DONALD TRUMP HAS scrambled ideological alliances with his assault on global trade. The Chinese Embassy in Washington recently promoted a 1987 video of Ronald Reagan inveighing against protectionism. Meanwhile, an official White House account circulated a speech by Nancy Pelosi in 1996 criticising trade arrangements with China. Jamieson Greer, Mr Trump’s trade representative, had a rough ride while testifying to the Senate on April 8th. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina senator and one of the most endangered Republican incumbents in his chamber, told Mr Greer that he would give the administration space to test its “novel approach”. Yet he wanted to know: “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?”