Equilibrism in the Face of Donald Trump's Economic War: A Reading Between Tension and Discernment

 



Equilibrism in the Face of Donald Trump's Economic War: A Reading Between Tension and Discernment

 

There are wars that we don't immediately see. They don't make the sound of bombs, or of bodies thrown at the world's borders. They are wars of numbers, of taxes, of broken treaties, of incendiary tweets launched like bullets. Under Donald Trump's presidency, the United States initiated what history may call a global "economic war"—not new in its nature, but intensified, dramatized, and overt.

 

And I, as a philosopher of equilibrism, cannot help but observe this strategy as a symptom, a sign of our times. Equilibrism are not an ideology, but an art: the art of balancing between extremes, without being reduced to lukewarmness. They seek neither absolute peace nor pure confrontation. They seek clarity in complexity.

 

Under Trump, the United States imposed punitive tariffs, challenged multilateral agreements (such as NAFTA and the WTO), and targeted China as a major economic adversary. This wasn't simply a trade strategy: it was a symbolic act of sovereignty, a brutal reassertion of power. The slogan "America First" wasn't just an economic strategy; it was a philosophy of active isolation, of performative protectionism, a way of telling the world: I am sufficient, I will defend myself, I will reinvent myself against you.

 

The equilibrician looks at this and sees both a truth and a trap.

 

The truth: any system out of balance calls for corrective tension. The global economy, excessively globalized, had produced its own injustices: massive offshoring, strategic dependencies, the deindustrialization of the middle classes. There was a wound, and Trump, in his harsh way, pointed it out.

 

But the trap is believing that balance can be restored through aggression. Blind protectionism is a pendulum that swings too far. It doesn't heal: it fractures. It transforms partners into enemies, and the complexity of global trade into a fiction of good guys versus bad guys.

 

Equilibrism, on the other hand, offers another stance: recognizing systemic tensions without falling into reaction. Acting, yes—but with discernment. Reducing strategic dependence, yes—but with solidarity. Defending one's interests, yes—but not at the cost of cooperation, because balance is never maintained alone. It requires listening, flexibility, and grounding.

 

In this sense, Trump's economic war is an imbalance that takes itself for a cure. An attempt to regain control through control, power through conflict. But true balance is never imposed—it is negotiated.

 

And we, equilibricians, have the strange but essential task of not choosing sides too quickly. Of remaining in the tension. Of not giving in to simplistic narratives. And perhaps, in this world of power struggles, of embodying another relationship: one that rejects violence without rejecting the truth.

 

By Henri Barbeblanche


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