The Problem With President Trump

The problem with President Trump is that he is being himself. That is, Trump, instead of being Presidential.

I guess he already thought he was Presidential, and that is the problem.

It was another bad tweeting week for the President. Following on from tweets and remarks in recent days about Charlottesville, the President disbanded, as they were quitting anyway, the CEO and manufacturing advisory councils he had set up.

Perhaps it was always a mistake to try to get CEOs, strong individuals, not wanting others to know what they were thinking, together for any extended period of time. Not to mention their already heavy schedules.

Following on from this news was the "rumour" that Gary Cohn would resign as head of the Economic Council. This is what really rattled the market on the day, because he is the key to pushing tax reform through. Cohn, former President of Goldman Sachs by the way, later confirmed he had no intention of resigning.

So this was already a bad end of week for the President…

Then, he goes and tweets reasonably at first about the tragedy in Barcelona, but follows up with a reference to a story about a US General in the Philippines early last century. The problem is the story is fiction at best. So this really just totally compounds the perception globally of a President who doesn't have the faintest idea about anything really. Except about real estate.

Personally, I thought the President's economic reform package was exactly what the US needed. I also thought he would tone himself down in becoming President. Less Trump/more President? If only.

There will be a lingering caution about Trump for the rest of his ONE TERM Presidency. We should already be cringing at what the next Presidential campaign will be like.

This will weigh on markets, but it will not stop their bull run.

We remain resolutely bullish, and while the US market could hesitate for another day or two... that is likely to be about it before it simply resumes the march higher.

Which is exactly the case for Australian property market too. There certainly has not been any slowing down in the global economy this week with Japan confirmed as growing at a whopping 4% pace. It is this background of terrific economic environments and in many cases full employment that is the main reason for the Australian economy doing well, and of course property prices.

Any hesitations will be just that.

Clifford Bennett