Trump paddling in troubled waters

It would not be unfair to say that Donald Trump has started his first full week in the Oval Office up to the waistband of his sharply tailored suit in particularly snappy crocodiles. The first realisation that has doubtless already dawned on the 45th president of the United States is that campaign promises, as loud as they may resound among the electorate, are by their very nature based on the yielding clay of voter expectations; policy endorsed by the incumbent in the White House demands more demonstrably concrete foundations.

Trump has already started the process of rolling back former President Barack Obama’s not universally popular health initiatives as one primary target aimed at making America great again. In this, he will doubtless get his way.

He also needs to placate Canada and Mexico as signatories to the North American Free Trade Association, which Trump had typified as one of the worst trade deals the US had yet been drawn into, to prevent any semblance of potential stumbling blocks in the economically interlinked region.

It is not the only area where he has to calm the raging waters; protesters on the streets of American cities, world leaders and some economies have taken his attention ... and that’s without the wall along the Rio Grande.