President Donald Trump is discarding or revamping his campaign promises and past policy stands at a dizzying rate. The latest four examples are confounding both his allies and adversaries.

Trump told reporters that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is "no longer obsolete." He made the comments Wednesday at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. During the campaign, Trump had severely criticized the alliance as outmoded, arguing that it did little to fight terrorism and that other UN members didn't pay their "fair share" to the organization. But Wednesday he reversed course. "They made a change and now they do fight terrorism," he noted. "I said it was obsolete. It is no longer obsolete." He said NATO had increased its efforts to share intelligence regarding terrorism. But he said NATO allies should still increase their financial contributions to the organization and member nations should spend more money on their own defense.

In his second turnabout, Trump told the Wall Street Journal that China is not at this time artificially deflating the value of its currency and hasn't done so for months. "They're not currency manipulators," Trump said. This reversed a policy that Trump had set during his campaign when he pledged to declare China a currency manipulator aiming to "steal" U.S. jobs and money. In a Journal interview published Wednesday, Trump said the dollar was getting "too strong" and he expressed concern that the currency issue could jeopardize U.S.-China talks to jointly deal with an increasingly belligerent North Korea.

In his third about-face, Trump announced his support for the Export-Import Bank, which helps to subsidize U.S. exports. He had opposed the Ex-Im Bank during the campaign, and conservatives hailed his opposition as part of their fight against government favoritism toward a few large financial interests. But Trump told the Journal, "It turns out that, first of all, lots of small companies are really helped, the vendor companies. Instinctively, you would say, 'Isn't that a ridiculous thing.' But actually, it's a very good thing. And it actually makes money. It could make a lot of money."

In his fourth shift, Trump told the Journal he would consider nominating Janet Yellen for another term as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, saying, "I like her. I respect her." As a candidate, he had attacked Yellen for keeping interest rates low. He had claimed that her interest-rate policy was designed to strengthen the stock market and give a boost to Democratic President Barack Obama. Last year, Trump said the central banker should be "ashamed" of what she was doing to the economy. Yellen's term expires early next year.

These shifts are only a few of Trump's turnabouts. He praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign and hammered China, and now he is tangling with Putin and warming up to China.

He said a few weeks ago that he was moving on to tax reform instead of overhauling the health care system after a Trump-supported health care bill stalled in the House. This bill would have repealed a current law known as Obamacare, one of President Obama's signature achievements. Now Trump is backtracking, saying he wants health care legislation approved before tax reform.

And his order to launch a missile strike on a Syrian airfield last week appeared to violate his campaign pledge to keep the United States out of Middle East entanglements.

President Trump's allies and critics were taken aback by some of his shifts. "Trump is walking a policy tightrope," Stephen Moore, who advised Trump on the economy during the campaign, told the Washington Post. "A president of course has to adapt to changing circumstances, but he also has to honor his central campaign promises. Janet Yellen and Obamacare have to go."

Barry Bosworth, a senior economic analyst at the Brookings Institution, told the Post, "The president's positions were 'shoot from the hip,' and, basically, I think the professional economists found it absurd. To observe that he's willing to move back towards a more rational policy...to me, it says the president listens to common sense."