Trump’s Realpolitik Peter Thiel and others have said they backed Mr. Trump for the presidency not as ideal governance, but as a disruptor of a stagnant system, someone to clear out the sclerotic elites clinging to their benefits. The U.S. president and his realpolitik has prompted every nation to rethink their strategic positions in pragmatic terms. Brussels was slow to come around, but Europe has now committed to 5 percent defense spending as a share of GDP. And Brussels is nearing completion of a transatlantic agreement on tariffs. Perhaps reluctantly, but even EU trade negotiator Maroš Šefčovič characterizes it as a rebalancing.  While some U.S. trading partners are accepting the unpleasant, the Canadians are sti...

TAGS – North America, Macroeconomics