Economist Jeffrey Sachs warns that President Trump's trade policies, aimed at isolating China, could lead to a disastrous downward spiral of the trading system if other countries fall into the "trade trap" of aligning with the US against China. He argues that the US trade deficit is simply a result of the country spending more than it earns, primarily due to government borrowing fueled by low taxes for the wealthy, and is not a sign that other countries are cheating; in fact, trade is fundamentally a mutually beneficial activity. Sachs predicts that while everyone loses something from trade disruption, the United States will be the number one loser in Trump's trade war as its policies isolate its economy and hinder the competitiveness of its businesses. He emphasizes that the rest of the world can spare itself a disaster by continuing to uphold the open trading system despite the US actions.