For the same reason, Mexico has taken an economic hit since the election. Besides the wall, Mr. Trump has vowed to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico’s peso has fallen sharply, and its central bank last week slashed its growth projection for next year, citing “the electoral process in the United States.”
Other economies have reacted with trepidation amid fears that Mr. Trump’s policies may drive up interest rates and inflation, an expectation that some traders call Trumpflation.
Some countries are trying to figure out how to respond in other ways. Leaders of NATO allies are looking at increasing military spending in response to Mr. Trump’s insistence that they pay a greater share of their defense. Lithuania last week chose a new prime minister, who renewed the nation’s promise to raise security spending.
In the Philippines, where President Rodrigo Duterte has feuded with President Obama, the government has tried to gain favor in Mr. Trump’s Washington. Mr. Duterte named as his new trade envoy to the United States Jose E. B. Antonio, a real estate tycoon who is helping build Trump Tower Manila. After Britain rebuffed Mr. Trump’s suggestion to name Nigel Farage, a leader of the “Brexit” campaign to leave the European Union, as ambassador to the United States, The Times of London reported that Mr. Farage may move to America anyway.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member