Donald Trump has uttered and tweeted plenty of threats to the global trading order over his 18 months in office that have caused free traders to recoil. But in an interview broadcast last week, the US president may have dropped his most ominous statement yet on trade — and done so almost as an aside.

Speaking to CNBC, President Trump declared that the time was right for him to mount his trade wars thanks to robust economic growth and financial markets that had soared since he took office. He declared that now was the time to wrestle with the economic imbalances with China and the EU that he saw as evidence of the US having, for decades, been taken advantage of by its trading partners.

“This is the time,” Mr Trump said. “You know the expression ‘We’re playing with the bank’s money,’ right?”