West Wing staffers always matter, but never more so than when the president they serve lacks deep ideological convictions. It is clearer than ever that whoever has Donald Trump's ear controls the direction of the country.

Reflecting the declining influence of chief strategist Stephen Bannon and the growing power of former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn, Trump broke Wednesday with several populist and nationalist positions that he espoused on the campaign trail:

1. The president pledged his full support for NATO. "It was once obsolete; it is no longer obsolete," he said after meeting with the organization's secretary general. "I complained about that a long time ago, and they made a change — and now they do fight terrorism." As recently as March 22, Trump called the trans-Atlantic alliance "obsolete, because it doesn't cover terrorism." However, NATO has been involved in counterterrorism since 1980, and especially since 9/11.

2. He told the Wall Street Journal he will not label China a "currency manipulator." As a candidate, he pledged to do so on his first day in office. Just last week, Trump called China "the world champion" of currency manipulation in an interview with the Financial Times. Wednesday, he said of China, "They're not currency manipulators." He said that talking about how they manipulate their currency could jeopardize his talks with Beijing about confronting the nuclear threat of North Korea.

3. He expressed openness to reappointing Barack Obama's Federal Reserve Board chair. Last year, he said Janet Yellen should be "ashamed" of what she was doing to ruin the country. On Wednesday, he said she was "not toast" when her term ends next year. He said, "I like her. I respect her. It's very early."

4. He disavowed his position on interest rates. Trump told the Post when he was a candidate that the low rates might be creating "a bubble where you go into a very massive recession." During a debate in the fall, he attacked Yellen for keeping interest rates low to help Hillary Clinton win. Wednesday, he told the Wall Street Journal: "I do like a low-interest-rate policy, I must be honest with you."

5. He recanted his call for closing the Export-Import Bank. "I don't like it because I don't think it's necessary," Trump told Bloomberg News during the campaign. "It's sort of a featherbedding for politicians and others, and a few companies. … And when you think about free enterprise, it's really not free enterprise." Now that the president is in control, he promises to fight for it: "Actually, it's a very good thing," he said. "It turns out that … lots of small companies are really helped!"

6. OMB director Mick Mulvaney said Trump's promise to get rid of the national debt was never meant to be taken literally. "It's fairly safe to assume that was hyperbole," he said during a CNBC sit-down that aired Wednesday. "I'm not going to be able to pay off $20 trillion worth of debt in four years. I'd be being dishonest with you if I said that I could."

Host John Harwood noted that Trump promised to take care of displaced workers in places like Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. "He didn't say, 'I'm going to get rid of the Appalachian Regional Commission,' " the interview said. "Yeah, and my guess is he probably didn't know what the Appalachian Regional Commission did," Mulvaney replied. Trump has proposed eliminating all funding for the commission, which works to help coal-mining communities.

7. High on the list of Trump's promises in his "Contract with the American Voter," released last October, was an ironclad "five-year ban" on White House officials becoming lobbyists after they leave the government. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the administration has "granted a waiver" so that senior White House budget adviser Marcus Peacock can leave to take a job as a top lobbyist for the Business Roundtable, even though he signed an ethics pledge that included the five-year ban.

8. Trump no longer believes the military is a disaster. During an interview with Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo that aired Wednesday morning, Trump waxed poetic about U.S. military might. "It's so incredible. It's brilliant. It's genius. Our technology, our equipment, is better than anybody by a factor of five," he said. "In terms of technology, nobody can even come close to competing." At a rally last April, he said, "We're going to rebuild out military. Our military is in shambles!"