Donald Trump has done an about-face on two big (but completely unrelated) issues, which took place within a few days of each other. While it's impossible to know what he was thinking, the reasons behind these two major reversals can probably be summed up as: (1) he was about to lose, and: (2) he was already losing. Trump has a pathological fear of being on the losing side of anything, so both of these U-turns was pretty obviously intended to put him on the side of winning, at the last possible minute.

The first one -- the one that he was about to lose -- is the vote tomorrow in the House of Representatives that will force the Justice Department to release all of the files it has from investigating Jeffrey Epstein. Speaker Mike Johnson fought tooth and nail to prevent this vote from happening, of course, even going to the extent of refusing to swear in a new House member for two months after she was elected -- because she had vowed she would immediately become the critical 218th signature on the discharge petition. This parliamentary move is used to force a vote on an issue the speaker does not want brought up, and in this case it worked precisely as designed. Once newly-sworn-in Representative Adelita Grijalva signed the petition, the clock started ticking.

Trump and his minions placed some severe pressure on the four Republicans who had signed the petition, but to no avail. None of them removed their signatures. Over the weekend, one of the Republican sponsors of the measure predicted there would be a wave of GOP votes for it when it got to the floor -- over 100 of them, he confidently predicted. Others were more conservative in their estimates, but it seems likely that the number of GOP defectors would have been a lot higher than just the four who signed the discharge petition. That would have been an embarrassing loss for Trump, since he fought so hard to avoid the vote and avoid releasing all the files. In fact, if 100 or more Republicans voted for it, it would pass with a veto-proof majority -- which would hammer home the message that Trump was powerless to stop the effort.

So Trump apparently shrugged and turned his coat. He sent out a message Sunday night that said (in part):

As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it's time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat “Shutdown." ... I DON'T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT, which is the Economy, "Affordability" (where we are winning BIG!) ... Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory. Some "members" of the Republican Party are being "used," and we can't let that happen. Let's start talking about the Republican Party's Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein "TRAP," which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.

Now that Trump has given this green light, the vote in the House might actually wind up being unanimous. Which would put an incredible amount of pressure on the Senate to bring the measure to a vote as well. And if 67 of them vote for it, it would pass with a clear veto-proof majority in both houses -- which is pretty extraordinary, these days.

Eagle-eyed political watchers will note one rather head-scratching thing about Trump's turnabout: if Trump is now on board with the idea, then Congress doesn't have to do anything. Trump could just call up Attorney General Pam Bondi and direct her to release everything immediately. After all, Trump's (and his Justice Department's) refusal to release the files is precisely the reason the measure was introduced in the first place. If Trump is now no longer against such a release, then there is nothing whatsoever stopping him from just ordering it to happen. Which is why Trump using his patented "jump on the winning bandwagon at the last possible moment" tactic is so downright bizarre. He's encouraging a vote against himself, in essence. How does that even make sense?

Speaking of things that don't make sense, we have Trump's other big about-face -- the one on the subject where he was already losing. At the end of last week, Trump announced he was dropping all his self-imposed tariffs on a long list of food items. Some (but not all) of them are products that cannot be grown in America, like coffee (outside of a limited amount grown in Hawai'i) and bananas. But Trump has yet to put together one of his pretzel-logic rationalizations for why he is taking this step -- which equally makes no sense when compared with everything else he's said on the subject to date.

According to Trump, tariffs are wonderful because they are never paid for by American consumers, period. Also according to Trump, food prices are way down -- much lower than when Joe Biden was president. And the entire concept of "affordability" as a political issue is just a big giant hoax by Democrats. You can tell Trump is worried about this by him including it in his message above (Republicans are "winning BIG!" on affordability, according to Trump).

But if all that were true, then there would simply be no need to lower any tariffs right now for any reason. Of course, none of it is actually true. Tariffs are taxes ultimately paid by the consumer. Food prices are up under Trump -- and some of them (beef, coffee) are way up. And the voters do indeed care about affordability, as evidenced by the winning campaigns multiple Democrats ran in this year's elections.

This reality is what forced Trump to back down. Whether he ever admits it or not (the safe bet would be on "not"), American consumers are getting slammed by higher grocery prices and they are not happy about it. Trump, after all, promised to lower everyone's prices starting on "Day One," but once in office he conveniently forgot all about that pledge. And his ridiculous trade war slapped tariffs on every country in sight, which has indeed raised prices for American consumers. Removing the tariffs on food is an admission of defeat for Trump, plain and simple. What's the easiest way to lower prices quickly? Get rid of the tariffs which have driven prices up -- that Trump made happen.

As I said, I am awaiting Trump's twisted logic for how this somehow all makes sense and that he's been right all along. So far, he hasn't really settled on a spin job, but no doubt he'll choose one from some rightwing television personality soon and try to convince us all that up has been down all along.

The reality, however, is that after the Republicans got spanked in the recent elections, they began to get seriously worried about their chances in the midterm elections, and someone at the White House actually dared to tell Trump that the GOP was in trouble. They were in trouble because prices have kept going up, inflation still exists (and is getting worse, from the last measurement released), and people are feeling the economic pain at the grocery store every week. Also, that Trump's own poll numbers were taking a big dive. Trump's first reaction to all of this was to try to gaslight everyone in sight, loudly insisting that none of it was true. After this had no effect whatsoever, Trump was finally convinced he had to do something. And the easiest thing to do was to essentially admit that he'd been wrong all along and his tariffs were a stupid idea that just raised everyone's prices while grocery shopping.

Trump, of course, is never going to do that last part -- admit that he was wrong. But whatever pretzel logic he eventually settles on (to explain how this is all part of some brilliant plan), actions speak louder than bluster. And in the past week alone, Trump has had to act to head off two big defeats -- one very public (the House vote), and one continual and ongoing (which was dragging his poll numbers down and handing Democrats a big political advantage). Tomorrow, Trump will likely be bragging about his big "victory" in the House, while conveniently ignoring the fact that it was essentially a vote against him. And sooner or later he'll find a way to also insist that his food tariffs were also a big victory, because hamburgers and coffee were somehow wildly underpriced (or something). But no matter his explanations to his MAGA base, Trump just had to back down in a big way. Twice.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant