'Rattled' Trump allies flooding his chief of staff with 'panicked calls': report

Less than two months after moving back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump has reportedly alarmed some of his close allies to the point where they are overwhelming his chief of staff with pleas to do something about the chaos he is already creating. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal's Josh Dawsey, Gavin Bade and Brian Schwartz, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is getting an earful from Trump loyalists, CEO's and lobbyists who are in a panic over the Wall Street turmoil being brought about by the president's flip-flopping on tariffs on almost a daily basis. According to the report, "Senior officials, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, have received panicked calls from chief executives and lobbyists, who have urged the administration to calm jittery markets by outlining a more predictable tariff agenda, according to people familiar with the discussions," adding that they have abandoned pleading directly with him. This comes on the heels of Trump telling a Fox News host on Sunday that he couldn't rule out a possible recession which, in turn, set off a downward market spiral on Monday that continued into Tuesday, with the Journal reporting that CEOs of major corporations were busy "huddling" with Trump and White House officials on how to do damage control. With Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the conservative American Action Forum telling the Journal, "It has been a horrific start for the economic policy team,” the report notes, "Trump’s aggressive approach to tariffs has unnerved some Trump administration economic officials, including staff on the National Economic Council, who are concerned that tariffs and uncertainty over trade policy are tanking the stock market and fueling price increases on everything from energy to construction materials."