The irony of Trump’s presidency: A business champion destroying American capitalism

Donald Trump has run for president four times, starting with a short-lived Reform Party campaign in late 1999 and early 2000. And in all four campaigns, his supporters argued that he should be president because he was a "smart businessman."

Trump is now 15 months into his second presidency, and many polls are showing weak approval ratings when it comes to his handling of the economy.

In an op-ed/essay published by the New York Times on April 20, Amit Seru — a finance progressor at the Stanford University Business School in California — argues that even though Trump "casts himself as a champion of American business," the U.S. economy "is losing momentum" on his watch.

"Mr. Trump's constant policy swings are offsetting whatever benefits his business-friendly instincts might bring," Seru laments. "There is some irony that a president who was elected in part because of his perceived business acumen is instead intensifying one of the most corrosive forces in the economy: the creeping of political dysfunction into capitalism itself."

The Stanford finance professor lays out a variety of economic problems the U.S. is experiencing.

"Let's start with what millions of businesses face today," Seru explains. "Mr. Trump's war on Iran has caused oil prices to soar and injected volatility into global markets. His administration imposed steep tariffs on nearly all of America's trading partners a year ago, only to shift or reschedule duties depending on, among other things, how the trading partners have reacted, like Mexico and Japan; lobbying; stock market reaction; and court decisions, with the Supreme Court ruling his sweeping tariff plan illegal. Regulatory agencies have abruptly stopped pursuing cases or significantly altered their priorities."

Seru continues, "The twists and turns surrounding the appointment of the next chair of the Federal Reserve and the performance of its current leadership deserve its own reality show…. A growing number of economists and executives describe this as a period of heightened hesitation, when businesses are delaying and canceling investments and hiring because they cannot predict the rules under which those decisions will play out."

Financial markets, Seru warns, do not function well when they are facing "constant chaos."

"There will be work to do once Mr. Trump leaves office," the Stanford Business School professor writes, "but perhaps the hardest task of all will be imposing the discipline required to ensure that policymakers not do too much all at once."

Trump's first presidency saw similar economic volatility, including trade wars with China that economists blamed for slowing growth and increasing consumer prices. His 2024 campaign promised a return to the strong economy he claimed to have built before the pandemic. However, voters consistently ranked the economy as their top concern in exit polls, citing inflation, housing costs, and job uncertainty as major issues affecting their daily lives.

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