President Trump has the world's attention now.

He came through on a campaign promise, hitting Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs to protect Americans from the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl in this country.

President Trump has shown he means business when it comes to threatening a splurge of tariffs around the globe.

But will his comb of approach pay off?

Welcome to PowerPlay, Politico's weekly podcast, where I talk to some of the voices shaping transatlantic thinking in the new Trump era. I'm Anne McClevo, your host, and if you

haven't already, please do follow

the podcast. My guest knows a thing or 20 about global trade and America's economic interests.

Larry Summers is a former US Treasury Secretary under President Clinton and economics professor

at Harvard University. He's already an outspoken critic of the Trump administration's deployment of tariffs.

But is it a new era of protectionism or saber-rattling from a canny president determined to negotiate better terms for America?

Larry Summers, welcome to PowerPlay.

Very good to be with you. Let's dive into one of the

big topics of the early Trump period back in the White House. And earlier this week, you described

the president's approach in using or threatening to use tariffs as self-inflicted wound, which

denies economic logic would lead to higher prices for consumers.

But given that Mexico and Canada have averted a standoff for now,

do you think this has been quite as damaging as you feared when you made those comments?

I was referring to a scenario where tariffs were in, put in place. We'll have to see what

happens down the road to make any assessment. There's still certainly the possibility that

tariffs will be imposed either strategically or because there's some kind of misunderstanding and breakdown in negotiation.

It's also the case that making threats of this kind changes the dynamics of the relationship

between countries. And so this kind of efforts to make economic relations so completely transactional is quite

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