Living is easy with eyes closed
by Tom Sullivan
Orders, more executive orders, the sitting president has instructed aides. When in doubt, he goes for bold.
The president who once used the soaring stock market as evidence of his brilliance has grown frustrated watching it sink 5 percent since he announced plans to impose sweeping tariffs on China, the Washington Post reports. China returned the favor, announcing tariffs on U.S. products that include cars and planes, plus a host of agricultural products produced in areas that also produced many of Trump’s most fervent voters:
“Nothing is easy,” Trump said Monday at the White House, while discussing his efforts to close the trade deficit with China.
It was a notable admission given that Trump had claimed the opposite in June 2016, during a major campaign speech on trade. “This is very easy. This is so easy,” he said then about tariffs on Chinese products.
But there is little evidence that any of the resistance has caused Trump to rethink his decision to refocus his administration on the nationalist policies and priorities that electrified crowds during the campaign.
Boldness. More boldness.
Having cleared the White House of staff who know anything about governing, Trump returns to familiar ground: marketing.
The challenge for Trump of trying to deliver on rosy promises is not a new one. Until winning the White House, Trump’s greatest successes have come in arenas such as marketing, entertainment and the presidential campaign, where image is the primary product and big boasts can make the sale. Billy Bush, the former “Access Hollywood” host, who spent years interviewing Trump about his reality show, “The Apprentice,” recently recalled confronting Trump over his serial misrepresentations of that show’s ratings.
“He said, ‘Billy, look, you just tell them and they believe it. That’s it,’ ” Bush recalled on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
The unilateral power of bold assertion, regardless of facts or nuance, has been a central theme of Trump’s presidency. While politicians typically overpromise during the campaign, Trump distinguished himself with the scale and scope of his vows. “I will give you everything,” he said at a campaign event in North Dakota in May 2016. “I’m the only one.”
Trump grew quickly frustrated with the slow pace of governing. He is accustomed to barking orders and having things done. But after 14 months in office, he’s got the hang of presidenting now and feels freed to do things his way.
When the winning starts hitting his supporters in their wallets, will his way look as rosy as it did on the campaign trail?
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