Agree the speech exhibits immense arrogance and US exceptionalism entitlement and is exactly like mafia standover tactics - it does also explain the inner logic reasoning of the Trump administration very well. It explains the tariffs. It explains a lot more than the tariffs. It explains the position the US is now in. And to understand the speech and the position the US is now in one additional factor needs to be confronted- one not explicitly detailed in the speech, though implied, and not entirely a secret either.

China, leading BRICS nations is poised to challenge the USD hegemony over international bank payments. It has been enabling trade payments for N.Korea for decades, Iran for over a decade and Russia for several years...via shadow banking arrangements that are not fully publicly transparent, but which nevertheless provision trade payments liquidity nevertheless.

China has led the development of mBridge (with Thailand, The UAE and Hong Kong) which is essentially a protocol for enabling trade payments using CBDCs. Presumably the CBDCs have to met some criteria to be compatible with mBridge and this is where Chinas ambition to gain dominance over global protocols and institutions comes in. Brazil has already developed a very successful central bank operated domestic payments system...which is now spreading in acceptance across Latin America. Russia has announced its domestic digital payments system will be operational next year. India already has one operating. Thailand has one already operational too- it was used during Covid to make income support/assistance payments to eligible citizens where the payments must be spent at defined retail outlets and for defined goods- ie no booze or cigarettes. The UAE plans to implement its CBDC domestically by the end of 2025 https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/uae-to-launch-digital-dirham-by-year-end-to-modernise-payments-and-noost-financial-inclusion-470013-2025-03-31 The Saudis recently joined both BRICS and mBridge and are developing their CBDC trade payments in collaboration with the UAE. https://mecouncil.org/publication/cbdc-global-pioneers-a-roadmap-for-gulf-countries/

BIS, who had initially sponsored mBridge recently disowned it amid suggestions that it could be used to evade US/SWIFT trade payments sanctions.

The USD hegemony is facing Chinas challenge to it. And that threatens to result in US insolvency and loss of empire. Now we can understand the entire Trump agenda thinking and rationale.

China has won the trade war and quite logically and inevitably seeks to develop the tertiary institutional and protocols framework to enhance and strengthen the state power projection dominance that trade dominance both enables and requires for the sustained development of empire.