A Gyrating Economy, and Trump's Volatile Approach to It, Raise Alarms
BIARRITZ, France — President Trump has again tossed out the economic and political playbook that guided other occupants of the Oval Office for generations as the United States dominated the flow of goods and services across the world.
In the space of a few hours, he declared that his own central bank chief was an “enemy,” claimed sweeping powers not explicitly envisioned by the Constitution to “order” American businesses to leave China and, when stock markets predictably tumbled, made a joke of it.
Mr. Trump’s wild and unscripted pronouncements on Friday renewed questions about his stewardship of the world’s largest economy even as he escalated a trade war with China before heading to France for a high-profile summit with the leaders of many of the world’s other major industrial powers.
Even some of his own aides and allies were alarmed by his behavior, seeing it as the flailing of a president increasingly anxious over the dark clouds some have detected hovering over an economy that until now has been the strongest selling point for his administration. They privately expressed concern that he was hurting the economy and was doing lasting damage to his own prospects for re-election.
Mr. Trump has become one of the biggest sources of global economic instability after presiding over a period of growth and job creation. While investor and consumer confidence at first rose impressively after Mr. Trump’s election and inauguration, lately so have indicators of economic uncertainty, which could dampen the continued growth the president seeks heading into his campaign for a second term.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/us/politics/trump-economy-trade.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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