Trump’s constant flip-flops remind me of a great old song. He’s a‘choo-choo that can’t find the station.’ He’s ‘Mr. In-between.'
A couple of generations back, a great crooner named Burl Ives recorded a song titled “Mr. In-Between.” It’s about a guy who’s in perpetual limbo, having trouble finding a direction. If you check out the lyrics you’ll see what I mean and why I think it fits the quirky policy and mood changes of President Trump.
It’s hard to get a feel for where Trump is taking us when he seems to be vacillating and changing his mind about some very important issues on a near-daily basis. Like the confused soul in Ives’ song, he’s in perpetual policy limbo, having trouble finding a clear direction.
Take the tariff situation. I have lost track of how many changes Trump has made to his tariff policy since coming into office. Forbes has counted 22, noting “the president and his administration have frequently flip-flopped its sweeping trade policy in the weeks since “Liberation Day.”. That was the day (last April 2) he announced a sweeping set of tariffs and boasted that it was “the day that American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.”
Now, more than two months and 22 changes later, the “90 trade deals in 90 days” that the Trump administration promised that day are the stuff of fantasy. We still have three weeks to go before those 90 days are up, but considering that so far the U.S. has just a “framework” on deals with China and the United Kingdom, you can figure that the 90-day promise was an empty one.
Fact is, during the course of those 22+ flip-flops on tariffs that have taken place since “liberation day,” there has yet to be a sense of progress, much less conclusion, in Trump’s endeavor to use tariff threats as a means of gaining concessions from our global trading partners.
The financial markets, which have undergone some intense volatility since “liberation day” have a grip on the character of Trump’s presidency. His Trump Always Chickens Out style has earned him the acronym TACO … and it doesn’t just apply to his quirky changes in tariff policy.
Just this past week, Trump told Immigration officials (ICE) to hold off on raiding hotels and farms because aggressive raids were hurting those industries. That was a flip from previous policy that exempted no one. Then came the flop a couple of days ago, reinstating immigration raids in those industries. You can only imagine the consternation of leaders, managers and workers impacted in those two industries as they try to find a way to manage through the policy-defining dysfunctions that Trump has just laid on them.
Meantime, the budget-cutting Trump administration, compared to the same time period last year, has actually spent $200 billion more than was spent during the same time period last year.
More disconcerting is that his proposed policies would add to the country’s mountain of debt.
Those numbers plus the utter confusion that the ever-vacillating Trump administration has caused in financial markets and immigration labor-intense industries are not the stuff of successful leadership. They suggest that Trump doesn’t actually know what he’s doing.
If he did, we wouldn’t see these on-again, off-again shifts in policy that are creating confusion and uncertainty.
Burl Ives had it right way back then … and so maybe did the Lovin’ Spoonful, whose famous query could be directed at the Trump administration: “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?”
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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