Dana Milbank, Washington Post - Trump is running an ad hoc presidency. There are no rules. The law is strictly optional. And Trump, unbound by both, administers one shock to the system after another. There is no predictability to his actions. Business leaders and consumers have no idea what’s coming next and, therefore, have no way to plan — and that, as much as anything, is what is wrecking the economy.
Trump has unilaterally shattered the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal he negotiated with much fanfare just five years ago, at the time calling it “the largest, fairest, most balanced and modern trade agreement ever achieved.” He’s slapping huge tariffs on Mexico, Canada and Europe and is making wild threats to raise them higher. At different points this week, he threatened a 50 percent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum and 200 percent on European alcohol — and our erstwhile allies are retaliating. Trump has similarly shocked the world’s security, destroying U.S. soft power (the administration announced this week that it had canceled 83 percent of foreign-aid programs) and chaotically cutting off military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine before restoring it days later.
One minute, Trump is declining to rule out a recession; the next, he’s saying “I don’t see it at all.” One minute, Trump is vowing to protect Americans’ Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The next, Musk is saying these entitlements are “the big one to eliminate.” (Newly installed private-equity executives at Social Security can see to it.) One minute, congressional Republicans are saying they will never pass a government spending bill that adds to the deficit without major spending cuts; the next minute, they do exactly that. More
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