The Irish Times view on handling Donald Trump: a lesson on how to respond
Jerome Powell, the chair of the US central bank,
the Federal Reserve Board, shake his head and publicly correct the record in real time as he stood alongside the president at an event on Thursday.
The backdrop was a lengthy campaign by Trump to force the Fed to lower interest rates and his outspoken attempts to try to get Powell to quit. As part of this campaign, the administration has weaponised a renovation programme at the Fed, which it claims is running way over budget.
Standing beside Powell in his hard hat, Trump theatrically produced a piece of paper which he said showed that the $2.7 billion bill was now set to be $3.1 billion. Powell calmly studied the note and pointed out that this included the cost of another building that was already completed. 'It's a building that's being built, ' Trump responded. 'No, it was built five years ago,' said Powell.
The exchange underlined how seldom Trump's 'facts' are challenged in public by those around him. Everyone wants to humour the unpredictable president. The irony is complete when he publishes posts on his 'Truth Social' channel, a name which carries echoes of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984.
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World leaders face the same dilemma as Powell did when they stand beside Trump. Most choose to grin and bear it. This is what the EU appears to have done in trade talks with the US, as they face Trump's chaotic mixture of fact and fiction. As the talks come to another crunch – and with the need for support on the Ukraine war in the background – the EU may concede Trump's call for 15 per cent tariffs.
When you lead the world's biggest economic and military power, sometimes you get to choose your own facts. A quiet-spoken bureaucrat just gave the world a lesson in how best to respond.
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The Journal
4 hours ago
- The Journal
Thailand and Cambodia fight for fourth day despite Trump-backed ceasefire bid
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Irish Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
56 Irish nationals arrested as part of President Trump's immigration crackdown
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Sunday World
5 hours ago
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Fussy landlords should shoulder blame for Ireland's animal welfare problem
This is my pet hate and I'm blaming the landlords Living with pets can be a nuisance — take it from me. Daily, there is enough hair to keep Donald Trump thatched for the rest of his life. The carpet has more pee stains than a Superman suit without a trapdoor. And not even an inferno of scented candles could ever truly neutralise the vague waft of a damp Jack Russell about the house. Yet I wouldn't have it any other way. So my heart breaks for the families across the country who have been forced to give up their best friend in order to keep a roof over their heads. xx Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 27th Dublin's Dog Trust this week called for an end to blanket bans on dogs in rented homes after witnessing a 112 per cent increase in surrenders over the past five years due to the house crisis. Almost 20,000 people — myself included — signed the charity's online petition calling on the government to clamp down on landlords banning pets in rental homes, leaving many pet owners with an impossible decision to make. It should be far closer to 200,000 if the animal lovers bankrolling a booming pet industry involving everything from doggy day spas to cat cremation services put their computer mouse where their money is. Ordinarily, it should be said, I have a minus-sympathy for anyone who offloads four-legged members of the family on rescue centres already creaking at the seams, from the rash of 'lockdown puppies' abandoned by bored work-from-homers after the world reopened to the faithful pitbulls forsaken by their 'fur mams' or 'dads' after a change in the law earlier this year placed a ban on XL Bully breeds without a certificate of exemption. In this case, however, I'm laying the blame firmly at the rented door of inflexible landlords, many of whom probably already have human tenants who are less hygienic than a cockapoo who's just spent all day licking their crusty toe beans, among other bits. As someone who, for now at least, doesn't have to panic about finding a new place to live, it'd be very easy to glibly say that I'd die before giving my two up, although given that one of them is 126 in human years (or 18 in canine ones) and the other 91 (13), it may be a moot point anyway. Animal welfare has long since been upside-down in this country — why are we punishing those who adore their animals, while letting others, like the Carlow woman last week handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to eight charges of animal cruelty, away with what often feels like a slap on the wrist? At least we're starting to see custodial sentences in these stomach-churning cases, with a Meath couple elsewhere on Friday jailed for two months each, as well as being given a lifetime ban on keeping animals, after one of their dogs starved to death in their back yard, and a second was rescued from the same fate. If the Department of Health, meanwhile, is as serious as it claims to be about tackling Ireland's epidemic of loneliness, the Dogs Trust's admirable campaign presents lots of 'paws' for thought. Constant fight against fur aside, nothing makes you feel more loved than the sight of a waggly tail or two when you walk in the door.
