US winners and losers from trade tussle with China

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From the eg of US firing the first salvo by impoing tariffs on Chinese goods, it is possible to argue that it is politicians (i.e. Trump) who shape the future since they are invested with the powers to do so...in other words, whiule events influence the future, it is the decisions of politicians that spark off these events; hence politicians are the root cause.

Of course, there will be some events which politicians have little or no control over, esp natural disasters of the kind not influenced by human activities, e.g. volcanic eruptions and earthquakes...

Now if u look at China's retaliation to US hostile tariffs, one can rebut by arguing that while politicians can make decisions that precipitate events that influence the future (think also Harry Truman's giving the green light for dropping atomic bombs on Japan during WWII), realise that the decisions made by politicians are also influenced by the events around them. Given this, are events the root cause then, and not politicians?

You can reconcile the two by saying that BOTH politicians and events feed on each other, resulting in a cyclical relationship. In a comparison qn like the one below, the qn will make a narrow claim that it is either A or B. You can disagree with this narrow claim by saying:
1) A and B are actually the same or one is the subset of the other
2) BOTH A and B are involved (despite being different factors)
3) it's not A nor B, but actually C which the qn overlooked
4) A and B are related in a cause-effect relationship

Qn: Do events, rather than politicians, shape the future? (Cam. 2017)