On March 12, President Donald Trump halts imposing double tariffs on imports of Canadian steel and metal to 50%, just hours after announcing them. But he announces that he will raise duties on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union (EU) by 25%.      

In response:     

• Canada says it will place 25% reciprocal tariffs on steel products and raise taxes on tools, computers, servers, display monitors, sports equipment, and cast-iron products.
• The EU announces it will raise tariffs on American beef, poultry, bourbon and motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans.
• Tariffs on bourbon will aim a deadly blow at the American liquor industry—especially that which produces Kentucky bourbon.

Then, on March 13, Trump, like Adolf Hitler,  justifies his attacks on peaceful nations. It is only when his victims dare counterattack that he feels wronged.

Bypassing the normal channels of diplomacy, Trump reverts to form on his own website, Truth Social:

“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200% tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER EU REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US.” 

On March 20, the EU announces that it will delay its planned tariffs on American goods, which are set to go into effect at the start of April, until mid-April instead. The decision gives the bloc more time to negotiate with Washington and review the list of products that would be affected by the tariffs.

Trump’s threat to raise tariffs even further echoes Adolf Hitler’s self-righteous indignation at the refusal of Yugoslavians to submit to his tyranny.

On October 28, 1940, his ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini—jealous of Hitler and desperate to create his own empire—attacked Greece. And his armies had taken a severe beating by the descendants of Alexander the Great. 

So Hitler, reluctantly, decided to rush troops to Greece to save Mussolini from the embarrassment of losing his new war.

Adolf Hitler

At the time Yugoslavia was a monarchy ruled by the regent Prince Paul on behalf of the young King Peter II. On March 25, 1941, under threat of German invasion, Yugoslavia joined the Axis and agreed to permit transit through its territory to German troops headed for Greece. 

When Yugoslavia’s nonaggression treaty with Germany was announced the next day in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, regent Prince Paul and the government were promptly overthrown in a popular uprising led by Yugoslav Air Force officers with the support of the Yugoslav Army.

On March 27, King Peter II was officially installed as king, ending the regency.  

Hitler quickly learned the news. At first he thought it was a joke—and then he exploded in one of the wildest rages of his life.

Shouting that he had been “personally insulted,” Hitler demanded that Yugoslavia be crushed with “unmerciful harshness and that the military destruction be done in Blitzkrieg style. Now I intend to make a clean sweep of the Balkans—it is time people got to know me better!”

The invasion of Yugoslavia opened on April 6, 1941, with an overwhelming bombardment of Belgrade and facilities of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force by the the German air force, the Luftwaffe. The Wehrmacht attacked from southwestern Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. 

On April 17, after only 11 days of fighting, representatives for Yugoslavia signed the armistice and unconditionally surrendered all Yugoslav troops. Yugoslavia was subsequently divided amongst Germany, Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria.

Hitler was ecstatic: He had “avenged” his “betrayal,” and given the world another lesson on the power of his army and air force. 

But his victory had come at a cost: The attack on Yugoslavia forced him to postpone his planned invasion of the Soviet Union by five weeks. And the Wehrmacht would suffer horribly when the bitterly cold Russian winter arrived.

As journalist and historian William L. Shirer wrote in his monumental study, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: “This postponement of the attack on Russia in order that the Nazi warlord might vent his personal spite against a small Balkan country which had dared to defy him was probably the most catastrophic single decision in Hitler’s career.

“It is hardly too much to say that by making it that March afternoon in the Chancellery in Berlin during a moment of convulsive rage he tossed away his last golden opportunity to win the war and to make of the Third Reich, which he had created with such stunning if barbarous genius, the greatest empire in German history and himself the master of Europe.”

It’s still too early to foresee if Trump will make such a single catastrophic decision. But he has clearly planted the seeds for this. Among these:

• Wholesale purgings of the federal workforce—especially in agencies responsible for national security and health;
• Turning America’s longtime allies—like Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama and the EU—into mortal enemies;
• Appointing incompetents to office—like alcoholic Pete Hegseth Secretary of Defense and 14-year heroin addict Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Secretretary of Health and Human Services.

As historian Barbara W. Tuchman warned in her book, The March of Folly: “A great empire and little minds go ill together.”