King of the Deal

Here’s something from Newsweek:

President Donald Trump has said his plan to impose a temporary cap on credit card interest rates would curb “abuse” by U.S. lenders, but this has faced pushback from the banking industry, and experts question whether his demands, even if enforceable, would provide any relief for the country’s borrowers.

Capping credit card rates? By the US president? Where did he get the authority? Where did he get the audacity? Where did he get the idea?

But that is just one of the bold and provocative moves Trump has made lately.

He’s also telling the firepower industry what it must do with its money. Business Insider:

Trump signs executive order banning defense firms from stock buybacks and dividends until they ‘produce a superior product’

Can he do that? Does this mean the feds have been spending trillions on inferior products?

And he wants to manipulate mortgage rates for homeowners and lenders. The Hill:

Trump says he’s ordered $200 billion mortgage bond purchase

Whoa…what manner of wild beast is this? Fish or fowl? Warm blooded…or like a lizard…a fish…or a monster?

Cynics claim that Trump is especially active because he wants to divert attention from the Epstein files. But that is just a question of timing. We have no reason to think these actions do not reflect Trump’s real self and his authentic intentions.

But it is beyond us to say what the Great Man really is. All we can do is to look what Mr. Trump is not…hoping it helps us see what is not coming.

In that regard, we have made progress.

Trump is no Pol Pot, for example. Don’t expect him to march us all out to Indiana so we can hoe the cornfields. He has no vision of an agrarian society.

He’s no Thomas Jefferson or Javier Milei either. He has no goal of limiting or shrinking the power of the US government. Instead, he wants to increase it more than ever. No other president ever proposed such power grabs as we’ve seen in just the last few days.

And don’t expect a Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan redux either. Both of them were ‘nice guys.’ That does not describe Trump. Niceness is pooh-poohed by serious commentators. But it helps guide and restrain a president.

Louis 14^th — the Sun King — may be a better model. He was an absolute monarch with huge appetites — for food, love, war, and architecture. One of his lavish dinners might include deer, boar, swan, pheasant, chicken, goose — and dozens of vegetables. Louis grew such a large stomach, it had to be supported by a special leather girdle.

His wars were excessive too. He led dozens of campaigns…“a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique.” They were so expensive they practically bankrupted the country, but they established France with its borders more or less as they are today.

But let’s stick with what Trump is not. He is not an Eisenhower — with his essential conservatism. Nor is he an FDR or a Kennedy, with a strong desire to give Americans a ‘new deal’ or open up a ‘new frontier.’

How about a Hitler? Nah. Not even with a fake mustache. As far as we know, he has no desire to exterminate any particular group. And he has no apparent plan for America. His only goal seems to be his own glory, power, and wealth.

He laid it out for us in his first book, The Art of the Deal. He didn’t write the book, but the ideas in it were mostly his. They are stories about how Trump tricked and outsmarted his business partners in order to get what he wanted. It’s not about following the rules. It’s not about learning more or working harder…or harnessing new technology…or becoming more productive, or better serving the customer, or operating more efficiently.

He’s describing a form of capitalism, but as we will see tomorrow, it is a primitive sort. Red in tooth and claw…

Where it leads, we don’t know…but we know where it doesn’t lead.