Donald Trump’s Excuses Are Falling Flat

Donald Trump lately hit the media circuit to make his case to, or in all probability, to plead with the American other people, as polls display nearly all of them aren’t on board along with his excessive schedule and chaotic direction for the rustic. For anyone who has known as the media “really corrupt,” and has complained that information shops “literally write 97.6 percent bad about me”—which, in his view, is unquestionably “illegal”—Trump has been busy making the rounds with newshounds, from The Atlantic to Time, ABC to NBC.

There is so much to criticize in relation to Trump and the media, like his authoritarian remedy of the White House press corps, equivalent to barring the Associated Press for proceeding to move with “Gulf of Mexico” over the Pravda-esque “Gulf of America.” Still, Trump does a large number of interviews, which assist divulge how he’s looking to create a story and shift public perceptions—and in addition supply a way of the place on earth his head is.

Well, the consequences in recent times had been mind-blowing. Here’s one reaction from arguably essentially the most tough individual on the planet: “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl—that’s 11 years old—needs to have 30 dolls. They can have three dolls or four dolls,” he informed NBC’s Kristen Welker over the weekend on Meet the Press, when protecting his price lists, including, “They don’t need to have 250 pencils, they can have five.”

Yes, this is identical man who used to be elected to make issues less expensive, who vowed to “end inflation and make America affordable again” on Day 1. But on Wednesday—or Day 101 of the Trump presidency—he used to be busy blaming Joe Biden for the economic system contracting in 2025’s first quarter and suggesting the second one quarter will probably be his predecessor’s fault too. The public doesn’t seem to be purchasing Trump’s excuses, with a CNN ballot discovering 6 in 10 Americans already announcing his “policies have increased the cost of living in their community.”

Trump has disregarded issues about Americans having much less and spending extra. It used to be in a cupboard assembly closing week the place he first began speaking a couple of aid in toys, suggesting “children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls” and “maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.” Welker requested him all through Sunday’s interview when it turns into the “Trump economy,” to which he answered, “It partially is right now. And I really mean this. I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy, because he’s done a terrible job.”

Meanwhile, Trump has launched into a industry battle, and used to be requested by way of Time about his adviser Peter Navarro promising “90 deals in 90 days,” none of which had but been introduced when the interview used to be printed on April 25, and even now. “I’ve made 200 deals,” Trump claimed, although he didn’t supply any examples.

And then there used to be the very horrifying prospect of a recession. Presidents have a tendency to paintings very onerous to forestall one—as even communicate of a recession can rattle the markets. But bafflingly, Trump appeared open to the chance. “Anything can happen,” Trump informed Welker, whilst including that he thinks “we’re going to have the greatest economic boom in history.”

In a dizzying 100 days, Trump signed 142 govt orders, which is 100 extra than Biden in the similar length, and his management is embroiled in prison battles over a lot of them. One of the problematic fights Trump is waging in this day and age is over due procedure, with probably massive ramifications for American democracy. It’s a battle Trump has been shedding within the courts, together with the Supreme Court, which dominated 9-0 that the United States should facilitate the go back of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland guy lawlessly deported to El Salvador.

When requested by way of Time if he had asked that El Salvador president Nayib Bukele flip over Abrego Garcia, Trump mentioned, “I haven’t been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you.” An ordinary solution from anyone who has been again and again requested concerning the Abrego Garcia case. Meanwhile, Trump stated in his interview with ABC’s Terry Moran that he may just get Abrego Garcia again by way of making a choice. When requested concerning the courtroom’s order to facilitate his free up, Trump mentioned, “I’m not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don’t want to do this.” The trade, which integrated Moran correcting Trump after he claimed Abrego Garcia had “MS-13” tattooed on his knuckles, grew more and more traumatic, because the president began complaining that Moran used to be “not being very nice.”

Days later, Welker requested Trump, “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution as president?” Trump answered, “I don’t know.” This solution is in all probability the scariest of the entire solutions Trump has given. Slightly greater than 100 days in the past, Trump swore at the Bible to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” So the query turns into: Does Trump now not consider this to be true? Or did he by no means consider it?

While Trump might act like he doesn’t care, and is without equal decider—“I run the country and the world,” he informed The Atlantic—those interviews counsel Trump does care about shaping perceptions, or a minimum of making an attempt to provide an explanation for himself. So he’s turning to the similar media that he vilifies to spin his unpopular Project 2025 schedule and disastrous tariff rollout. Sure, he’s going to take a look at and spin the mess of his first a number of months in administrative center, however that doesn’t imply the general public will purchase it.