Analysis | A free wheel president

Donald Trump seemed to be a good momentum. But faced with the facts – and in front of adversaries who refuse to bend the spine -, he reacted excessively, analyzes the New York Times.

(Washington) Despite a slowdown during the first half, the American economy is doing quite well. However, when the July employment report revealed a slowdown in hiring on Friday, Donald Trump has been.

The president said that the figures were faked before dismissing Erika Mcentarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the government agency behind the observation.

Dmitri Medvedev was once president of Russia, but today he is hardly more than the Kremlin’s favorite online troll.

However, when he irritated Mr. Trump with provocative nuclear messages, the latter, already increasingly upset by President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to collaborate with him to put an end to the war in Ukraine, reacted as if a real conflict between superpowers could burst, ordering submarines to put themselves in position to protect themselves against any threat.

A few days earlier, Trump had returned to the United States after a golf trip, where he had happily displayed his political and diplomatic power.

A docile congress had adopted its flagship bill in terms of domestic policy, despite the concerns aroused by the cuts in the social security net. The European Union had given in to Trump and his threat of customs duties by announcing a trade agreement during his trip to Scotland. Encouraged, the president had pursued his policy of generalized customs rights likely to reshape the global economy.

But Friday, confronted with adversaries and facts that he could not easily control, the strong man of the White House showed another facet of himself: he reacted with disproportionate intensity and manifest impatience.

Disturbing reactions

His actions are part of a tendency to show increasing intolerance towards those who do not comply with his will.

Jerome Powell, the president of the federal reserve who deferred Trump’s requests for lower interest rates, has been the subject of scathing and incessant criticisms and insults from the president. The Republican also attacked his own supporters who refused to give up their requests for disclosing files on the Jeffrey Epstein case.

But his actions on Friday were particularly striking, because they gave rise to virulent reactions on two of the biggest issues he has to face.

Russia by Vladimir Putin, formerly considered by Mr. Trump as a partner to solve major problems, left him frustrated and confronted with mocking reminders of his promise to end the war in Ukraine from the first day in power.

Mr. Putin now responds to the peace efforts of the White House by launching new attacks and sweeping the threats of new American sanctions. Trump therefore turned against him and used his commander -in -chief powers on Friday to respond to the provocative messages of one of the faithful defenders of the Russian president.

Shortly after revealing his social social platform that he had ordered that nuclear submarines “are positioned in the appropriate regions, in case these stupid and incendiary statements are more than that”, Trump shaped the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, saying that employment figures were manipulated to discredit it.

“I think he deliberately surrounded himself with people who always say to him,” said John Bolton, a former national security advisor to Mr. Trump.

“This is not how a president must react to one or the other of these situations,” he adds.

A “dangerous previous”

In dismissing Erika Mcentarfer, who was unanimously confirmed by the two parties in 2024, Mr. Trump accused him of having systematically manipulated the employment figures to harm him before and after the presidential election of 2024, an assertion rejected by economists of all political edges.

“I think the figures were false, just as they were before the elections,” said Trump when they left the White House on Friday. “So you know what I did?” I dismissed her. And you know what I did? The right thing. »»

This decision has strengthened the fears that Mr. Trump, who has already dismissed general inspectors and appointed faithful to the Department of Justice, ends up eliminating civil servants who communicate politically embarrassing data or by intimidating them so that they do not publicly disclose bad news.

William W. Beach, former director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics appointed by Mr. Trump during his first mandate, described this dismissal as “unfounded” and warned that he was creating a “dangerous previous”.

“This intensifies the unprecedented attacks of the president against the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system,” deplored Mr. Beach in a joint declaration with other statisticians. The president seeks to make someone carry the hat for bad economic news. »»

Comments heavy with consequences

Earlier in the day, the president had been just as little prudent by responding to Dmitri Medvedev, who had declared in a message published on social networks that Trump should imagine the Apocalyptic television series The Walking Dead and had mentioned the Soviet system for launching a nuclear shot.

“The words are very important,” said Trump. And they can often have unforeseen consequences. I hope this will not be the case here. »»

Mr. Bolton believes that it is the president who must show more restraint.

Surrounded by collaborators who are not willing to question his impulses, Mr. Trump has no constraints which prevents him from expressing himself impulsively, believes Mr. Bolton.

“Trump is not dissuaded by reality,” said the former national security advisor. He just says what he means. »»

By attacking Jerome Powell, the president of the Fed, Trump sought to accuse him of having poorly managed the expensive renovation of the central bank. But when Mr. Trump recently went to the building to defend his point of view, Mr. Powell, by a discreet, but remarkable gesture of distrust, publicly challenged the figures put forward by the president.

On Friday, when the new employment figures suggested a slowdown in the economy under the presidency of Mr. Trump, he once again called Mr. Powell to resign.

This article was published in the New York Times.

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