Confusion, conflict reign in Trump’s White House
President’s knack for changing mind leaves policy gaps
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s daily public schedule had been emailed later than usual the night before, near 11, yet by Thursday morning it had already been upended. The update arrived before breakfast, straight from the president’s Twitter account to his millions of followers.
“Looking forward to 3:30 P.M. meeting today at the White House,” Trump wrote — to impose the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports that most Republicans, his top advisers, many foreign allies and numerous American companies had implored him to reconsider. Aides scrambled to add the event — forced not for the first time, or even the first time this month, to react to the policy chaos the president increasingly seems to revel in.
Later, in rambling remarks to reporters before a morning Cabinet meeting, the president touched on no less than 15 different issues that he said he is working on. “A lot of great things are being done,” Trump said. “A lot of things are happening right now, as we speak.”
Many things are not getting done, however, and largely because of the president’s penchant for changing his mind, thinking aloud and then moving on to something else. Every White House juggles a multitude of issues and problems. What sets Trump’s White House apart is how much seems to happen on the fly, driven by a president who calls the shots with proud disregard for policy ramifications and process. The result is confusion. “Each day is a new episode in the reality TV show,” said historian Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University. “It’s frightening how quickly he turns to the next thing.”
Trump’s tumultuous first year as president was salvaged when the Republican-controlled Congress sent him a massive tax cuts bill to sign in December. That had Republican allies hoping for a more disciplined, productive alliance for the year ahead. It hasn’t been so. The tariffs debate of March began with the president’s unexpected announcement last week of imminent levies on steel and aluminum — a statement that took most of his advisers by surprise, and provoked Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, to resign this week.
Set aside was the previous debate over the president’s vacillations on policies addressing gun violence and school safety, the topic that consumed much of February after the massacre of 14 students and three educators at a high school in Parkland, Fla. And that debate followed the still-unresolved fight that began the year — over Trump’s push to replace the Obama-era program protecting from deportation up to 1.8 million young immigrants, the socalled Dreamers, who came to the country illegally.
All but forgotten has been a fourth issue that Trump had called a top priority for 2018: an infrastructure plan to spur the economy by fixing the nation’s crumbling roads, bridges, waterways and airports, sewers, levees and more.
Aside from tariffs, which Trump had authority to impose without Congress, each of his so-called priorities now languishes.
His friends point to the legal troubles that vex him.
Eric Bolling, a friend who talks to Trump regularly, said it is hard to move forward when dealing with the “constant overhang” of a special counsel’s investigation, which is probing the Trump campaign’s possible coordination with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
“Lawyers chew up so much of your valuable time, especially when they’re talking to every person,” Bolling said. “I’m surprised he has gotten this much accomplished.”
Also exacerbating Trump’s ability to make and push policies that advance his agenda, or respond to unexpected crises, is the unprecedented high turnover in his White House and the administration more broadly.
Trump often has refused to appoint people who spoke out against him during the campaign, leaving a pool of experienced Republicans and policy experts on the sidelines. Now, the perceived dysfunction and Trump’s record of humiliating advisers has made some potential recruits unwilling to enter his administration.
Trump nonetheless lauded his practice of pitting advisers against each other at an appearance this week alongside Sweden’s prime minister.
“I like conflict. I like having two people with different points of view, and I certainly have that,” he said. “And then I make a decision. But I like watching it, I like seeing it, and I think it’s the best way to go.”