Despite opposition on many sides, Donald Trump defies his critics
President Trump has faced a lot of criticism lately and has even attempted to take back his words in some cases. Nevertheless, instead of backing down, Trump defies those who criticize him. He doesn’t like being told what he “can’t” do. Most notably, after receiving a lot of hostility over his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, he went ahead and started planning another one.
The Wall Street Journal reports, “Trump Digs In Against Criticism on Multiple Fronts.“
President Donald Trump ended a turbulent week by shrugging off criticism of his dealings with Russia, his use of tariffs to influence trade and his public scolding of the Fed.
Instead, frustrated by being told what he can’t do, he dug in on all three fronts.
“All he’s hearing in D.C. is ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ He can’t criticize the Fed, he can’t criticize the intelligence community,” said a person close to the president, echoing others in Mr. Trump’s orbit. “He’s obviously going to get frustrated by the can’t-do mentality.”
Mr. Trump has spent much of the four days since Monday’s summit with Vladimir Putin seeking to reverse or otherwise soften his comments at the news conference with the Russian leader, in which he appeared to side with Moscow over his own intelligence agencies about whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Advertisement - story continues belowYet on Wednesday, he ordered a top aide to invite Mr. Putin to visit Washington this fall—around the same time as the congressional midterm elections in which U.S. intelligence agencies say Moscow is actively trying to interfere.
The conflicting messages out of the White House underscore Mr. Trump’s increasingly defiant approach in the wake of his own perceived missteps: In the face of criticism, persist.
“The president doesn’t respect norms,” the person close to him said. “Norms are rules written by somebody else.”
Mr. Trump also this week ignored criticism on his conduct on trade and monetary-policy issues. On Friday, he escalated his criticism of the Federal Reserve, saying in a tweet that its efforts to raise short-term interest rates hurt the U.S. economic expansion, a day after he was chided by some for saying he hoped the central bank would stop raising interest rates.
