Swiss officials and business leaders reacted with shock and confusion after President Trump’s executive order imposing a 39% tariff—a higher rate than all but three nations. The reason for it? A skyrocketing trade imbalance.

That leverage came from the singular importance of the US market to the global economy. Trump’s personal belief in the utility of tariffs – and willingness to let them go into place and then, if necessary, escalate to shut down any retaliatory efforts – only served to enhance that reality.

A seductive idea is settling in that America is winning from all this. The president has, after all, got his biggest trading partners to make deals that are closer to his demands than theirs. Financial markets have shrugged off higher duties,