\n As Donald Trump flexes his power across the U.S. government, the only constraint may come from the market economy, says analyst Steve Okun. <\/p>\n
As Donald Trump continues to flex his power across the U.S. government and beyond, the president may only be constrained by the fluctuating market economy while he attempts to implement sweeping tariffs against America\u2019s top trading partners.<\/p>\n
Steve Okun<\/a>, political analyst and founder of APAC Advisors, said Trump is increasingly going it alone, bolstered by the unstinting loyalty of top aides, while pressing an agenda that appears limited only by the volatility of the markets.<\/p>\n Virtually all of the inherent barriers that set limits on Trump\u2019s agenda during the first term \u2013 congressional oversight, skeptical Cabinet members and a once-robust legal community \u2013 have either fallen or now wield considerably less influence, transforming a campaign pledge of \u201cAmerica First\u201d to \u201cTrump First<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cAll those guardrails have gone away,\u201d Okun told National Press Foundation International Trade journalism fellows<\/a> in Singapore. \u201cAll that we have left is the market and the market works sometimes and sometimes it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump Tariffs: What Happens July 9?<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s tariff policy faces an key deadline July 9, which ends a 90-day pause on sanctions that threaten to reignite a global trade war and inject new uncertainty into the financial markets.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we have the nightmare scenario of Trump\u2019s tariffs heading towards Asia,\u201d Okun said. \u201cHe said he was going to do this during the campaign. And so that\u2019s my main lesson: If you really want to understand Donald Trump and what he might be doing, just listen to him and believe him<\/a>. And when he has control over something, he will act on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has stepped back from the precipice before, relaxing some of his most strident trade sanctions and directing the 90-day tariff schedule pause, actions that highlight the market\u2019s increasing influence in Trump 2.0, Okun said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe market is the guardrail, right? But the market works as a guardrail when you\u2019re really going to damage the market,\u201d Okun said.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s approach to the market economy is unlike any other occupant of the White House, referring to the United States as the \u201cgiant beautiful store\u201d where everyone wants to shop. It is also the place, Okun said, where Trump has exercised full control of the \u201cstore,\u201d<\/a> setting the prices and setting the terms of trade agreements.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is his philosophy when it comes to trade; this is his philosophy when it comes to negotiating trade agreements: Vietnam, you want to export to the United States? You will do what I say because this is my store. It\u2019s not Congress\u2019s store, it\u2019s not anybody else\u2019s store, it\u2019s his store. So he does mean this and we can see this playing out.\u201d<\/p>\n This fellowship is part of an ongoing program of journalism training and awards for trade coverage sponsored by the\u00a0Hinrich Foundation<\/a>. The National Press Foundation is solely responsible for the content. All programs are on the record.\u00a0Resources and transcripts<\/a>\u00a0are available to journalists worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Donald Trump flexes his power across the U.S. government, the only constraint may come from the market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-236765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114793658897268319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}