Is Trump Controlling International Trade ?

International trade has once again become an instrument of power. With Donald Trump, tariffs, threats of sanctions, bilateral pressures and the logic of power relations are no longer peripheral tools, but the very heart of an assumed political strategy. But can a US president really control global trade relations? Nothing is certain. Because, in the face of political will, complex value chains, partner resistance, legal constraints, corporate interests and market reactions stand out.

It is therefore less a question of man’s supposed omnipotence than of the profound reconfiguration of world trade. Is free trade already a thing of the past? Has protectionism become the new normal? And what else can other powers do in the face of a country that increasingly treats trade as a diplomatic weapon? How far can the world’s leading power impose its priorities and force the rest of the world to trade according to its own balance of power? Finally, does Trump’s trade policy strengthen US power or isolate it in the medium term?