This week the president has backflipped on key economic policies and on gun control, provoked a bizarre fight with Denmark over Greenland, launched an all out attack on the independent Federal Reserve and accused Democrat-voting Jews of disloyalty to Israel.
On some of these topics — the economy, guns and Denmark — Trump said one thing on one day only to say the opposite the next.
Wild weeks in the Trump presidency are hardly unique but rarely have they been so whiplash-inducing as this one.
Amid growing concern that the US economy is slowing Trump has also given contradictory economic messages this week. First he talked up the strength of the US economy which Trump knows offers his greatest chance for re-election.
“Our economy in the best in the best in the world by far. Lowest unemployment ever within almost all categories. Poised for big growth after trade deals are completed … great future of USA,’ he said.
Yet at the same time Trump launched his most scathing attack yet on Jerome Powell, head of the Federal Reserve accusing him of a ‘horrendous lack of vision’ in not cutting US interest rates by a full one per cent.
But rate cuts of that size are reserved for economies that are facing immediate crises, a far cry from the buoyant US economy that Trump claims.
When it was reported this week that the president was considering cutting payroll taxes as a means of stimulating the economy the White House denied the report. But the next day Trump contradicted his own spokesperson and said he was indeed examining possible cuts to payroll taxes. 24 hours later the president backflipped again and said he was now not considering a cut to payroll tax.
On gun control, Trump also sent out contradictory messages.
After meeting with the National Rifle Association this week, the president retreated from the promise of stronger background checks that he made in the wake of this month’s El Paso and Dayton massacres.
The real issue, he said, was mental health problems, not gun laws. “It is not the gun that pulls the trigger, it’s the person holding the gun,’ he said. Trump then argued that background checks for gun purchases were already strong enough.
But the following day — after Trump was accused of breaking his promise to take action on gun laws — he then claimed that there were ‘loop-holes’ in background check laws that he wanted to look at.
While these issues were swirling Trump picked a remarkable fight with Denmark over Greenland by unilaterally suggesting publicly that the US buy the giant ice-bound island which is under autonomous rule from Denmark. Trump then played down the important of the idea, saying the Greenland proposal was not the reason for his planned upcoming trip to Denmark.
But when Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described Trump’s unilateral proposal to buy Greenland as “absurd”, Trump was offended and abruptly cancelled the visit, describing her comments as “nasty”.
Back home, Trump then started another fight by claiming that all Jews who vote Democrat were being “very disloyal” to the Jewish people and to Israel.
Jewish Americans have never voted as a bloc, although around 75 per cent of them are Democrat voters. The president, deliberately or otherwise, tried to paint those many US Jews who oppose the policies of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as betraying the state of Israel. This is dangerous territory and has led Jewish groups to describe Trump’s comments as anti-Semitic.
All up it was a wild week, but the ultimate question is how much Trump’s erratic leadership style really matters.
When Americans go to the polls next year to elect their next president, will they primarily judge Trump on his style and temperament or on his policies and results? A second term in the White House may hinge on which they decide is more important.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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Even by the volatile standards of Donald Trump’s presidency, this week was a doozy which has left even Trump supporters wondering about his erratic leadership style.