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World trade wars have begun

On April 2, 2025, President Trump’s tariffs on 185 countries took effect. Some of the smaller countries immediately eliminated their own tariffs on US products, while some larger countries decided to retaliate. Tariffs have both positive and negative effects, sparking debates among economists, but most of them believe that the negative effects will dominate the future.

Another interesting side effect is that the US tariffs are bringing unity among many countries that were former enemies. China and Japan are now negotiating trade deals. China and India as well. The common threat is a great unifier in the global economic war taking place.

The Israeli-US genocide in Gaza has already brought about many realignments among the nations. While most are still hesitant to speak out against the US and risk being shut out of US markets, there is an increasing amount of animosity being built up behind the scenes. Fear of the military and economic might of the USA is playing out in two ways: (1) world leaders are looking for ways to reduce their dependence on the USA, and (2) there is a rising polarity between the USA/Israel and the rest of the world.

This process, of course, has been building for decades under various US presidents. Trump is the one who is making this change more visible. Good or bad, this is reality. Trump frames this in terms of the world respecting us; others call it fear. I remember the days when America was admired, but that has changed over the years.

I remember growing up as a child in the Philippines (1953-1963). The mission school was in Zamboanga in a heavily Muslim area. I could ride my bike safely and freely anywhere in the city. The only possible danger was from traffic. Americans were welcome, because they had driven out the Japanese at the end of World War 2.

I recall that even in rural areas, when a missionary had to make a trip to the city, a Muslim would sleep on the porch of his house at night to protect his family while he was gone. There was no animosity in those days against Americans.

However, US support for the Israeli state eventually caught up with us. Shortly after we left in 1963, the mood changed, and not long afterward, the mission’s headquarters (campus) was sold. The missionaries had to relocate to safer areas. Today many islands in the Sulu Sea are no longer accessible to Americans, because their admiration and gratefulness to America was replaced by animosity for our support of Zionism.

Times change. Many want to immigrate to America in order to prosper financially, but this does not mean that they particularly like US government policies in the world. They don’t like how we interfere with foreign elections. They don’t like how we even overthrow or assassinate foreign leaders and replace them with others who are bought and paid for by the CIA.

We really need the Kingdom of God administered by the overcomers and not by religious zealots who have little understanding of biblical law. I believe we are in the early stages of such a change, but the transition into the Kingdom could be quite messy.

Right now the focus is on the tariff wars which threaten to put the brakes on world trade. This could easily bankrupt companies and banks around the world, who are already secretly insolvent. It will not take much to trigger an avalanche of bankruptcies and destroy many currencies. I believe that this will destroy fiat currencies and force the nations to adopt some form of gold backing which was abandoned "temporarily" in 1971 under President Nixon.

Here is an insightful interview with Alastair Macleod who comments on the current situation in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZDtARLOu9Y