Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Daron Acemoglu Talks Theory of Trump
episodePreviously titled “Daron Acemoglu Talks Theory of Trump” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
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What is the main focus of Daron Acemoglu's article on Trump?
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. For those who've been listening to us regularly, you might remember a conversation we had yesterday. It was with Bloomberg's Jordan Fabian, and it was about whether or not there was a focus in the White House. We asked him, Jordan, because it was another day of nonstop social media posts and flow of thoughts, actions from President Trump and his administration. It is again today. It feels like it's been like that forever. for a while, nonstop maybe for the past year, looking at that and really trying to figure out if there's a philosophy guiding President Trump and his closest advisors when it comes to his barrage of executive orders and daily challenges to the judicial system feeding a nonstop White House cycle.
is Economic Nobel Laureate, Daron Acemoglu. He took a step back to see if there's some sort of theory and wrote about it in a Bloomberg Businessweek piece. It's featured in the upcoming new issue that does really a deep dive into President Trump's first year in his second term. Daron, by the way, Institute Professor in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. He joins us from Cambridge. So nice to have you here with us. And this is a really thoughtful piece. You took a step back.
How does Acemoglu describe the White House's news cycle under Trump?
You looked at this. And we're just trying to understand, you know, this nonstop White House news cycle. Is it about the president and his team controlling that news cycle? And this is what we all chase. You know, is it something more significant beyond just kind of a flood the zone concept that we often associate with President Trump and his team? What did you come up with?
Well, thanks for having me on the program. Look, I mean, obviously, there is a flood zone element in there, and it looks chaotic. But in my mind, Worryingly, there is a bit of a theory, which is that all of these actions are aimed at centralizing power in the hands of an executive presidency with fewer and weaker checks, which come either from institutions or norms. So even the foreign actions are all about increasing domestic power. Even the sort of unconventional appointments are about weakening norms that control what the president can do and bringing in more loyalists that have now more room for maneuver because all the norms that had guided U.S. political dynamics have been broken.
So you write that it would have been viewed as completely unacceptable for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama to ask his attorney general or the DOJ to go after enemies.
What theory does Acemoglu propose regarding Trump's actions?
It would also have been considered beyond the pale for a president to invoke what you describe as a poorly documented crime emergency as a pretext for sending the National Guard into US cities, or for a president to continue to be involved in his family business while in office. Why is it being viewed, at least by members of Congress, Republicans in Congress, as acceptable for President Trump to do these things?
Well, you know, part of the reason why those actions would not have been taken in the past is because they go against norms. There weren't explicit laws that said these things. So it was part of an institutional equilibrium with norms of acceptance and backed up by other politicians. deviating and sort of distancing themselves if a president did that or bigger sort of pushback from civil society or the media. But President Trump and his team have been breaking these norms systematically for the first year but even if you go to the first term of the president there was already the same attempt and all of these have now culminated in trump controlling the party and the rest of the party even part of the judicial system are no longer able to stand up to him and all of the norms that would have helped them sort of mobilize around some sort of objection saying this is not acceptable
You know, we don't see them now. Recently for the Fed case, a few senators have started making grambling. So perhaps there might be some limit to what the legislature is going to put up with.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main focus of Daron Acemoglu's article on Trump?
0:02–1:16
2
How does Acemoglu describe the White House's news cycle under Trump?
1:16–2:47
3
What theory does Acemoglu propose regarding Trump's actions?
2:47–4:52
4
Why are Trump's actions viewed differently than those of past presidents?
4:52–6:06
5
How have norms and institutional checks changed under Trump's presidency?
6:06–7:45
6
What implications does Acemoglu foresee for the U.S. economy?
7:45–8:57
7
How might Trump's presidency impact future administrations?
8:57–10:15
8
What does Acemoglu believe about the future of U.S. institutions?
10:15–11:30
Speakers
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