‘Beautiful’ tariffs or ugly reality?

A shirt featuring images of Trump, whose clear warning signs financial elites ignored. Now they are struggling to face the economic consequences. — Mark Peterson/The New York Times

DONALD Trump’s 2024 election sent many finance types into spasms of anticipatory ecstasy as they imagined freedom from regulations, taxes and unfamiliar pronouns.

“Bankers and financiers say Trump’s victory has emboldened those who chafed at ‘woke doctrine’ and felt they had to self-censor or change their language to avoid offending younger colleagues, women, minorities or disabled people,” The Financial Times reported a few days before Trump’s inauguration.