Donald Trump insisted his trade war with much of the world was “doing really well” despite mounting fears of recession and as Beijing hit back and again hiked tariffs on US exports to China.
As the US president said his aggressive tariffs strategy was “moving along quickly”, a closely watched economic survey revealed that US consumer expectations for price growth had soared to a four-decade high.
The White House maintains that the US economy is on the verge of a “golden age”, however, and that dozens of countries – now facing a US tariff of 10% after Trump shelved plans to impose higher rates until July – are scrambling to make deals.
I have to take him at his word. If he thinks it is going well, that means the chaos is what he wants.
He is either gaming the stock market for profit, or trying to harm the world economy.
The very slim possibility is that he is being told by others with an agenda that things are working as planned.