"Trump is trying to reverse his sagging approval ratings by brute force, leaning on populist instincts to deliver visible cost relief before November. The result: institutional stability and capitalist norms - like so much else in the Trump era - are increasingly subordinate to raw presidential power. Zoom in: Trump has denied knowledge of the Justice Department's criminal inquiry into Fed chair Jerome Powell, which is nominally focused on cost overruns from the central bank's renovation of its D.C. headquarters."
"In the first 13 days of 2026, Trump has targeted the biggest drivers of voters' cost-of-living anxiety with direct, highly visible interventions outside the normal policy-making process. Energy costs: Trump has openly acknowledged that Venezuela's vast oil reserves factored into his decision to capture its leader, Nicolás Maduro. He urged Big Oil executives to invest $100 billion to revive Venezuela's decrepit infrastructure - then threatened to shut Exxon out of the effort after its CEO called the country "uninvestable.""
Trump is pursuing visible, populist interventions to blunt voter cost-of-living anxiety and shore up sagging approval before November. Institutional stability and capitalist norms are being subordinated to raw presidential power. Trump denied knowledge of a Justice Department inquiry into Fed chair Jerome Powell, while Powell and predecessors view the probe as the culmination of a White House pressure campaign over rate cuts. In early 2026, Trump targeted energy by seizing Venezuela's leader and courting Big Oil, targeted housing with a $200 billion mortgage-backed securities purchase and a ban on large institutional home buyers, and targeted consumer debt by proposing a 10% cap on credit card rates.
Read at Axios
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]