free-market-oriented world order as many of the U.S.’ traditional trading partners have found their best customer has turned hostile. 

Trump’s aim is to turn the U.S. into an autarky — a self-sufficient economy that completely or near totally produces its own goods for internal consumption. But this does not mean that the global hegemon will be totally isolating itself from the world. Rather, we should expect a far more aggressive nation on the international stage.

Consider his annexation threats against Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. Some, perhaps, are more serious than others, but also consider the importance of all these territories on the world stage.

Canada and Greenland are both abundant with natural resources while also having access to the lucrative Arctic Circle. Meanwhile, the Panama Canal, formerly a U.S. “concession,” is an important trade route that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans whilst circumventing the perilous Drake Passage.

Gaining control over all three requires a distinctly interventionist — imperialist, in fact — foreign policy that runs contrary to what many call an isolationist attitude that has pronouncedly defined this second Trump administration. The truth is that the two policies can go together because the U.S. is not, at least solely, aiming for autarky.

Mercantilism was the dominant mode of global economics from the 16th to 18th centuries and is responsible for the European conquests of every other continent during that time. Colonies traded mostly raw or unfinished products cheaply with the metropole which, in turn, traded back finished goods at a higher price.

Inter-imperial foreign trade was largely discouraged in favour of creating and keeping wealth within the mother empire and its colonies. Often, it was enforced through tariffs and at gunpoint. Trump’s foreign and economic policies appear to be a blend of classical mercantilism and neo-mercantilism, the more modern variant which more greatly emphasizes national wealth via protectionism. Ultimately, the core principles remain the same: Keep imports low and exports high — and the U.S. fully intends to do just that.

Eschewing free trade and leveraging the U.S.’ power fits perfectly into the ideology and is what Trump is doggedly pursuing. It is the other side of the U.S. imperialist coin.

Every president from the Cold War to today has been championing hegemonic control through free trade. Trump is opting for a different means of maintaining the status quo, an ironically disruptive one, but a means nonetheless. This economic strategy is reactionary not only in the sense that it is born from a reaction to China, but also in that it is seeking to forge a path forward by appealing to a mystified, prosperous domestic past to justify the moves it has been making.

What we are seeing in real time is a re-orientation of the U.S.’ foreign and economic plan in the face of a possible decline in its superpower status.

As a result, “Liberation Day” may, in fact, mean more repression from a state looking to prevent its loss in status, flexing and hoarding wealth to show that it can still rule the world.