Irish Examiner view: Bumbling Donald Trump backs down amid tariffs U-turn 

Despite the boot-licking spinning of his cabinet, it’s not clear if US president Donald Trump understands what he is doing 

US president Donald Trump’s swaggering boasts about his tariff plans now seem ludicrous in light of how quickly he has backed down from that policy. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP 

On Wednesday, it was easy to assume that the EU’s response to US president Donald Trump’s tariffs was the headline event of the day, an assumption that survived until Mr Trump changed his mind. Again.

The US president said on Wednesday that he would pause his reciprocal tariffs for most countries for the next 90 days, though he has kept high tariffs in place on China.

The term ‘stunning reversal’ seems apposite. 

Mr Trump’s swaggering boasts about his tariff plans now seem ludicrous in light of how quickly he has backed down on this same policy. His reasons for doing so may be seen in recent worrying developments such as the sell-off in US bonds and losses in financial markets around the world; as soon as news of Mr Trump’s change of heart on tariffs broke, Wall Street rallied sharply, which is itself a telling commentary on the Trump administration’s economic policies.

Members of that administration were soon spinning the policy U-turn in familiar boot-licking style. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, for instance, tried to say the tariff pause was part of “his [Trump] strategy all along,” saying that the US president had shown “great courage to stay the course until this moment”.

Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick tweeted: “The world is ready to work with President Trump to fix global trade, and China has chosen the opposite direction.”

However his acolytes try to delude themselves, this reversal is a concerning development, one which underlines the sense of fundamental incompetence in the White House.

Last month, the Trump administration shared secret battle plans by accidentally including a journalist on a messaging app. 

On Wednesday, its tariff policy — trumpeted at a strange ceremony long on bluster and short on detail, cited as the mechanism which would restore American primacy, depicted as the ultimate threat to dangle over other countries, both friendly and hostile — was simply put on hold for 90 days.

Mr Trump’s press secretary chided journalists on Wednesday, saying they had failed to understand what Mr Trump was doing. It’s not entirely clear if he understands what he is doing himself.

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Prepare for disappointment on housing 

The housebuilding summit organised earlier this week by the Construction Industry Federation heard some bracing truths.

Contributors to the summit include senior civil servants, major developers, and minister for housing James Browne, but it was Marian Finnegan of Sherry FitzGerald who spelt out the starkest of possibilities for housing in Ireland for 2025, and for house completions in particular.

Ms Finnegan said: “I know there’s some commentary later today where it is suggested that could go as low as 25,000 this year. I think we’re looking at a margin of plus or minus 10% on that. I do believe that all of the indicators of this sector are impossible to use as predictors.”

Given the purpose of the summit was to discuss ways in which the Government could achieve its aim of building 300,000 new homes by 2030, this was a sobering realisation. Factor in the global uncertainty due to the looming tariff war, and the local disappointment when the Government missed its own housing targets last year, and ‘sobering’ may in fact be a rather understated description.

Speakers at the summit urged the government to action, stating that it should do all in its power to solve blockages in planning, water and utility connections, and financing which are militating against housing delivery. Laudable though such calls are, they must also be seen in light of the reality of how those sectors operate.

The travels of the Irish planning system, and of An Bord Pleanála in particular, have been well ventilated for many years. Our national water utility, Uisce Éireann, has been specifically blamed for holding up housing development in different parts of the country. Financing is a matter for the banks, which are already showing some signs of nervousness with loans in these uncertain times. If we are depending on bold leadership and innovative performance in these areas to solve our housing crisis then we may have to get used to disappointment when it comes to meeting targets.

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Extinct species of wolf reborn 

Fans of the original Jurassic Park book and movie may have experienced some deja vu with an announcement this week.

Scientists have claimed success in resurrecting the dire wolf, a breed of wolf extinct for over 12,000 years, by using ancient DNA, cloning, and gene-editing technology to alter the genes of an existing wolf.

If this sounds familiar, that is because it has an uncanny echo of the process by which dinosaurs are reincarnated in Jurassic Park, where DNA is repurposed to — eventually — deadly effect.

The implications of such a development, if true, are extraordinary: Will we see great figures from history revived from their DNA, let alone extinct animal breeds?

Incredibly, that may not have been the most striking wildlife-related story of the week. RTÉ Brainstorm alleged this week that Cork seagulls are not as ‘bold’ as Dublin seagulls, with Leeside gulls’ relative reticence when it comes to stealing food cited as proof. Scientists wondered if the Cork gulls might change their behaviour in time, which raises a disturbing possibility?

How long before DNA from cultivated southern seabirds is spliced into Liffey sandwich raiders? It would hardly be the first time the inherent nobility of the deep south was used to civilise the capital.