The problems with Donald Trump’s morals is that he doesn’t have any. No morals, no precepts, no guidance at all except a belief that he’s always right, always the smartest, always tough. It’s a belief that makes him the biggest, softest mark in any room.
This philosophical blank slate means that whoever comes in last and loudest, and especially whoever does the best job of polishing Trump’s … apples, sets the agenda for the day. Russia good … Russia bad. China bad … China good. Assad can stay … Assad must go. Taxes first. Health care first. Chocolate! Peanut butter!
Trump isn’t just doing more flip-flops than a hooked tuna—he’s such a serial flip-flopper, he doesn’t realize he’s spinning.
For folks keeping score on Trump's policy flip-flops, it's been a busy week. First, there was the Trump administration's mixed messages on Syria and its rapid shifts on Russia. And yesterday? About-faces on China and the Ex-Im Bank and NATO and Janet Yellen, all in one day:
That “China is a currency manipulator” bit is something that Trump said all through the campaign. It was something he said in interviews for a decade before the campaign. It was one of those things he promised to take care of on “day one.” But that was before China violated its own laws to helpfully clear some trademark issues that were very valuable to Trump. After that, Trump could stop repeating China’s name on his sleepy-time hit list.
Trump’s flip flops may seem random, and for anyone trying to follow his positions they’re certainly confusing. But there is a trend—away from Steve Bannon.
The downfall of President Bannon has been ongoing now for … exactly as long as Trump’s abrupt changes in direction. The positions Trump held until last week: Russia as a natural ally, China as an unnatural distortion in world markets, NATO as a relic of World War II, the One-China policy as dishonorable … are all policies that get considerable play in the alt-right.
They are not just positions that play on Breitbart and InfoWars, but also in interviews with Steve Bannon.
In other words, it's a shift from the bomb-throwing nationalist Bannon faction towards the moderate wing represented by Jared Kushner and Trump's Wall Street allies. This is why palace intrigue stories matter right now. When the president is so self-admittedly "flexible," there are real and dramatic consequences to who's up and who's down in the West Wing, and we've seen them in stark relief this week.
It’s not that Trump is becoming more moderate. Just more corporate. The positions he’s taken in the last week are solidly right, just less alt. It’s clear that Kushner has not just out-Ivanka’d Bannon in meetings, but taken a few bookmarks off Trump’s browser. At least for this week, Trump doesn’t seem to be getting his views on the world in between stories of lizard men from Alex Jones.
While it may seem a relief to see Trump dropping some of the white nationalist positions beloved by the Bannon, the sudden tack into the center of Republicanism offers another frightening possibility—Trump and Congress just might start getting along.
And while many are wondering at Trump moving toward a more “traditional” Republican position, people seem to not be devoting much time to what that position brought us last time: An economy in free fall and a foreign policy of endless war.