Trump’s First 100 Days

President Trump has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in shaking up the old world order during the first 100 days of his second term. Much of his game plan has stirred global consternation as he attempts to compel other nations to bend to his will. What drives his singular obsession with tariffs? How is all of Trump’s disruption — both the positive and the negative — unfolding in the Middle East? Should Israel be pleased, peeved, or a bit of both?

Jolting World Markets

Applying economic pressure on foreign nations to secure more favorable trade terms is a sound policy. Scaring the daylights out of the financial markets is unwise and could ultimately cost the federal government more revenue than it gains from tariffs.

The financial markets have voted thumbs-down on Trump’s tariff policies, with the major stock market indices posting double-digit losses. Markets were already overvalued, had reached record highs shortly after Trump took office, and were long overdue for a correction.

Having said that, what’s most disturbing about the recent losses is that Trump shared a video on his Truth Social media site titled “Trump is purposefully CRASHING the market” — seemingly endorsing a conspiracy theory suggesting he wanted the markets to tumble.

A few days later, without referring to the video, Trump appeared to walk this back. Forbes reported that Trump told reporters on Air Force One: “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”