i still remember in the 2016 GOP primary debates Trump was on stage talking about a market bubble, and how it needed to be dealt with to avoid a depression. at that time it was already arguably a "good" time for the cyclical recession which staves off depression. then when he got elected it was NASDAQ and DOW headlines on the whitehouse twitter and he loved for it got inflated. not entirely his fault, vague promises of deregulation and tax incentives made the market sky rocket in year one of trump 1.0, he couldnt have deflated it if he tried. fast forward and her personally threatens the Fed if a rumor of rate increases comes out. dude is 100% addicted to market indicators as if they're approval ratings.
Occam's razor still suggests that Trump is simply a narcissist who wants to be the center of attention, feasts on adulation and constantly chases after the next "win" like a junkie.
When he started out on the campaign trail and began railing against the broken status quo and saying the things aloud which many of his base had been thinking for a long time, it earned him the undying loyalty of the MAGA crowd. Once he had to actually govern and his initial initiatives went nowhere during the spring/summer of 2017, he quickly went back to governing as a relatively normal Republican. By that point, his interest had clearly and understandably shifted toward wanting a thriving economy and staving off any kind of cyclical recession until after his own term. When covid hit, his type of leadership failed because he couldn't bring himself to accept that fate had dealt him a bad hand, or to assume the role of a leader in crisis who rallies his people with some "blood sweat and tears"-rationale.
When his second term started, he tried to make his base happy by following through on the main promises which he hadn't been able to deliver during his first term: protectionist tariffs, axing wasteful or deep-state-affiliated government agencies, and mass deportations. Then, he turned to foreign policy and increasingly liked himself in the role of the peace broker who solves all sorts of global conflict by his sheer gravitas. The success in Venezuela and getting away with his preposterous claims to Greenland then imho caused him to get high on his own farts and become arrogant and reckless.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on May 5 2026 07:09pm