Chapter 6 offers an in-depth case study of Trump-era trade as a distinctive mode of illiberal, authoritarian governance: tariffs and trade threats deployed as performative “toughness,” coercive unilateralism, and patronage. It argues that Trump’s trade program transformed tariffs from bargaining tools into instruments of spectacle and extraction—rewarding allies, disciplining firms and foreign partners, and consolidating an illiberal historic bloc linking corporate conservatives, loyalist oligarchs, and authoritarian-populist media. The chapter examines how this tariff regime generates macroeconomic fallout and legitimacy crises while accelerating the shift from consent-based hegemony to coercive statecraft under conditions of U.S. hegemonic decline. By foregrounding rhetoric, cultural style, and institutional mechanisms (exemptions, transactional deals, regressive distribution), the chapter shows how trade policy can become a vehicle for hybrid authoritarianism—simultaneously reshaping global alliances and intensifying domestic democratic erosion.