From economic and geopolitical volatility to a government shutdown standoff, the continued slashing of the government and mixed messaging on the measles, it was another consequential and news-packed week of this second Trump presidency.
Here are five takeaways from what happened this week that help you sift through what matters in our ongoing effort to chronicle the first 100 days of President Trump’s second turn in office.
1. Trump’s “period of transition”:
President Trump triggered concerns this week of a recession when he declined to rule the possibility of one out.
“There is a period of transition,” he said on Fox News, “because what we’re doing is very big.”
What the Trump administration is doing is implementing, pulling back and doubling down on tariffs. His trade war with Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union sent stocks tumbling and has caused general economic and geopolitical tumult.
Trump later defended his remarks when asked about his hesitancy to say there would not be a recession. “Of course I hesitated,” he said. “Who knows?” But by Tuesday, he’d walked that back entirely, saying, “I don’t see it at all.”
Trump’s “period of transition” remarks recalled the Biden administration saying inflation was “transitory.” (Biden himself said he believed price increases would be “temporary.”) Inflation did decline significantly eventually, but that was cold comfort for a lot of Americans, and Biden’s party lost the presidency.
Now, there’s a new administration, full of billionaires and multi-millionaire former corporate CEOs, pleading for patience on prices in hopes of bringing back manufacturing in the long term and telling Americans things like, “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream,” as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did. Trump won’t be on the ballot again, but this week had to make a lot of Republicans who will be very nervous.
2. “The ball is now in Russia’s court”:
The Trump administration said Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Russia. As a result, the U.S. will restart aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. “The ball is now in Russia’s court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
But Russia has not agreed to anything at this point despite Trump threatening sanctions. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agreed “with the proposals to halt the fighting, but we proceed from the assumption that the ceasefire should lead to lasting peace and remove the root causes of the crisis.” And he questioned if 30 days would simply give the Ukrainian military time to regroup.
Earlier in the day, an aide to Putin reiterated that it wants Ukraine to: (1) concede that Crimea and four other regions are now part of Russia, (2) withdraw troops from lands claimed by Russia and (3) pledge never to join NATO.
The U.S. has already largely been negotiating on Russia’s terms — no NATO for Ukraine, no to getting all of Ukraine’s territory back. So how does Trump respond if Putin flouts his efforts?
