It was like a commercial featuring an auto dealer proudly displaying his shiny new vehicles to an eyes-wide customer who can’t wait to write a check.
Only this was the president of the United States, and the car salesman was Elon Musk.
And neither of them seemed to know the wheels were already falling off.
While the world’s richest man was pledging another $100 million to Donald Trump’s political coffers in return for the costliest Tesla ad imaginable, the president’s own advisers were reportedly begging him to calm the plunging money markets.
Trump can’t drive his new red Model S electric car. Or the Cybertruck he was shilling. He is smart enough to know he’s better off in the back seat.
But fifty days into his second term, his much-touted agenda was hurtling over a cliff. And he won’t let go of the wheel.
Republican lobbyists and CEOs–some from tech companies that swallowed their liberal values to back the president and protect their bottom line–are worried Trump’s tariffs are hurting their businesses, reports the Wall Street Journal.
There are other worrying signs that the rip–roaring Trump administration may be on the skids.
- Europe’s hitting back hard at Trump’s punitive tariffs, targeting whiskey and Harley Davidson motorcycles. It doesn’t get much more anti-American than that.
- Canada gouging Americans on electricity.
- Last-minute changes and reversals continue to keep the jittery markets on edge. In the last couple of weeks, Trump’s had more changes of heart than J-Lo. Better–than–expected inflation figures didn’t satisfy investors for long.
- The carefully constructed conservative Supreme Court is challenging DOGE’s cost-cutting strategies at a fundamental level that could roll back many milestone moves that Musk, the slasher–in–chief is so proud of.
- Last week’s job figures came too soon to show the thousands lost as a result of the DOGE culls across the federal government, from CIA agents to veterans to park rangers. The next employment report is not going to be pretty.
- Trump’s smash-and-grab foreign policy seemed to be working as he sought peace in Ukraine, but now it looks like he picked the wrong horse. He humiliated Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office and now Vladimir Putin is left holding all the cards.
- He pushed China, Canada, Mexico, and Europe over tariffs and now they’re all pushing back.
- House Republicans who sold their souls to back the president’s unorthodox Cabinet picks are now too scared of the wrath of their own constituents to hold Town Halls. Even some MAGA supporters–especially those who now find themselves unemployed–are asking what happened to the plan.
So much happened at the White House so fast that the country couldn’t help but be astounded. Whether or not you agreed with Trump’s agenda, it seemed he had been plotting and planning for four years for this moment.
He hit the ground running, ticking off action points from the Project 2025 right-wing blueprint he denied ever reading during the election campaign.
He signed executive orders until his wrist ached.
It was an unprecedented level of controlled chaos that appeared to be working from a playbook for change. It sucked if you were from the half of the nation opposed to most of the things Trump stands for. In a few, short weeks, Trump set back issues like diversity, equity and inclusion by decades. But at least he was keeping his word. He was upending Washington.
Shock reverberated out of Washington and around the world and awed the president’s MAGA base.
But what’s left when the smoke clears and the mirrors are wiped?
How are the optics when a president is selling Teslas in the White House parking lot while the nation’s economy is bleeding out?
Thousands of good people have lost their jobs and won’t get them back, no matter how many DOGE decisions are challenged through the courts. Millions are looking at their 401ks wondering what happened to them. Some CEOs are maybe even checking into their consciences and wondering if it was worth it.
Perhaps Trump never did read Project 2025. It is 887 pages long, after all.
Maybe he never had a plan.
It could be the 47th president of the United States is running the country on a wing and a prayer.
