AI centric argument:

The policy indicates trade, traditional partnerships, and traditional financial metrics are less important for the administration. It is largely symbolic rather than analytically worked out - the direction is more important than the details.

This is consistent with the economy being radically altered by robotics and AI. Comparative advantage in labor costs is becoming irrelevant, so a large part of the justification for trade disappears.

Wealth is being further concentrated into those with existing assets, as the negotiating position of labor becomes weaker. It is less important to maintain partnerships when you can do everything yourself.

Recession becomes less important than pushing hard for leadership in AI. Deepseek’s model release had a huge impact on the values of leading US firms. With AI traditional measures of the economy become significantly less relevant.