Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and the Trump presidency for the new Spectator USA website.

Today we're going to be doing a year in review looking back over 2018 and the various excitements of American politics.

And I'm delighted to be joined by Kate Andrews, who is Associate Director of the IEA,

and Sir Christopher Mayer, who was formerly Britain's ambassador in Washington.

Christopher, probably one of the overriding themes of this year has been Trump's trade war

and the ratcheting up of tensions with China over tariffs.

Is he winning this war or is China playing a longer, smarter game?

I guess that China is playing a longer smarter game, but they're worried and they're quite scared

by what he's doing and what more he may do. I mean, when we get to the end of the four years

and we draw up the balance sheet, we'll probably say that Trump has engaged in a net negative

for the United States and for himself personally.

But along the way, he's causing a massive amount of angst, including in Beijing,

and he does have the power to hurt the Chinese, and it may be at the margin quite salutary

that he's doing so.

Kate, I imagine you're quite a sort of free market

person. You probably balk at tariffs, but you must admit that Trump is actually making an

adjustment that a lot of Americans have said for a long time needs to be made. He's making an

adjustment, particularly looking at China that a lot of the world has thought needed to be

made. The deeply frustrating thing about Trump is that he's doing it in a way that alienates

his allies and his friends, not just those who might need a scolding. So he's threatening

to put tariffs on EU countries, for example, threatening a trade war with the European Union.

Now, I know a lot of people

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