“The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots,” Donald Trump declared at the seventy-fourth session of the UN General Assembly in September. “Globalists exerted a religious pull over past leaders, causing them to ignore their own national interests. But as far as America is concerned,” he continued, “those days are over.”

Trump’s paean to nationalist isolationism is part of a broader effort — albeit haphazard, contradictory, and often solely rhetorical — by the president to develop his own “America First” program, to reorient global capitalism to protect the United States from those who “seek conquest and domination.” The centerpiece of this effort is his trade war with China.

“Trade wars are good, and easy to win,” tweeted Trump in March 2018. More than a year and a half later, negotiations between the United States and China have been a roller coaster of escalation and de-escalation, with no end in sight. So far, the United States has imposed 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports and 15 percent tariffs on a further $125 billion. Trump has threatened an additional 15 percent tariffs on a fresh $156 billion slate of goods in December if a trade deal hasn’t been reached.