Having dominated politics for a decade, Donald Trump has clearly achieved his major objectives: Being the center of attention and achieving retribution. A strong economy is further down the list, even unimportant to him.

Trump’s strategy of keeping politicians, the public, and even his most fawning sycophants, on edge has served him masterfully to, like a spoiled child, maintain himself as the center of attention. In so doing, his administration is one of contradictions.

The administration and Republicans who are opposed to abortion also oppose funding institutions like Planned Parenthood that provide family planning and access to birth control that are central to reducing need and demand for abortions.

The Trump Administration cries long and loud about government “waste, fraud, and abuse.” So they begin by sacking inspectors general who are charged with the task of preventing it.

The Trump Administration, as with traditional Republican administrations, rails against government debt and deficits. But they insist on giving tax cuts to profitable corporations and billionaires that don’t need them, adding to federal deficits. It’s not too cynical to say that “Republicans can’t help themselves; it’s in their DNA.” 

Trump’s retribution, punishing his enemies, includes withholding federal grant money from universities on the grounds of their “allowing anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism was no problem for the administration when it pardoned January 6 protestors, some of whom wore shirts emblazing “Camp Auschwitz.”

Republicans insist that government “be run like a business.”  Government is not a for-profit business. Its role is to provide services necessary for the nation to function. Do we want it to avoid waste? Hey, is the Pope Catholic? Of course we want government to be run efficiently. But much of what people consider “waste” is in the eye of the beholder, namely spending on programs that one dislikes. 

That said, there are principles that apply to good business that also apply to public service. A successful business does not cut off its major source of revenue. Trump fancies the idiocy of replacing the nation’s major source of revenue, the income tax, with income from tariffs — even as he claims he is open to reducing tariffs through his self-proclaimed ability as a master deal maker. Sacking IRS employees at tax collection time is the opposite of sound business practice — that is, unless the motive is to actually decrease collections from taxpayers that can afford an army of attorneys.

A successful business values its employees, motivates them to take pride in their organization, and credits them as key to business success. Trump and his appointees do the opposite, casting government  workers as lazy and unnecessary to the point of taking a wrecking ball to federal agencies, sacking thousands of workers who take pride in their work as public servants providing essential services.

The contradictions of the Trump Administration of course carry over to the ongoing tariff chaos. Trump has long urged higher tariffs on our imports, insisting that we have been “ripped off” by both our friends and adversaries. Rather than seeing foreign trade as a win-win situation, he sees every deal as having a winner and a loser, no doubt a carryover from his real estate magnate days where he always dealt from his position of having the money and the power.  

Unsurprisingly, Trump alerted the world that April 2 would be “Liberation Day.” As the world waited with baited breath, on that day he announced steep tariffs on imports from all sources, ranging from our largest traders, Mexico, Canada, and China, to islands populated only by penguins. The following days were a dizzying litany of contradictions with Commerce Secretary Lutnick affirming that there would be no “giving back” on tariffs. Trump talked of being willing to negotiate but his “policies would not change.

Secretary Lutnick talked optimistically of millions of Americans replacing Chinese doing the work of putting tiny nails in electronic devices. This was followed by Trump announcing an additional 145 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. Trump “clarified” this by insisting that tariffs could be both permanent and negotiated.

As countries, including major trading partners, announced planned retaliatory tariffs, reality began to take hold — future rising prices, reduced economic activity with possibility of recession — actually stagflation — and tanking financial markets. Among the pundit crowd, “uncertainty” replaced “unprecedented” as the word of choice.

Stocks and bonds took a major hit. Trump blinked, advising us to “BE COOL.” With that he announced a 90 day pause to the tariffs while standing by the 145 percent tariff on China. Markets followed with a partial recovery.

But with those steep tariffs on Chinese imports another reality arose; prices of cell phones would skyrocket. Trump blinked again. Instead of “there is no going back,” Trump paused tariffs on those phones and other electronic devices that are a major share of our imports from China.

Then there is the bond market; does that affect Trump’s flip flops?  Democratic strategist James Carville once asserted that if there were reincarnation, he would choose to return as a baseball superstar batting .400. He has since lowered that a notch, saying that if he could return, it would be as the bond market.

Why the bond market? Trump and Wall Street’s powerful can play games with the stock market. The bond market is another matter. When bond prices fall along with stock prices, it’s not just Wall Street but the entire world that takes note. The U.S. as lender of last resort, its bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. has long been fundamental to the world financial system. Money flowing out of stocks normally would flee to U.S. treasuries with their rising prices and falling interest rates. However, when falling stock prices are accompanies by falling bond prices with higher bond interest rates, the entire financial world pays attention, with alarm. It signals uncertainty with the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, their having to pay more for the world to borrow its money. 

In other words, the entire world financial structure could be in turmoil with the U.S. possibly losing its stature as lender of last resort. Just as President Clinton was furious when informed that he could be constrained by the bond market, even Donald Trump must pay attention to it. 

The chaos continues as consumers worry about potentially rising prices, already stocking up on non-perishables from olive oil to electronic devices. Small businesses that depend on imported goods stress over their future. Politicians, including Republicans, take heat over tariffs even as they are scared stiff to oppose Boss Trump, or even to publicly face their own constituents.

Most ludicrous is that Trump and his minions insist that this is all going “exactly as planned.” The public just fails to understand his genius. Trump supporter Steve Bannon calls Secretary Lutnick an “unmitigated disaster.” Elon Musk calls tariff advisor Peter Navarro a “Moron, dumber than a bag of bricks.” Navarro responds with a smile, asserting that there is no conflict with Musk — obviously OK being publicly humiliated, as long as it’s by the world’s richest man.

His is an administration of contrasts, chaos, and even farce. But Trump still achieves his major objective, center of the world’s attention.  

World financial stability and the American economy are another matter.

— John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears monthly in the Monroe Times.