Trump latest in long line of protectionists steering US trade policy

Trade tariffs have been a recurrent theme of US history ever since the late 18th century

For years the rivals had been shaping up for a fight. Eventually, the talking and the insults stopped and there was a duel, and it was America's leading proponent of trade tariffs who came off worse.

Donald Trump and his stand-off with China's Xi Jinping? No, this was how Alexander Hamilton - the first US treasury secretary and the originator of the protectionist ideas enthusiastically embraced by the current occupant of the White House - met his end.