But Mr Trump’s most incendiary claims are reserved for China. The Communist Party, he says, “has subsidised and otherwise incentivised” Chinese firms to “export fentanyl and related precursor chemicals that are used to produce synthetic opioids sold illicitly in the United States”.

Canada’s prime minister and Mexico’s president ordered retaliatory tariffs on goods from the U.S., following through with their threats after U.S. Donald Trump sparked a trade war by imposing sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada,

Trump knows the United States has more leverage over its neighbors than they do over his country. But exploiting that position of strength could cause a historic rupture.