Avoiding 'economic nuclear winter': Why Starmer needs to help Trump escape humiliation over tariffs

If the markets and his approval ratings continue slide, Donald Trump will have little choice but to look for an escape route and Keir Starmer needs to be on hand to help him

In 2020, as the Covid pandemic raged, Donald Trump made a horrendous mistake. At a public White House briefing, he turned to Dr Deborah Birx, a senior health official, and suggested injecting patients with disinfectant.

Following uproar, rather than admit his error, Trump told journalists he had been “asking a question sarcastically to reporters just like you, just to see what would happen”. However, if this had been true, it would have actually been much worse as he would have knowingly made a suggestion that could have killed anyone who decided to give it a try. Trump is not someone who likes to admit his mistakes.

So warnings like the one from billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, who backed Trump ahead of the US election, that his sweeping tariffs risk causing a “self-induced, economic nuclear winter” are highly unlikely to prompt a contrite apology followed by a political U-turn of historic proportions.

Keir Starmer's efforts to charm Donald Trump may have put him in a position to be a global peacemaker as a full-blown global trade war looms (Picture: Carl Court/pool) | Getty Images

Potential exit strategy

However, Trump does take the markets and his approval ratings seriously. If they both continue to slide, he will eventually be forced to look for a way out.

One potential exit strategy is the idea that his tariffs are actually designed to persuade other countries to reduce theirs. If Trump can cut new trade deals, getting even marginally more favourable terms for the US, he could try to sell this as a victory.

Unfortunately for the US President, he does not exactly have many friends around the world. For understandable reasons, Canada’s Mark Carney is unlikely to be in the mood to help him out of his predicament, while Trump’s attempts to cajole Denmark into handing over Greenland to the US have damaged relations with the European Union.

This puts Keir Starmer in a position to act as the ‘bridge’ between the US and Europe that many commentators have spoken about.

Trump is still talking tough and trying to ride out what is a growing crisis, but when he’s ready, Starmer needs to help him find a face-saving escape route. Preserving the health of the global economy is much more important than humiliating Trump, however much he deserves it.