President Donald Trump's flurry of tariffs, government layoffs and spending freezes may be doing more to harm the U.S. economy than to fix it.

When Donald Trump started the biggest trade war since the 1930s in his first term, his impulsive combination of threats and import taxes on U.S. trading partners created chaos, generated drama -- and drew criticism from mainstream economists who favor free trade.

U.S. hiring picked up unexpectedly in December as employers added 256,000 jobs, another sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates.