Don’t underestimate Donald Trump — he and his – Latest News
Among different issues final week, President Trump performed host to Germany’s chancellor within the Oval Office, issued a journey ban in opposition to 12 international locations whose residents routinely violate their visas, had a “very positive” dialog about tariffs with Chinese chief Xi Jinping and twisted arms to push his “one big beautiful bill” throughout the congressional end line.
Meanwhile, a stream of good financial information despatched stock markets greater, with a jobs report beating expectations whereas inflation fell and wages rose.
Oh, and Trump additionally had a brutal falling out with Elon Musk.
Elon Musk attends information convention with President Donald Trump within the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. AP
No need to guess which of the above dominated the information.
Bad information travels fast and predictions of calamity win eyeballs, however I’ve discovered a few issues understanding and protecting Trump for a decade. Rule No. 1 is all the time to recollect to take a deep breath when it feels as if the top of his days is close to.
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Whatever the sensational occasion of the second, the good play has been to understand that this too shall go — and to really feel sorry for cats as a result of they solely have 9 lives.
Rule No. 2 is to be ready for the following massive finish of days occasion, which is coming quickly, and to count on one other one after that.
The forty seventh president is a human machine full of pleasure and plans, however solely rookies nonetheless attempt to outline him by a single occasion. If a stream of nasty Democrat prosecutions and threats of jail didn’t derail him, the finish of a partnership with the world’s richest man gained’t both.
While Trump usually seems to be courting catastrophe, reviews of his imminent political demise nonetheless stay untimely.
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That’s to not say he is impervious, solely that he is the closest factor to it on the American scene as we speak.
The canines bark, however the caravan strikes on.
So long, Elon, it was good understanding ya.
Need for pace
Another factor to recollect about Trump is that he’s in a hurry to get massive issues achieved and is set to not get sidetracked by something. He’s nicely conscious of how Dems used the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax to win the House within the center of the primary time period and confirmed no compunction about impeaching him over a nothing-burger cellphone call.
He’s not going to squander his second likelihood with a GOP-controlled Congress to have interaction in wild goose chases or pout over setbacks, even once they contain an important ally corresponding to Musk.
The clock in his head is all the time ticking.
The Musk-Trump feud sparked the day after the DOGE head left the White House. NY Post
Despite his occasional speak of a attainable third time period, he is aware of that’s not going to occur. Besides the constitutional prohibition, the fact is that he turns 79 subsequent Saturday, and the very last thing Trump desires to do is keep too long on the social gathering and repeat Joe Biden’s decrepit decline in workplace.
Thus, Trump’s need for pace is what makes the Musk divorce important. It ends, or at the very least interrupts, an iconic alliance that was good for each males and was paying massive dividends to America.
Whether Musk is correct that his help and his intensive financial contributions made the distinction in final 12 months’s marketing campaign is inconceivable to know. But there may be no doubt that the addition of Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to the Trump prepare broadened his appeal nicely past conventional GOP circles and MAGA diehards.
Consider, for instance, that Kamala Harris foolishly tried to counter Trump’s strikes by including former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney to her crew and claiming they have been proof she had bipartisan appeal.
The benefit to Trump wasn’t a close call.
As for Musk, most important was his dedication to DOGE and to the concept spending cuts will not be solely attainable however important to the nation’s future. He used his soapbox to set a new normal for Washington, even when the outcomes fell short of the promise.
Whatever began his break with Trump, it was full when he attacked the tax cut and spending laws the president helped to craft, saying at one level, “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”
No injury to agenda
The oddity is that the break got here after Musk formally left his momentary DOGE post, full with a comfortable sendoff within the Oval Office the place Trump praised him and gave him a ceremonial key to the White House.
Given the nasty nature of the rupture, makes an attempt by others to forge a reconciliation will not be prone to succeed. Yet even when the break is ultimate, I don’t consider it would do severe injury to the president’s agenda, regardless of the hopes of media doomsayers.
As even The New York Times ruefully conceded in a Saturday headline, “Elon Musk May Be Out. But DOGE Is Just Getting Started.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a information convention with Elon Musk within the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. AP
Another mistake many Trump observers are making is seeing him via the eyes of his chaotic first time period.
As I’ve famous earlier than, Trump 2.0 is a very completely different particular person.
Being on the sideline for 4 years served him nicely in that he higher understood Washington, and was smarter about what he needed to realize and who may help him try this.
In uncooked political phrases, Biden’s spending-palooza that drove inflation to 40-year highs and the inexplicable determination to open the southern border have been items that helped pave the best way to a Trump return.
And then got here the comb with death from a would-be murderer’s bullet in Pennsylvania.
‘God spared me’
I had beforehand organized to interview Trump the following day on his flight to the GOP conference in Milwaukee, and to my eternal shock, he saved his schedule.
It was during that interview that he first raised the concept of divine intervention, saying, “I’m not supposed to be here . . . I’m supposed to be dead.”
His wry sense of humor remained intact, as he famous that people have been already calling the picture of him standing up, pumping his fist and shouting “fight, fight, fight,” with his face streaked with his own blood, an “iconic” scene.
“They’re right and I didn’t die,” Trump stated. “Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
Although he was by no means an particularly spiritual man, Trump started to embrace the concept “God spared me for a purpose, and that purpose is to restore America to greatness.”
It’s a fats goal for haters, however the important factor is that Trump himself believes it to be true.
One result’s that he is a a lot calmer and more gracious president.
Even his demeanor final week mirrored a “what, me worry?” strategy, as he demonstrated in a sequence of fast cellphone interviews with media retailers, together with The Post, the place he insisted he was not rattled by the blowup.
His clarification was easy: Musk suffers from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Woof, woof, and the caravan strikes on.
