Trump's trade tactics imperil the jobs of those who might vote for his second term

The only tool he has to placate US consumers is successive interest rate cuts - but the whole world is playing at that game

Donald Trump's cunning plan to make America great again by launching a trade war with China has officially backfired. Last week, a keenly watched measure of US manufacturing showed firms cutting back on production and jobs at a rate not seen since 2009. Recession warning lights are flashing and the outlook seems a world away from the cheery one presented by the president when he entered the White House in 2017.

It is quite something for a president to impose a trade policy that weighs heavily on parts of a crucial sector for the US economy - and it's a bizarre tactic given that the votes of manufacturing workers delivered him his first term in office.

The UK would now be around 40bn richer if the referendum had never taken place