Politico basically admitting Trumps's tariffs are working

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As President Donald Trump announced historically high tariffs across the world this week, I expected a number of affected governments to rapidly and collectively fight back.

Instead, with the exception of China and a few scattered reprisals from allies, we’re seeing mainly cautious reactions. Foreign officials are talking about “calibrated” responses and keeping a “cool head.” Some are clearly hoping diplomacy will persuade Trump to back off some or many of his tariffs.

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But these experts argued that there are compelling reasons many governments are not acting fast or in unison — not the least of which is that the world’s countries are not good at collective action, and many believe they have a better shot at accomplishing more, for themselves at least, if they avoid escalating the fight with Trump.

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But what if the infliction of pain comes from a coalition of countries — governments banding together to strategically hit the U.S. economy? Would that make Trump think twice?

It’s a nice theory, but not very realistic, I was told. Governments simply don’t easily come together to unite in action, even when they are faced with a common threat.

Each government has its own national interest and doesn’t trust others won’t stab them in the back, said one foreign diplomat, who likened it to the classic “prisoner’s dilemma.” Remember how little global solidarity there was during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as countries raced to secure medical supplies?

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Affected countries “think they can, basically, over the next couple months, quietly negotiate. They’ll make a couple of concessions, maybe on trade, maybe on defense, maybe on other things, and things will get adjusted,” the former official said.

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