Plan B Forum

Trump reverses course in 24 hours from Nato to China to Fed

US President Donald Trump has reversed course in the space of 24 hours on an array of populist positions he adopted during the election campaign.

He declared Nato was "no longer obsolete" and dropped his pledge to declare China a currency manipulator.

Mr Trump also said he was no longer opposed to a federal exports agency he once dismissed as "unnecessary".

And the president signalled he was open to reappointing Janet Yellen as head of the Federal Reserve.

The about-faces suggest the mercurial Mr Trump may be favouring a more pragmatic, moderate approach to the hardline economic nationalism that helped elect him.

The startling series of flip-flops come amid reports of a titanic White House power struggle between chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

According to the Washington rumour mill, Mr Bannon - the former Breitbart News executive - has been sidelined after falling out with the president's son-in-law, Mr Kushner.

China no longer a currency manipulator

Mr Trump's decision not to label China a "currency manipulator" emerged in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

That U-turn follows his talks last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Mr Trump repeatedly pledged to label Beijing a "currency manipulator" on his first day in office, during an election campaign when he also accused the Asian powerhouse of "raping" the US.

But experts said a formal declaration to that effect by the Treasury Department could have led to US sanctions, which would have prompted retaliation from Beijing.

Trump now 'respects' Fed chairwoman

Mr Trump's last campaign ad depicted Janet Yellen, head of the Federal Reserve, as a member of a shadowy globalist cabal "who control the levers of power in Washington".

On Wednesday, he told the Wall Street Journal he "respects" the US central bank chief.

He also indicated he might consider reappointing her next year, saying she would not be "toast".

Mr Trump was once highly critical of the Fed, saying its low interest rate policy had hurt savers. Now he says he likes "a low-interest rate policy".

Federal hiring freeze dropped

On his first working day in office, Mr Trump signed a presidential memorandum to suspend hiring of non-military federal workers, in a move that delighted small government conservatives.

The order mandated that "no vacant positions… may be filled and no new positions may be created".

But that policy was gone on Wednesday. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said: "It does not mean that the agencies will be free to hire willy-nilly."

He said they were "replacing it with a smarter plan, a more strategic plan, a more surgical plan".
Export-Import Bank no longer 'unnecessary'

In the Wall Street Journal interview, the president praised the Export-Import Bank, which he dismissed in August last year as an "unnecessary" agency with "a lot of excess baggage".

The bank, which provides taxpayer-backed loans for the purchase of US exports, is accused by conservatives of corporate cronyism and welfare.

Now he plans to fill two vacancies on its board.

"It turns out that, first of all," Mr Trump told the Journal, "lots of small companies are really helped."

Now a fan of Nato

Mr Trump repeatedly questioned the military alliance's purpose during the campaign.

But as he hosted Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House on Wednesday, the US president said the threat of terrorism had underlined the alliance's importance.

"I said it [Nato] was obsolete," Mr Trump said. "It's no longer obsolete."

I don't agree with everything in your list

I think they are coming from his handlers who have found a way to (temporarily I'll bet) reign him in

nothing more than his new handlers cleaning up his own idiotic blunders. Trump has spent two years and more declaring his position on any given subject as "X," and now two months into his administration he declares his position to be "the exact opposite of X.

I earnestly await Trump's ouster.

Lord Jim wrote: A large part of this is the incredibly low bar Trump manages to operate with...

"Oh thank God, the POTUS no longer wants to blow up the NATO alliance..."

Not wanting to blow up the NATO alliance would have been considered pretty much a "given" with any other President...

a President who doesn't want to blow up the NATO alliance

Sue U wrote:

Lord Jim wrote: A large part of this is the incredibly low bar Trump manages to operate with...

"Oh thank God, the POTUS no longer wants to blow up the NATO alliance..."

Not wanting to blow up the NATO alliance would have been considered pretty much a "given" with any other President...

I am sick to death of the press declaring that Trump has done something "decisive" or has "become presidential" when in reality all that has happened is for one moment he stopped acting like a petulant 4-year-old prone to temper tantrums and didn't royally fuck up the one task put in front of him. I don't think he deserves "praise" for managing to exhibit the barest minimum in executive competence (e.g., acknowledging that NATO is an important and valuable alliance).

In fact, "praise" for his use of military force will only encourage him to use it more frequently and with greater abandon as he seeks ever more approval to feed his boundless narcissism. Without continued and stringent "management" of President Toddler, it's not going to end well.

There's a big difference between evolution and confusion.

Much has been made in recent days of President Trump's radical changes on key points from his campaign. Russia good to Russia bad. China bad to China good. Syria stay out to Syria go in. Healthcare first, to tax reform first, to healthcare first, again, maybe. Supposedly fighting for main street to now cozying up to Wall Street.

One could make the case that on some of these positions there is progress due to a more nuanced view of the world. Yes, the situation in North Korea is complicated, although it shouldn't have taken a short conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping to come to that conclusion. A President admitting that he is getting his foreign policy advice from China does not inspire much confidence. “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” Trump was quoted in the Wall Street Journal. “I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power [over] North Korea. ... But it’s not what you would think.” Actually that is what a lot of people have thought - for decades. Just like health care isn't easy. Who knew?

The problem is that there is no sense that these changes, happening just weeks into Mr. Trump's term, are the result of anything but knee-jerk reaction. There has long been a belief that this President acts on the advice of the last person he talked to. Is that happening here? Can anyone say with any certainty that these new directions won't be spun around again in a week or month?
Being erratic is among the worst qualities a president can have. The world's stability depends on having some sense of the direction of the United States. Everyone else sort of tacks to the winds that blow from Washington. And right now those winds seem about as predictable as a tornado.

The problem is that there is no sense that these changes, happening just weeks into Mr. Trump's term, are the result of anything but knee-jerk reaction. There has long been a belief that this President acts on the advice of the last person he talked to. Is that happening here? Can anyone say with any certainty that these new directions won't be spun around again in a week or month?

The only way to prove you are not a Trump Fan is to repudiate the Republican party