There’s a reason the United States historically has not tried to bully every other nation simultaneously. Bully a few choice other nations? Sure, you can get away with that. Try to bully everyone else at once? That’s a different matter.

I think of it like kids on a playground. Schoolyard bullies tend to pick just a handful of targets to direct their ire against. If they tried to bully everyone, they would quickly find themselves completely alone and isolated. Bully everyone and you immediately drop to the bottom of the social totem pole. Bully a few and most will just want to be left out of it, and a few will join in. Bullying is something that only works on a small scale.

What is true for children is true for nations. Tariff a few particularly vile adversaries? You can sway global trade around entire countries. If nations have to choose between trading with a pariah state like North Korea or with the United States, they’re going to pick the United States. Try to tariff the majority of the world’s population or economic productivity? Suddenly you’re not punishing a few bad actors, you’re simply disconnecting the United States from the global trade system. You’re cutting your nation off from the vast majority of the productive, creative, and innovative capacity of the planet. In a rapidly advancing world, that is the last thing any sane nation wants to do. Yet, we plod on regardless…