President Trump’s shake-up of the global trade system has sent tremors through the long-held view that the United States is the source of the world’s safest financial assets. That’s created an opportunity for Europe.
The market tumult in which investors simultaneously sold off the U.S. dollar, American stocks and U.S. Treasury bonds eased last week as Mr. Trump backed off his threats to fire the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to reassure foreign officials that trade deals would be struck.
But many European officials attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington last week were skeptical that the uncertainty over Mr. Trump’s trade policy would dissipate any time soon. They said the unpredictable nature of the Trump administration’s approach to setting policy would not easily be forgotten. Instead, they saw the potential to…
