Is the president fraying a bit around the edges?

Is the president fraying a bit around the edges?

Being president is extraordinarily difficult and takes a toll on its occupant – see how Bill Clinton and Barack Obama look. Trump sometimes just goes off the rails which is understandable given the stress of the job. Lately he has decided to revisit his tariffs while still insisting that the exporter pays the tariffs even though domestic prices are nonetheless rising. He has lashed out at one of his staunch supporters, Marjorie Taylor Greene because she is not 100 percent MAGA. Greene had been calling for the release of the Epstein files. The president said “I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support.” Trump called her a Republican in name only and said she was a disgrace to the party. He also said “I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of “Congresswoman” Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia. All I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” Somehow I don’t think this president should call anyone “wacky”. 

For her part Greene said “I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him. But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump.” And I was one who always thought that MTG was a bit of a kook – see her exchange with Jasmine Crockett and other episodes – but here, I admire her courage as being one of the few republicans to actually have a backbone when it comes to the president.

Now that the president has changed his mind and says that the Epstein files can be released does this mean that he and MTG will once again be buds?

And speaking of letting the pressures get to him, the president is now blaming the Fed for the housing crisis. “Could somebody please inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the housing industry, very badly? “People can’t get a mortgage because of him.” So it’s the Fed’s fault, is it? I guess the president is saying that because the Fed was slow to lower rates that mortgage rates are so high that people are not buying houses. Trump then called Powell a “maniac” (again I don’t think this president should be calling any one a maniac) and “The biggest hindrance for housing is mortgage rates. If the Fed brings down mortgage rates, then they can end this housing recession.” I wonder if Bessent is going to have to correct him again because he is wrong but feels the need to reflect the blame of the economy on the Fed (or on Biden).

Sorry Mr President, but the Fed affects short rates and not mortgage rates. Someone needs to tell him that while the Fed has decreased the Fed funds rates, mortgage rates have risen – not fallen as he would assert. Someone should show him this article from the economists at the Federal Reserve of Atlanta that tests the relationship between the Fed funds rate and mortgage rates entitle “Not joined at the hip.”

https://www.atlantafed.org/economy-matters/economic-research/2025/11/10/not-joined-at-the-hip-relationship-between-the-fed-funds-rate-and-mortgage-rates

But it won’t matter, will it? Mortgage rates are up because long term Treasuries remain elevated. The 10 year Treasury is usually the benchmark rate with mortgage rates about 2 to 3 percent or so higher. Since long rates are influenced by inflationary expectations, Trump should look in the mirror and blame himself. His tariffs, the growing federal deficit, inflationary expectations are all a product of his policies which are keeping the long term rates high. So to get the 30 year mortgage rate below six percent, the 10 year Treasury should be around 3 ½ percent. So Mr President, go after the Treasury and not the Fed. Fat chance.