Shakedown State

A nation ransacked by a Crownless King

Trade with the United States is now best understood as a protection racket. Deference and servility is the new cost of admission to America’s good graces.

On April 2nd, the Trump administration unveiled its new economic “strategy”: a ruinous and mathematically absurd formula for imposing so-called “reciprocal” tariffs. But of course, the formula—divide a country’s total exports to the US by the total US exports to that country, halve the result, then slap that percentage on everything—was not designed to solve a problem. It was designed to ensure that no problem could be solved.

There is no negotiation to be had, because no negotiation is desired.

At any rate, if you wanted to negotiate with a trading partner via tariffs, why would you have the the tariffs go into effect immediately? Wouldn’t you want to offer a window for the partner to respond and negotiate?

And notice whom this new economic warfare exempts: Russia.

In other words, this is for the allies of the US, not her enemies. For Canada, Germany, South Korea, Australia—nations with whom America shares values, histories, treaties. Countries that have bled beside America in battlefields and backed her companies in boardrooms. Now, they are punished for that loyalty and for failing to show proper obedience.

Russia, meanwhile—America’s greatest geopolitical rival, whose autocratic ruler gorges himself on expansionism and whose hands are still wet with Ukrainian blood—is untouched. Exempt. Off-limits. Apparently, the rules don’t apply to friends of the family.

This isn’t a trade policy. It’s at once a loyalty test, a wholesale reconstruction of the international trade system that America built, and a dynastic embezzlement scheme.

And if the tariffs weren’t warning enough, consider what’s happening in parallel: the systematic dismantling of the checks and balances that once defined the American political system. Congress is cowed. The judiciary stacked. Federal institutions that might resist—purged or politicized. This isn’t about economic leverage. It’s about consolidating power.

Kiss the ring

Trump’s America is a throne room disguised as a republic.

And here’s the part that should make every business in America, every entrepreneur, every exporter, every farmer lose sleep at night: tariffs of this nature create corruption—not by accident, but by design. Because when tariff exemptions are granted on a case-by-case basis, the President becomes the tollbooth through which all trade must pass. A company’s ability to operate, to export, to survive, can be determined by a whim, a favour, a campaign donation, or a personal loyalty test.

This isn’t just bad economics. It’s the construction of a shakedown state.

Forget open markets. Forget level playing fields. The new rule is simple: you want to trade? You go through him. You kiss the ring. You flatter the ego. You donate, you praise, you fall in line. That’s the message to foreign governments. That’s the message to American industries. It’s not subtle, because it’s not meant to be. This is not just a tariff—it’s a flag being planted: this is how it works now.

But perhaps the most disturbing part of all this isn’t Trump’s plan—it’s the fact that he doesn’t need to hide it. His fanatical base sees the destruction, the cruelty, the grift, and shrugs. Or cheers. They are watching the American economy being vandalised—intentionally—and remain unfazed, so long as their team gets to spike the football.

A nation that once demanded greatness now celebrates its own humiliation, so long as it wears the right hat.

The standards for the Dear Leader are so cosmically, embarrassingly low. This is a man whose public record reads like a rap sheet: serial liar, fraudster, bankrupt multiple times, accused predator, conman, nepotist. A man who has ripped off students, contractors, charities—even his own supporters. And yet, he is treated by his base not merely as a leader, but as a prophet.

The standards for Trump are subterranean. He is allowed to fail, to falter, to forget, to fumble—because his only job, in the eyes of his followers, is to enrage their enemies. That is the American right’s only remaining principle: make someone else suffer.

Petulance weaponised

This is the most corrupt incarnation of America the modern world has ever seen—not in whispers or shadows, but in the blinding light of day. A sitting president is openly profiting from a meme coin emblazoned with his face, auctioning off digital scraps of his own image like a carnival barker while setting economic policy that could impact its value. The civil service—once a safeguard against autocracy—is being packed with sycophants and charlatans, people chosen not for competence or ethics but for fealty and fan service. And now, with the new tariffs, the president has placed himself at the centre of global trade, able to dispense exemptions like royal favours. This isn’t just unethical—it’s systemic. It’s designed. It’s the scaffolding of a state where power is transactional, corruption is institutional, and loyalty is the only currency that buys protection.

And in all this, the truly tragic irony is that it gives credence—dangerous, toxic credence—to the propaganda pumped out by regimes like Russia’s. For years, the Kremlin has insisted that the West is a decadent, hypocritical hive of corruption—that liberal democracy is a scam run by elites for personal gain. These were lies. They were lies. But Trump’s America is working overtime to make them look like truth. In surrendering the moral high ground for short-term power and personal profit, this administration isn’t just degrading America—it’s proving its enemies right.

This is not policy. It is petulance weaponised. And the American way of life—free markets, liberal democracy, rule of law—is being fed into the furnace.

And it appears to be intentional; a project. The tariffs are not a blunder. The erosion of checks on presidential power is not an accident. This is a plan. The plan is to destroy what America was, so that Trump and his chosen few can rule what remains.

As David Frum recently wrote, “The truth is ugly, but it must be faced.” Trump is installing his throne behind the portcullis of the nation, while the entire Western world watches the scaffolding of US democracy buckle under the weight of one man’s avarice.

America has no king. I only wish more Americans would remember that.