After 100 Days, the President Has Started to Make It Clear How He Will be Defeated

“Activism targeting markets…a formula to remember.”

He may ignore the courts. He may run roughshod over a supine Congress. But Wall Street holds the whip hand with Trump and those who want to influence him are starting to realize it.

We have also seen that once again, Trump the egomaniac is sensitive to the perception that he is a loser. He doesn’t care about us or about history. But he does care how he is perceived by his rich pals. This has already led him to repeat a pattern from his first administration. He is loyal to no one. Therefore, in a big enterprise like a government (and he has once again demonstrated how bad he is with core competencies like, say, management), in which responsibilities must be delegated, all his top aides know they must keep feeding the beast of the boss’ ego or they will fade in influence and access or worse, be pushed out.

This has already happened with Trump’s “co-president” Elon Musk. Musk is on his way out not because the law requires it (Trump doesn’t care much about law), but because a.) the stories that he rivaled Trump in power, fueled by Musk’s behavior, were a wedge between the two and b.) he has alienated far too many people in a DOGE effort that is far, far from producing the results Musk once promised.