Trump’s Threats Lose Sway as 75 Governments and Markets Stop Flinching
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Aug 4
Trump’s Threats Lose Sway as 75 Governments and Markets Stop Flinching
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Aug 4
Summary
World leaders and Washington officials are reacting far less urgently to Donald Trump’s latest threats, a sharp shift from the alarm they triggered earlier in his term.
Trump’s leverage has weakened because courts have boxed in parts of his agenda, Congress has rebuffed him, and Iran has strung him along, undercutting the force of his public warnings.
April 2025 showed the contrast: after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on a Rose Garden poster board, markets lost trillions of dollars and more than 75 governments rushed to negotiate.
That earlier scramble has given way to a broader view that Trump’s bombast no longer reliably translates into policy, reducing its power at home and abroad.