Tamara Keith, National Public Radio:
Yes, so I spoke with a longtime adviser to President Trump who said that he’s just more confident this time, that he knows how to use the levers of government and he’s using them, and he kind of doesn’t care about the consequences.
Yes, he is not happy about polls. He has been complaining about his standing in the polls on his social media site, but he is barreling forward with policies, that the markets have indicated that the tariffs are a problem. Voters, consumer confidence, there are loud flashing bright lights saying people are concerned about this.
But President Trump is moving forward with that. And he also has shown, I don’t think loyalty is the right word for it, but in his first term, he fired Michael Flynn, his national security adviser, very quickly. In his second term, his national security adviser and defense secretary got tied up in Signalgate.
Neither of them were fired. At this point, he’s saying that, well, it seems like Pete Hegseth might figure it out or course-correct, but he’s hanging on at least for now, at least through the 100-days mark. So there is a — there are differences. And this adviser I talked to said, yes, he’s been through knife fights before. He knows what this is like and he’s just more calm about it.
