Donald Trump says the US will “definitely” impose trade tariffs on the EU, but that a deal with the UK “can be worked out”. A 25% tax on goods imported from Canada and Mexico begins tomorrow, as does a 10% levy on those from China. Keir Starmer will this evening become the first British prime minister to attend an EU summit dinner since Brexit. The PM will present European leaders with proposals for a new defence and security pact, and urge them to agree to a new package of support for Ukraine. He has also opened the door to a revamped youth visa scheme allowing greater freedom of movement for under-30s. Beyoncé won Best Album for her chart-topping Cowboy Carter at last night’s Grammy Awards, having previously lost out on the top prize on four separate occasions. Record of the Year went to rapper Kendrick Lamar for Not Like Us, while Chappell Roan scooped up the Best New Artist prize.

Trump’s irredeemably stupid trade war

Donald Trump just triggered “the dumbest trade war in history”, says The Wall Street Journal. His first salvo of tariffs will see those “notorious American adversaries”, Mexico and Canada, hit with a 25% tax on goods exported to the US, while China, “a real adversary”, will endure just 10%. The official justification for this “economic assault” is that Mexico and Canada aren’t doing enough to stop illegal drugs coming across the border. But the real explanation appears to be Trump’s apparent belief that America can be a “perfectly closed economy making everything at home”. That’s not the world we live in, nor one “we should want to live in”.

What the president doesn’t appear to understand – or care about – is that these tariffs are really just taxes, which will imperil jobs and raise prices for ordinary Americans. Take the auto industry. Supply chains in the US, Mexico and Canada are “highly integrated”, with vehicles under construction effectively crossing borders half a dozen times as companies source parts and labour in the most cost-effective ways. Another industry that will be hammered is the food trade: about 23% of American agricultural imports come from Mexico, including 90% of the avocados sold in the US. “Is Mr Trump now an avocado nationalist?” It’s not just the economics that’s stupid. By ignoring the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement he himself signed in his first term, Trump will make other countries less eager to do deals. As the old joke goes: “it’s risky to be America’s enemy but it can be fatal to be its friend”.