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I have been watching way too much Fox News in the past month. Actually, way too much US news in general. For every Trump-supporting channel, I have tried to balance it out with podcasters and platforms whose hosts take the opposite view on his tariffs.
It’s been a necessary but exhausting journey. One that has taken me, by twists and turns, into the centre of the country that is threatening to overturn the global economic order.
So here’s Donald Trump on Fox News saying tariffs will raise ‘billions and billions’ of dollars for the USA from other nations. And here’s a left-leaning podcaster pointing out that it’s US consumers that will pay the extra not those other countries. It’s a domestic tax.
Here’s US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick saying the plan is actually to bring manufacturing back to the States. And here’s a podcaster explaining how that contradicts what Trump just said about raising billions in tariffs from imports. You can’t have it both ways. Besides, do you know how long it takes to build a factory and train a workforce?
Here’s US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent saying 90 deals will be done in 90 days. And here’s a podcaster saying that also contradicts Trump‘s assertion that the plan is to have long-term tariffs in place to raise billions. Besides, trade deals take years to renogotiate and small US businesses hit by increased import costs don’t have that luxury.
My favourite of all is White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (below) who told her audience of reporters that, ultimately, consumers and companies should ‘trust President Trump’. It resonated with me more than all the other words and speeches on the issue.
Because doesn’t trust strike at the very heart of the matter? Whether you are a world leader expecting Donald Trump to keep his word on a trade deal or an American tackle supplier betting your long-term future on a new factory in Ohio, you need to have trust. Or, worse, you need to work out for yourself what not to trust. Across the world, trust plays its part in China too. If you are a tackle manufacturer do you trust the government there to hold its nerve?
Whatever role you play in a business, you will know that trust is the foundation of any commercial relationship. Who does not have a story of an agreement that went wrong? Or a set of ‘facts’ that turned out to be anything but. Something on which you based future planning but which left you fighting fires? Someone who set back your business by weeks, months or maybe a year because they broke a promise.
You are probably thinking of someone right now. What did you do after they lost your trust? Did they ever regain it? Did you do business with them again, I wonder? Did you warn others?
Trust matters, and it matters deeply.
On a smaller scale, my review of the US media landscape, which is so much more polarised than in my home country of the UK, left me wondering how anybody there can trust a single news source to give an unbiased report. I am a cynical journalist. For me, trusting one source is never the right option, not without asking who is telling me and what’s in it for them.
On the largest possible scale – the inter-connectivity of the world economy – if you are in the States, take my advice and ask yourself why you are being told to trust Donald Trump on tariffs. What’s in it for him and his associates? And would you trust him as your supplier or customer? Maybe ultimately you will decide that you trust him, but don’t do it blindly. Ask all the questions, follow the money, and do it before you place that next order or build that new factory.
