'Really nauseating amusement park ride': Trump ripped for 'herky-jerky turns'

16 May

Donald Trump at a MAGA rally in Rome, Georgia on March 9, 2024 (Phil Mistry/Shutterstock.com)

President Donald Trump is almost four months into his nonconsecutive second term, which has seen one controversy after another — from steep new tariffs imposed on longtime U.S. allies to an executive order targeting birthright citizenship to Trump calling for the United States to annex Canada and Greenland.

In a conversation published in Q&A form on May 16, three New York Times writers — Frank Bruni, conservative Kristen Soltis Anderson and polling expert Nate Silver — reflect on the nonstop chaos that has characterized Trump's return to the White.

Bruni told Anderson and Silver, "Trump's economy has more than the sniffles. But every time it seems on the verge of intensive care, Trump tweaks the treatment. By backing off his chest-thumping — and, it turns out, vacuous — threats against China, he may be warding off the worst of price increases, calming the stock market and reassuring some Americans. But will they remember the needlessly herky-jerky turns and stomach-knotting dips and punish him for that? I mean, this is less like governing and more like a really nauseating amusement park ride."

Anderson responded, "If it ends up fine, this will be something of a distant memory come the 2026 midterms. 'If' is doing a huge amount of work in that sentence."

Silver argued that "immigration is probably Trump's least-bad issue."

The polling expert told Bruni and Anderson, "The bearish case on Trump's ratings if you're one of his strategists — or the bullish one if you're a Democrat — is that so far, Trump's numbers reflect voter anticipation of the effects of tariffs, and they'll get even worse once retailers work through their existing inventory and there are more price increases and shortages. It’s such an own goal to win an election in which inflation is the single most important issue and then turn around and announce a 25 percent tariff on cars — maybe enough of an own goal that Trump seems to realize he messed up."

Silver argued that Trump "has probably irrevocably lost some voters' confidence in his ability to be a competent steward of the economy."

"So far," Silver told Bruni and Anderson, "that’s maybe from Wall Street elites, who have been very willing to criticize him early in his term. But those attitudes from elites can filter down to rank-and-file voters."

Anderson interjected, "The economic numbers matter enormously, both because they’re a driver of the political center and they used to be central to the whole case for Trump: 'Don't like the tweets or the style or the jokes or the insults or all of that? At least your wallet is fatter.'"

Read the full New York Times opinion article at this link (subscription required).

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