RIDING THE MERRY-GO-ROUND OF ALL THINGS TRUMP

In brighter Trump news

A recent addition to Trump’s Cabinet — our own former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, newly sworn-in agriculture secretary, played a star role in influencing President Donald Trump to change his plans and not withdraw from NAFTA, according to The Washington Post.

Trump himself said Thursday that his talks with advisers and phone calls with the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada were deciding factors in his decision to perhaps tweak and spot renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal struck in the early 1990s, rather than announce a pull-out today — his 101st day in office.

But The Washington Post reports that as news spread that Trump would make good on a campaign pledge to end the agreement he’d called “a total disaster” and “one of the worst deals ever,” those advisers — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Perdue and others — huddled with him, urging him not to sign a document triggering U.S. withdrawal from the deal.

And Perdue — having heard and understood his new boss’s love of charts and graphics — brought along a map.

But it wasn’t just any map. It was one that illustrated the areas that would be hardest hit — particularly in agriculture and manufacturing — if the U.S. pulled out of NAFTA. It also highlighted that many of those who would suffer — especially exporters — live in “Trump country,” the counties that voted most overwhelmingly for Trump in November.

“It shows that I do have a very big farmer base, which is good,” Trump recalled in an interview with The Washington Post last night. “They like Trump, but I like them, and I’m going to help them.”

Score, Perdue.

And score, Trump. The president appears — maybe, we hope — to be growing slowly into his job.

The president acknowledged in a Reuters interview last week that being president is hard.

“I thought it would be easier,” he said. “This is more work than in my previous life.”

And he told Politico later: “Making business decisions and buying buildings don’t involve heart. This involves heart. These are heavy decisions.”

The Washington Post examined all of those contrasts this past weekend, noting Trump’s most recent flip-flops may be evidence of thinking through some of those heavy decisions. Post writers posit that Trump wants to “show some deliverables for the coalition that elected him. … to reward his base for sticking with him even as his approval rating slipped into the low 40s.”

The Post concludes: “Sometimes, in the case of NAFTA, that might require breaking a promise.”

More dollars and sense

There is good news and bad news.

Good: There’s no government shutdown. At least not for a week.

Saving a bit of GOP political embarrassment on the eve President Trump’s 100th day in office, Congress on Friday approved a short “continuing resolution” spending measure that gives lawmakers extra time to finish negotiations on a long-term spending package. Stay tuned.

Bad: The economy has slowed.

The nation’s economic first-quarter performance, based on a Commerce Department snapshot of the GDP (gross domestic product), upset expectations for a Trump bump in his honeymoon period.

That snapshot shows that the economy barely grew, expanding at an annual rate of only 0.7 percent.

Further, the growth was a sharp decline from the 2.1 percent annual rate recorded in the final quarter of last year, and it was the weakest quarterly showing in three years.

Consumption (think individual spending) rose by only 0.3 percent, well below the 3.5 percent rate in the previous quarter.

Experts say the economy’s weakness reflected “new caution among consumers.

The New York Times reported that other sectors like housing and business investment made stronger showings, but not enough to offset weak retail sales.

Come on folks. Get out there and do your part.

The upshot

Well, Trump’s first 100 days are behind us.

Now — Heaven, help us — we face the next 100 and the next 1,260 after that, to run out four years.

That assumes Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander and the rest of the Republican party can last that long.

Perhaps Mike Pence had best keep his favorite oath-ofoffice Bible close by. After all, the pace of mounting scandals, especially involving all things Russian, seems to be gaining speed.