MARK RILEY: Which party is best at Trump whispering to be key factor in looming election

Donald Trump says America feels like a chicken being plucked.

Funny that.

Because in the eyes of the international community he looks like a complete turkey.

His trade grenade has exploded America’s reputation as a partner of goodwill and fair dealing.

The US is now viewed by its Western allies with equal measures of suspicion and derision.

Trump says his decision to slap punitive tariffs on all America’s trading partners — friend and foe alike — is part of his broader plan to Make America Great Again.

But he is also making the world irate again.

He has imperilled long-term bilateral ties, shattered the dependability of global alliances, emboldened the US’s opponents and, not insignificantly, tipped a heap of fertiliser over World Trade Organisation rules.

He has also caused equity markets to tank.

And that is no small thing.

Average Americans have watched the value of their retirement plans plummet almost overnight.

It is the price of Trump. And they are paying for it with their futures.

Soon they will pay for it in the present as the tariffs force up the price of everything from building materials to basic consumer goods.

Financial markets that thrive on sentiment have slid from joy to grief.

And Trump has refused to rule out the possibility that his mercantilist marauding will send the US economy into recession.

He promises it is just an uncomfortable “period of transition”. He says things will be better once the economic eruption is over.

But there is no economic theory to support that.

Trump’s approach is like that of the US generals in Vietnam who said they had to destroy a village in order to save it.

But the village this time is the world’s greatest democracy. At least it was.

Trump assured Anthony Albanese during their telephone conversation last month that he would give “great consideration” to exempting Australia from his 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium.

His White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, told Australian correspondents on Wednesday: “He considered it, and he considered against it.”

The direct economic impact on the Australian economy will be relatively mild.

Steel and aluminium sales to America represent less than 0.2 per cent of our total exports.

But it is what Donald Trump’s decision represents more broadly that is more damaging.

For the first time in 32 years covering Australian politics, I witnessed a Prime Minister this week publicly criticise a sitting US President.

Anthony Albanese described Trump’s actions as “unjustified”, “disappointing” and “not the actions of a friend”.

It is that last observation that is the most important.

What does our special friendship with America — underpinned by the ANZUS alliance — really mean now?

At the very least, Australia can no longer trust America to have its back on economic matters.

At worst, it might need to question whether US support in a regional conflict would come with a price tag.

Trump prides himself as a transactional business guy. His most famous book is The Art of the Deal.

He’s now applying that approach to US strategic relations.

Trump’s price for not abandoning Ukraine to Russia altogether is to mine its large deposits of rare earth minerals.

After his public spat with Trump this week, Malcolm Turnbull asked rhetorically whether Australia would have to sign over its iron ore leases to secure its own military alliance with the US.

Such a suggestion would have seemed absurd before Trump Take Two.

It doesn’t now.

Who can best manage the relationship with Trump will be the key foreign policy question in the coming election campaign.

Peter Dutton branded Anthony Albanese “incompetent”, accusing him of “letting Australians down” by not securing a carve out from the Trump tariffs.

But that would make every world leader incompetent.

None got an exemption.

Dutton’s grand claim is that there is “no question” that he would have secured one if he were prime minister.

It is a boast worthy of Trump himself.

And it’s one he will stick to as he challenges Albanese over the best way to protect Australia’s interests while Donald Trump rules the global roost.