Behind the Curtain: Trump's irreversible choices
Axios
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President Trump has proudly stretched the power of the presidency in https://www.axios.com/2025/09/23/trump-unprecedented-presidency-behind-the-curtain" target="_blank">never-before-witnessed ways.
- But it's the choices he's made with that power — often alone, often impulsive — that explain his plunging popularity and will define his second term.
Why it matters: Every president tests limits.
Trump tests them faster than anyone, often with little thought about the consequences, his advisers tell us.
Only https://www.axios.com/politics-policy/supreme-court-legal-decisions" target="_blank">courts or https://www.axios.com/economy/stock-market" target="_blank">markets, or his quest for good press, can rein him in.
- By then, the https://www.axios.com/economy/tariffs" target="_blank">tariffs are in place, the war has started, the ally is insulted.
You can sort his choices into three buckets:
1.
Rule of law as weapon: Trump has pointed the machinery of the federal government at his enemies while enriching https://www.axios.com/2026/05/19/trump-stocks-nvidia-boeing" target="_blank">himself and https://www.axios.com/2026/05/19/trump-presidential-gold-rush" target="_blank">his family.
- He sent ICE into American cities underprepared and with a shifting mandate — cheering the made-for-TV chest-thumping, even as agents jailed and deported some U.S. citizens.
- He unleashed the Justice Department https://www.axios.com/2026/04/28/trump-doj-indicts-james-comey" target="_blank">against critics, with indictments so thin that grand juries and Republican-appointed judges tossed some of them — while he https://www.axios.com/2026/05/18/trump-irs-lawsuit-dropped" target="_blank">rewarded supporters who claim they were targets of government "weaponization."
- He let family and friends https://www.axios.com/2026/05/22/trump-profit-presidency-stocks-crypto-irs-taxes" target="_blank">profit from the presidency.
2.
Economy by improvisation: It often feels like Trump is running the world's largest economy on gut feelings and Truth Social posts.
- He leveled haphazard, unpredictable tariffs on friends and adversaries alike — ignoring Congress, the courts and the Constitution in doing so.
- He pressured a https://www.axios.com/2026/05/15/powell-fed-trump-inflation" target="_blank">sitting Fed chair to force interest rates lower, with his DOJ going so far as to open a criminal investigation, breaking a half-century norm of central bank independence.
- He announced https://www.axios.com/2025/11/10/trump-50-year-mortgage-loan" target="_blank">50-year mortgages and https://www.axios.com/2025/11/17/2000-tariff-dividend-trump-check-2026" target="_blank">$2,000 tariff dividend checks on Truth Social without a detailed policy framework or legislative language.
3.
Power projection on personal whim: Trump often seems to be running U.S. foreign policy and the military via social media — by instinct, with an eye on the visuals.
- He https://www.axios.com/2026/03/31/trump-europe-strait-hormuz-iran-uk-france" target="_blank">taunted lifelong allies — NATO as a whole; Ukraine, Canada, Denmark, individually, among others — impulsively and personally, turning decades-old partnerships into punchlines.
- He launched a war against https://www.axios.com/world/iran" target="_blank">Iran, at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html" target="_blank">Israel's urging, without a clear plan for the long, brutal, expensive aftermath now unfolding.
- He permitted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/hegseth-george-hodne-army-fired-iran" target="_blank">oust the Army's https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-hegseth-army-chief-iran-war-c6707d1d3a95ea5f679e0f9a5c5012e7" target="_blank">top uniformed officer and the https://www.axios.com/2026/04/22/navy-secretary-john-phelan-hung-cao" target="_blank">Navy secretary during the war.
By the numbers: Nate Silver's https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin" target="_blank">polling average has the president underwater by 19 points, a second-term low and right around the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attacks.
- A https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28114951-cnn-poll-conducted-by-ssrs-affordability/" target="_blank">CNN poll this month found 70% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy — a benchmark that never crossed 50% in his first term, even during the pandemic.
Between the lines: Trump's pattern is to take a hard line, then relent when bond yields turn bad or MAGA influencers balk.
Social media dubbed this https://www.axios.com/2026/01/22/trump-taco-trade-stock-market" target="_blank">TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out.
But the pullback doesn't erase the act.
- Supply chains have already moved.
Allies have already hedged.
An enemy in a war of choice still gets a vote on when it ends.
The bottom line: Much of the policy Trump puts in place can be undone by the next Democratic president.
That's the result of acting alone, without leaning on Congress to pass laws.
- But the world won't instantly trust America again.
Generals don't just come out of forced retirement.
Institutions, once bent, don't always snap cleanly back into place.
📱 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufkyxy3z-KE" target="_blank">Watch a "Behind the Curtain" video: Jim and Mike discuss Trump's ever-expanding uses of power. (Executive producer: Jimmy Shelton)
- 📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: https://www.axios.com/newsletters/c-suite?utm_medium=native&utm_source=axios_article&utm_campaign=csuite" target="_self">Ask to join Jim's new weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter.