Of all the indignities a Trump cabinet secretary or senior adviser must endure to keep their jobs or just put on a straight face every day, this may be the worst yet.
The Daily Beast reports that Trump has been consulting Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, which we already knew, but what we didn't know is Trump has been calling Dobbs directly into oval office meetings with his cabinet.
During the first year of the Trump era, the president has patched Dobbs in via speakerphone to multiple meetings in the Oval Office so that he could offer his two cents, according to three sources familiar with these conversations. Trump will ask Dobbs for his opinion before and after his senior aides or Cabinet members have spoken. Occasionally, he will cut off an official so the Fox Business host can jump in. [...]
During the more intense days of the tax-bill push, Trump made sure to have his White House personal secretary get Dobbs on the line. And toward the conclusion of one memorable meeting, when the line was disconnected and Dobbs said farewell, Trump looked up, smiled, and simply told the room, “Love Lou.”
With Trump valuing the advice of television hosts with fake credentials over people who are at least somewhat qualified advise him, it's no wonder the White House can't produce coherent economic policy or even coherent rhetoric.
They're all over the map because Trump is hearing things from all over the map and Trump himself has no idea what is right or wrong.