 "From tariffs to Greenland: When Trump governs by gut, the world pays the price")
When President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course on sweeping tariffs last week—first declaring a “national emergency,” then pausing for negotiations—he offered a revealing explanation: “Instinctively, more than anything else. You almost can’t take a pencil to paper, it’s really more of an instinct than anything else.”
Though critics called it chaos, allies called it strategy. Trump’s statement highlighted a defining feature of his second term: an unapologetic reliance on impulse over process, with global markets, allies and even federal institutions forced to adapt to his whims.
By declaring emergencies and discarding political norms, Trump has increasingly reshaped both domestic governance and international relations to reflect his own impulses, grievances and moods. His erratic style has left governments, businesses and citizens around the world in a constant state of uncertainty, unsure of what his next move might be, experts said.
“We have a leader acting like a 19th-century autocrat,” Columbia historian Tim Naftali told AP. “He sneezes, and everyone catches a cold.” The White House defends Trump’s approach, insisting he’s fulfilling campaign promises.
The White House rejects criticism that Trump is overstepping his authority or improperly consolidating power. Administration officials frequently emphasise that the Republican president won a clear election victory and is now pursuing the agenda that he campaigned on. In this view, resisting his will, such as when courts block his executive orders, is the real threat to democracy.
“Trust the President. He knows what he’s doing,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
From trade wars to cultural purges at the Smithsonian, Trump’s gut-driven governance is testing the limits of presidential power—and leaving the world to reckon with the fallout.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Governing by gut turns every decision into a gamble,” warned Leon Panetta, Clinton’s former Chief of Staff. Yet Trump revels in the turbulence, boasting at a GOP dinner that foreign leaders were “kissing my ass” to sway his trade policies.
Although international trade offers the most extensive example of Trump’s inclination to act unilaterally since he returned to office in January, the same approach has been evident elsewhere.
Economists remain skeptical. Cato Institute’s Scott Lincicome predicted any deals would be “superficial nothingburgers” to placate Trump’s ego. But with the President declaring “the second term is more powerful,” the world braces for more volatility—one instinct at a time.
Trump’s ambitions stretch beyond the United States, such as his goal of annexing Greenland. Vice President JD Vance visited the island last month to talk about its strategic location in the Arctic, where Russia and China want to expand their influence, but also its importance to Trump himself.
“We can’t just ignore the president’s desires,” Vance said.
Trump has spent decades trying to turn his impulses into reality, whether it’s skyscrapers in Manhattan or casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He once sued a journalist for allegedly underestimating his net worth. During a deposition, Trump said ” It goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings.”
A lawyer for the journalist appeared puzzled. ”You said your net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings?”
Trump said yes. “I would say it’s my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked.”
He took a similar approach into the White House for his first term. While talking about the economy with The Washington Post, Trump said “my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”
Leon Panetta, who was White House chief of staff under Democratic President Bill Clinton and later served in national security roles for Democratic President Barack Obama, said there normally is a more deliberative process for critical issues.
“If you throw all of that out of the window and operate based on gut instincts, what you’re doing is making every decision a huge gamble,” Panetta said. “Because you just haven’t done the homework to really understand all of the implications.”
“When you roll dice,” he added, “sometimes it’s going to come up snake eyes.”
Because Trump does not have a clear process for making decisions, Panetta said “that means everybody has to kowtow to him because that’s the only way you’re going to have any impact.”
Trump has seemed to enjoy that aspect of the ongoing controversy over tariffs. During a Republican dinner this past week, he said foreign leaders were “kissing my ass” to talk him out of his trade agenda.
The saga began on April 2 when Trump declared that trade deficits — when the U.S. buys more products from some countries than it sells — represented a national emergency, enabling him to enact tariffs without congressional approval.
The stock market collapsed and then the bond market began to slide. On Wednesday, Trump backed off his plans.
Although high taxes have been left in place on imports from China, many of the other targeted tariffs have been paused for 90 days to allow time for negotiations with individual countries.
“Americans should trust in that process,” said Leavitt, the press secretary.
Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the conservative Cato Institute, expressed concern that the course of international trade was becoming dependent on the “whims of a single dude in the Oval Office.”
Lincicome said the White House timeline to reach trade deals was “not credible” given the complexity of the issues. A more likely scenario, he said, is that the resulting agreements will be nothing more than “superficial nothingburgers” and Trump will ”declare a great victory and all this stuff settles down.”
Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, said in an interview with Fox Business Network that there’s “a whole portion of our White House working day and night” on negotiations.
“We’re going to run 90 deals in 90 days,” he said. ”It’s possible.”
With inputs from agencies
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