As costs of Trump’s chaos become clear, expect him to shift the blame
Perhaps this is a good moment for an audit of US President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (Maga) acolytes’ efforts to reshape the world as we have known it for over seven decades. That means reviewing the 130-or-so days since his inauguration, during which he has seeded the storm, and looking towards the 500-or-so days up to next year’s US midterm elections, during which he is set to reap the whirlwind.
One clear certainty is that we face a period of unrelenting uncertainty, some deliberately provoked, but most of it the unintended product of mouth before brain. How much harm this will do, and whether Trump’s team will succeed in “blame-shifting” its way out of electoral responsibility, has yet to be revealed. But the auguries don’t look good.
Using more than 150 executive orders over the four months since his inauguration, Trump has successfully marginalised Congress, made “ad hoc-ism” an art form and stirred a hornet’s nest of conflicts with friends and foes alike.
Trump’s Maga loyalists remain convinced that the damage caused will be short-lived. The technocratic consensus does not share that conviction, but as Trump’s procrastination, reversals and pauses generate considerable distance between cause and effect, he will no doubt try to shift the blame for inevitable harm elsewhere.
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