The Trump log

US President Donald Trump’s pledge to create a programme that funds US$1 trillion ($1.45t) in new infrastructure programmes has kicked off with numerous meetings but few firm decisions, beset by understaffing, bureaucratic challenges and major questions about how to pay for everything. Trump promised in a February speech to Congress that a US$1t infrastructure rebuilding plan would create “millions of new jobs”, but few of those jobs are expected to materialise this year because no firm deadlines have been set and much of its work could spill into 2018. The infrastructure team has become one of the White House’s broadest task forces, as Trump considers it to be a central plank of his promise to create more jobs. He has now activated a team of White House and Cabinet-agency officials to identify a wide range of infrastructure projects across the US and come up with a way to fund them, launching the internal deliberations to design the US$1t package he promised on the campaign trail. Republicans have pushed ahead with their plan for a massive overhaul of the US healthcare system backed by Trump, despite Democratic concern that the cost of the bill and its impact on the budget remain unknown. Two House of Representatives committees debated the draft legislation in marathon sessions, two days after it was unveiled by Republican leaders and endorsed by Trump. They made slow progress. The bill is Trump’s first legislative test and the fastemerging disorder around it comes after the chaos triggered by his travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority nations, which he later had to revise. Two senior senators have asked the FBI and Justice Department for any information they have on Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that his predecessor Barack Obama wiretapped him during last year’s presidential campaign. Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse sent their request in a letter to FBI director James Comey and Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente.