Shoot-from-the-hip Donald is taking down the world economy single-handedly

This is a true story. As a colleague and I finished interviewing Donald Trump before his first presidential visit to Britain in July 2018, we were accosted by a tall man with a military air and a pen and notebook in hand.

- TOM NEWTON DUNN

He'd been waiting for us outside the grand drawing room of the US Embassy in Brussels where the interview had just taken place. “Hi. John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff,” he introduced himself. “May I ask what the President said to you?”

We reeled off the highlights of the news-rich past half hour as the retired US Marine Corps general made copious notes. How Trump had insulted then British PM Theresa May, how he would have got a far better Brexit deal from the EU, why May's bête noire Boris Johnson would make a great PM. “He said that? Oh right. I see. Uh huh, hmm...” Kelly grunted as we spoke, which he punctuated with gentle eye rolls.

And that's how Trump governs. Spewing forth instinctively like a divine monarch, while aides scramble to implement his electric utterances, or (in our case) clear up the diplomatic mess.

It’s also how the US President spun the international markets into a fresh nosedive on Tuesday with his latest confrontation with the chair of the US Federal Reserve.

Trump branded the fiercely independent Jerome Powell “a major loser” for his refusal to cut interest rates, deepening market fears that the President would try to remove him and thereby trigger a full blown financial crisis.

Not even 100 days

Another week, another explosive shot from the hip. On a bad week, Trump fires off two or three. It’s his well-honed trademark and also how he got himself to the White House, twice.