A US-China trade war could be catastrophic. What is Trump’s endgame strategy?

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/11/politics/trump-china-trade-war-tariffs-strategy/index.html

 The fast-worsening trade war between the United States and China – the planet’s premier geopolitical powers, whose economies are intricately entwined – threatens to wreak severe damage on both nations and will send shockwaves worldwide.

Since President Donald Trump launched this potential cataclysm, it’s fair to ask whether he’s got a strategy and how he sees the endgame.

As usual, Trump is improvising. His stunning escalation in tariffs on China this week didn’t follow any meaningful formula. He’s acting, as he always does, like a real estate shark, raising the stakes to intolerable levels to seek leverage. It’s the latest manifestation of the “madman theory,” by which Trump conjures the most extreme of circumstances to try to spook his opponents.

“We’re now in a huge (trade) war with China, and the tariffs that have been imposed on China are what I would call prohibitive,” former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Zain Asher and Bianna Golodryga on CNN International Thursday. “They’re going to result in massive impacts on the United States and the global economy. No one knows where these policies are headed.”

If trade dies out between the US and China, the consequences will be painful. The price of goods that form a vital part of American life could shoot up. This could fuel inflation, worsening the quality of life for millions and hurting consumer confidence, which in turn could tip the US into a recession.

This means that a trade war between the US and China could become a grueling test of which populace can take the most economic pain.