President Donald Trump has shown few signs in his second term that he cares much about the future of the Amazon rainforest. Nor are there any indications that ending either corruption overseas or the use of forced labor are White House priorities.
Yet in recent weeks all three of those things have become justifications for proposed tariffs put forward by the Trump administration. So what should we make of that? Are Trump’s economic wars suddenly embracing a new humanitarian and environmentalist agenda? Or, just maybe, are we seeing a clever strategy unfolding that may make Trump’s tariffs more politically durable? ...