Here we go again. Trump appoints all these birdbrains, they are advising Trump and Trump is about to do something stupid, until the 'adult in the room' stepped in and stopped Trump from shooting himself in the foot.
This is the way it will go for the next 4 years, because this is the way it's gone the previous 8 years.
1 - Trump announces plan
2 - Media says its a dumb plan
3 - Plan starts to work
4 - Media says its only working because 'the adult in the room' stepped up and saved Trump from himself
It used to be John Bolton, it used to be Gen Kelly. Now apparently it's Bessent and Wiles.
Lather, rinse and repeat for the next 4 years. Or 8.
No.
Let's start with that his cabinet this time around is WAY better than it was before. It does not mean that every hire is perfect. Trump making a potentially bad hire is called life. Every great leader has made plenty of bad hires.
Suzy Wiles, as has been documented on this board many, many, many times, was critical in bringing execution and discipline to Trump 2.0 And it's working, in aggregate, pretty damn well.
Let's then go to the three main parts of Trump's program that is going very well:
Immigration
Inflation - now at 2.4%, pretty close to the 2% fed target
Identify politics - and it's removal
Also - Doge and reducing government spending, etc. You have seen me do the charts now 3+ time.
He's done that in under 100 days. 81 to be exact.
Left leaning MSM Media has says that all of this dumb, lucky, racist, etc. Trump has done it with some incredible hires like Tom Holman, Kristy Noem, Rubio at the state department and deporting people, etc.
On the Tarriff plan, no it was not "working perfectly". There were parts that were - getting 70 countries to start to negotiate to zero tarrifs, but even as that started to happen, Navarro, dismissed them and raised this impossible short term bar. Markets tumbled by upwards of 20% and Bond Yields, which just last Friday, you cited (as well as Chamanth and me as well) as a plus, turned up to 4.4 up from 3.9 on April 3rd. The billionaire friends who helped Trump finance his victory, lost an aggregate approaching 100B. Retireees, like my parents and my wifes parents started to get very worried. Recession fears jumped from Goldman, JPMC, etc.
I generally think that this Tariff plan and rebalancing of the economy and our trading partners will get us to a somewhat better place, but an all-out end-to-end trade war is not why a lot of people voted for Trump. We don't need Nike Dunks, 70" HDTVs for $900, Apple phones or my wife's Alo gear made in the U.S. We do need high end chip fab, pharma, oil, data centers and other critical infra made here. We need design and IP to be here.
The real dynamic here, on this board and on this thread, is not one of politics or economics but secular theology. Do people believe that Trump is infallible. I think Trump 2.0 is more impactful, yes, disciplined and better surrounded than 1.0. But, not infallible and by the way, credit Trump for seeing where this was going, getting in Bessent, Lutnick and Wiles and changing course. That is not a flaw; that is being human and leadership.
