The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman suggested President Donald Trump “long ago stopped caring about certain optics” and has made it clear that during his second term he is “going to do what he wants.”

Haberman’s comments on CNN came amid backlash to Trump’s weekend golfing, his dismissive attitude amid recession fears sparked by his proposed global tariffs and his skipping of a ceremony honoring the return of four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania.

Trump is “not messaging this in a way that suggests that he understands what average people might be going through right now,” said Haberman.

The president is “convinced he is right,” she continued on tariffs, pointing out how he’s hawked them “for 40 years” and was only “stymied” from implementing the same move during his first term “by a bunch of advisors who were much more pro-free trade.”

Now, Haberman added, “he’s going to do what he’s going to do” but “on a much broader scale” and in a “very different economy, post-COVID.”

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