Trump's easy campaign promises run into the difficulties of reality
By Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey and Philip Rucker April 4 at 7:02 PM
An emboldened President Trump is discovering that the policies he once described as easy fixes for the nation are a lot more complicated in reality — creating backlash among allies, frustrating supporters and threatening the pocketbooks of many farming communities that helped get him elected.
Freed from the caution of former advisers, Trump has spent recent weeks returning to the gut-level basics that got him elected: tough talk on China, a promise of an immigration crackdown and an isolationist approach to national security.
Several people who have spoken to the president say he is telling advisers that he is finally expediting the policies that got him elected and is more comfortable without a number of aides around him who were tempering his instincts. And he often cites rising poll numbers in recent weeks as a reason he should do it his own way, these people said. But at every front he has faced resistance from within his own coalition. Immigration hawks have been infuriated by his inability to build the border wall with funding from either Mexico or U.S. taxpayers. Many military leaders and foreign policy strategists have been alarmed by his promise to remove troops from Syria. And Republicans on Capitol Hill have protested the rising signs of a trade war with China.
The Dow Jones industrial average — once used by Trump as a symbol of his success in office — has fallen nearly 5 percent since he announced new tariffs on March 1. Commodities markets, which are more closely watched in rural communities, have also been under pressure as China has threatened to impose retaliatory taxes on U.S. products from pork to soybeans.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-easy-campaign-promises-run-into-the-difficulties-of-reality/2018/04/04/410dcb3a-3820-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html
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