Trump’s Trade War Sets Up a Battlefield Rout

A roundup of recent developments from the front lines of the Great Trade War doesn’t look good. President Donald Trump has publicly waffled on his plans for major tariffs on Chinese imports, seeming to reverse his position several times and provoking immediate threats of retaliation. After seeming to back off in the face of determined Chinese opposition, Trump then turned his fire on softer targets -- U.S. allies. First announcing his intent to tax imported autos, then revoking promises to exempt allies from tariffs on steel and aluminum, Trump may have underestimated the world’s democracies -- the European Union, Canada and Mexico swiftly made their own counterthreats.

Like France under Napoleon, the U.S. has apparently decided to take on the entire world. That rarely ends well. Especially if, like Trump, you don’t have Napoleon’s skill on the battlefield.