Bad decisions and backtracking make for terrible policy and political instability.
THERE’S NO ESCAPING the pattern in this run of recent headlines:
- “Trump reverses plan to close more than 30 mine safety offices”
- “Here are the 22 times he’s changed his mind on tariffs”
- “Trump reverses USDA office closures”
- “Reversing on layoffs, National Weather Service adding staff”
- Plus, this whole set: “Trump turns sharply on Musk”; “Trump threatens to cut Musk’s government contracts”; “Trump, White House aides signal a possible détente with Musk”; “Trump tells CNN he’s ‘not even thinking about’ Musk and won’t speak to him ‘for a while’; “Trump wants to get rid of the Tesla he bought to show support for Elon Musk.”
That was all in less than a week, and telescoped to just 48 hours for the Trump-Musk blowup-détente-never-mind cycle.
This is the bris you never wanted to attend, the circumcision you would never be able to unsee. And don’t blame me for that metaphor, blame John Oliver.
Whiplash as a way of life
EVEN BEFORE MUSK BRANDISHED a chainsaw, moved fast and broke much of the government, no one paying even an iota of attention would have expected Trump to be a model (mohel?) of careful consistency. Still, the speed and significance of the reversals has been shocking, and they appear to be standard operating procedure. In other words, we can expect them to continue until Trump exits the White House, whenever that is.
Flip-flops that belong in the Smithsonian
TO LONGTIME POLITICAL OBSERVERS, by which I mean those of us so old we remember pre-MAGA times, it seems strange that the constant flip-flops have not ruined, scarred, or even dented Trump. Nothing has, and nothing probably will, as we’ve seen all too often. In this case, maybe it’s because everyone already knows he’s so deeply flawed, or because his decisions are so terrible that flipping in a different direction is all to the good. Especially if you’re a savvy financial player who buys low every time a Trump-made disaster strikes. Because, TACO.