Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11 May 2025
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column Founded 1932
The arsonist as hero
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
WASHINGTON – After the most harrowing first 100 days of any modern president, what happens during the second 100 days? America loves a comeback story, and for Donald Trump, all the world is a stage.
Like the arsonist who returns to the scene of the crime as the hero to put out the fire he started, Trump is poised for a recovery. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went to Geneva, Switzerland, to begin trade talks with his Chinese counterpart.
Trump made a big to-do of securing a trade deal with the United Kingdom that he claims will open a $5 billion opportunity for new exports for American farmers and ranchers.
In return, luxury British-made cars like Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, and Bentley will have tariffs cut from 25 percent to 10 percent. “That’s really handmade stuff, they've been doing it for a long time in the same location,” Trump said when he unveiled the trade deal in the Oval Office. “So, I said, ‘Let’s help them out with that one.’”
Wall Street markets reacted favorably to the news of a deal, and optimism spread that maybe Trump could pull off enough trade deals to pull the economy back from the brink of recession.
Normally, trade deals take years to negotiate, so the administration is asking a lot to finalize new arrangements in such a brief time. Trump has prided himself on being in the driver’s seat with all these countries coming to him and wanting to make a deal.
“They all want something we have,” he says, and that was stable markets and certainty in trading.
Now we have volatile markets and uncertainty, a double threat to investors and the U.S. economy, which contracted in the first quarter of 2025.
Asked about the overall state of the economy, Trump said in an interview with NBC News that he takes credit for the “good parts” of the economy while blaming the “bad parts” on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The stock market has regained many of the losses it suffered earlier this year, and if the trade deals and the recovery go well, Trump believes he could be sitting pretty in a hundred days’ time. However, much of what he burned down such as reliability, credibility, and supply chain disruptions are not easily rebuilt.
And if all falls short on the domestic and global economy fronts, he has a side deal where he and his family are making a fortune in crypto currency. His two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, are putting deals in place around the globe for their newly created Trump family venture, Liberty Mutual Financial.
However, the U.S. Senate is beginning to wake up to the financial implications of a crypto business designed to benefit the First Family. Legislation to create a stablecoin dubbed the GENIUS Act failed to pass a procedural hurdle. It once enjoyed significant bipartisan support but is now getting a much-needed second look.
Polls show that voters support Trump’s goals on curbing immigration but oppose the way he seeks to deprive people of due process, and the way he is relying on Third World countries to imprison people he wants out of the country.
Further, r, the American people have basic good sense. They know Trump is trolling them when he talks about transforming Alcatraz back into a prison. And they do not like the talk about taking Greenland, perhaps by military force.
Then there is this. Trump is planning to stage a military parade as a birthday present to himself. The planning was already underway for the Pentagon to mark the 250th anniversary of the Continental Congress voting to create the Continental Army when Trump got wind of it and decided to couple it with a celebration on June 14th to mark his 79th birthday. Activists are planning “No Kings” protests across the country on the same day.
Perhaps things will improve; perhaps they will get worse. Yes, they can.
 
See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
              Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
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END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND