Ken Langone started a small operation called Home Depot. 

These days he is a billionaire and major donor to the Trump campaign and Republican Party. 

He is, like all the rest of us looking on, incredulous, or furious, or in disbelief, or confused. 

Yesterday for a very brief period, a rumour that appeared to come out of a very small 'X' account and somehow linked to CNBC, swept the market. 

It said Trump was considering a 90-day pause on the tariffs. The market which had been continuing its downward trajectory, or “tanking” as some people called it, abruptly upped stick and reversed. 

It surged by about 8%, which is a lot, until it turned out none of it was true. So it fell apart again. 

As one article suggested, that was an off-ramp for the President. In other words, had the rumour been true and Trump decided it could all be a mistake, the markets would have forgiven him, put it all behind them and we would be on our merry way. 

But back to Ken. Ken said "I don’t understand the goddamn formula". In that, he is not alone. 

Many of the billionaires who backed Trump don't understand the formula. They also didn’t back the idea that Trump would trash the place and yet more of them, mainly headed by the bloke who runs BlackRock, think the US economy is already in recession. 

If it is in recession Howard Lutnick will need to be rolled out to explain how that happened, given according to Lutnick, it wasn’t possible. 

So once again we ask the simple question – if the brightest people in the room don’t understand the "goddamn formula", if Trump's closest allies and supporters don’t get it, who does? 

Or worse, is it possible no one does? Is this thing a runaway train? 

If it's not a runaway train, is it possible that yet another Trump backer is right when he suggests America is now a global laughing stock? 

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