SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
It was all smiles as Donald Trump stood between his wife Melania and the Easter Bunny on the White House’s south balcony and spoke of “bringing religion back to America”.
Later, they held hands and blew the starting whistle on the 2025 Easter Egg Roll, a traditional day of family fun where kids race souvenir eggs along the grass with a long spoon.
President Donald Trump, the First Lady and the Easter Bunny at the annual egg roll at the White House.Credit: AP
The First Lady read from a children’s book, Bunny With a Big Heart, though many of the assembled youngsters clearly found her thick Slovenian accent difficult to understand.
The president waved, smiled, posed for photos, performed the Trump dance and looked at children’s drawings. He even gave a couple some marital advice: “Make sure you like each other.”
It’s the sort of day that’s manna from PR heaven. And despite his awkwardness with kids – who could forget him asking a seven-year-old: “Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven its marginal, right?” – one of Trump’s strengths as a politician is his aura of fun. Whether it’s the unfiltered nature of what he says, his odd fixations or his fondness for camp, Trump has brought politics out of the boring column for many Americans and onlookers.
But as much as Trump projects that relaxed, carefree, everything-is-better-than-it-has-ever-been image, not all is well in the White House.
First Lady Melania Trump reads from the children’s book “Bunny With a Big Heart” at the White House easter egg roll.Credit: AP
The revelation Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was involved in a second group chat on the encrypted phone app Signal, in which he again shared sensitive details about an imminent military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen, should put him on the endangered species list.
Although Trump and his team were spinning the report as old news, it is, in many ways, worse for Hegseth this time around. He did not create the first Signal group, and was not the one who mistakenly added a high-profile journalist to the chat. But this newly revealed group was started by Hegseth, and included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
There’s something to be said for the claim – made by Trump and others – that Hegseth is a victim of being an outsider. He is not a career Pentagon official but a former weekend TV host and veteran. We’re all familiar with the dynamics of big organisations where a new leader, brought in to shake things up, is resisted by the old guard.
But that doesn’t make the revelations wrong, and indeed, Hegseth has not denied them. And as an outsider whose controversial appointment was intensely scrutinised, he has extra responsibility to act judiciously. He already carries enormous baggage courtesy of multiple accusations of sexual assault and excessive drinking, including a confidential settlement paid to a woman who accused him of assault in 2017.
President Donald Trump and his wife Melania blew the starting whistle.Credit: AP
Democrats are casting this as a test of Trump’s leadership: sack Hegseth or look weak. But there is no public indication the president wants to sack his defence secretary. The White House emphatically denied a report it had started searching for someone to fill the role.
Instead, the person Trump seems inclined to fire is Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. The president is increasingly irate with Powell for not cutting interest rates, which are currently at 4.25 to 4.5 per cent. This is a tension Australians know well, though they would be unaccustomed to Trump’s tactics.
On Monday, Trump said there was a case for “pre-emptive” rate cuts because food and energy prices were trending down. This is only half true: the price of oil has fallen since in January, but groceries have kept getting more expensive. He claimed “there is virtually no inflation” – it is running at 2.4 per cent, a little above the bank’s target.
In his most personal attack on Powell so far, Trump warned the economy could slow down “unless Mr Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates NOW”. He also accused Powell of cutting rates to help elect Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.
The central bank chair is appointed by the president but remains independent, and only able to be removed with cause. Last week, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said Trump’s team was studying ways it could sack Powell legally.
“I’m not happy with him,” Trump has previously said. “If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.”
Any move to fire Powell would probably end up before the Supreme Court, which is already due to examine whether the president can sack senior officials at independent agencies. Even if current precedents were overturned, the bank could be exempted because of its special role in the US economy.
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