Trump’s angry, erratic behavior explains his lowball poll numbers

Donald Trump’s wild and whirling day showed why most Americans disapprove of him and think he’s ignoring their key issues — and why his most loyal supporters will never desert him.

The president’s incessant assaults on the national psyche mean everyone has become a little numb to his shocking style of politics. But even for him, Wednesday was a reckless ride, on which he only sparingly addressed the voter concerns that sent him back to the White House.

Trump ignited more speculation he may fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after a Tuesday meeting at which he polled lawmakers about what he should do.

Ousting Powell would be the most overt attempt by a modern president to interfere in the Fed’s role of setting interest rates and could tip the global economy over a cliff. It might also be the riskiest power grab yet of Trump’s expansive second term, since it would traumatize markets by obliterating an assumption that made the US the world’s most powerful economy — that presidents don’t emulate developing world dictators by cooking the books for political gain.

Donald Trump later insisted it was “highly unlikely” he’d dismiss Powell after markets shuddered. But given his volatile nature and obvious desire to exact revenge on an official who has refused to bow to his autocratic impulses, few will take such assurances to the (central) bank.

Meanwhile, in an extraordinary outburst on Truth Social, Trump blasted some of the most vocal MAGA personalities as “weaklings” over their criticism of his administration’s refusal to throw open files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump’s defensiveness supercharged a furor simmering for more than a week — and is likely to spur more claims he’s got something to hide and to encourage Democratic calls for more transparency.

In seeking to defuse a conspiracy, Trump created a new one, nonsensically accusing Democrats of being behind the storm — even though Epstein was charged with sex trafficking by Trump’s own first-term Justice Department. “Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullsh*t,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump’s volatility is very risky

These two dramas — which are hardly what keeps most voters awake at night — encapsulate the exceptional and often dangerous aspects of Trump’s unique presidency.

He’s looking for a Fed chief who will throw caution to the wind and slash interest rates in pursuit of fast growth. As with his obsession with tariffs, which similarly affronts economic orthodoxy, Trump is itching to implement a risky pet theory that many experts predict would court disaster.