TRUMP’S STEEP LEARNING CURVE
After just 100 days in office, he is the least popular leader in modern US history
FROM his resounding setbacks in Congress to his policy flip-flops, Donald Trump has faced a steep learning curve in his opening months at the White House.
Though the new United States president has shown a capacity to change both his tone and positions, he has struggled to convey a clearly articulated world view.
With the arrival of the symbolic milestone of 100 days in power yesterday, a cold, hard reality is setting in for the billionaire businessman, who promised supporters he would “win, win, win” for them.
At this stage of his presidency, Trump is the least popular leader in modern US history, even if his core supporters fully back him.
The 70-year-old president, whose election victory unleashed a political shockwave around the world, is clinging to the take-noprisoners, unpredictable, impulsive style that made him a property mogul and reality television star.
But, the one-time anti-establishment candidate who promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington appears to have recognised — with a mix of naivety and craftiness — that he has one of the most difficult jobs in the world.
In just his first few weeks in office, Trump suffered some crippling blows.
Federal courts halted his proposed travel ban and Congress failed to adopt healthcare reform.
“Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated,” he said during his efforts to have Obamacare — his Democratic predecessor’s signature domestic policy achievement — repealed and replaced.
And, following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping about North Korea, he said “after listening for 10 minutes, I realised it’s not so easy”.
The demands and constraints of the Oval Office, where every word uttered counts, are quite different from the daily stump speeches Trump made on the campaign trail.
Where to turn for advice? What kind of relationship to build with Congress, even when it’s controlled by his own party? How much latitude to afford the usually powerful State and Defence departments?
All of his predecessors have said it: moving into the mansion in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a shock to the system.
“There’s just something about this job as president that every president faces.
“You think one thing going in, and then the pressures of the job or the realities of the world are different than what you thought,” George W. Bush said recently.
Aside from his unwavering penchant for morning tweetstorms, often influenced by the ebb and flow of headlines on Fox News, Trump has already changed.
In the choice of his teams and some negotiations, a sort of “presidentialisation” seems to be unfolding, albeit haltingly.
Elevated to the highest office in the US with no prior political, diplomatic or military experience, Trump said his ever-evolving approach worked.
“I do change, and I am flexible, and I am proud of that flexibility,” he said before authorising air strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over what Washington said was a sarin gas attack on civilians.
On China, Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, his about-faces have reassured some Americans to some extent, and some of Washington’s allies.
“When a president moves from being so wrong to being so right on such important questions, the sensible response is not to carp, but to celebrate, however cautiously,” The Washington Post said in an editorial, reminding readers of the harsh, dark tone of Trump’s inaugural address.
But, his approach also includes risks. From Syria to North Korea, what is the risk of dragging the US into a military conflict with an unpredictable outcome, a situation Trump warned against on the campaign trail?
How would the Republican president react if a major terror attack were to happen on US soil, as it did on 9/11? Both style and substance reveal that Trump is an American president like no other before him.
In a disconcerting interview given to Time magazine in March, in which Trump defended his controversial, far-fetched or just plain false statements one by one, he said: “What am I going to tell you? I tend to be right.”
More than three months after he took office, many of his detractors deem comments by the novelist Philip Roth in an interview with The New Yorker in late January to be on the money.
He described a president “ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognising subtlety or nuance... and wielding a vocabulary of 77 words”.
Trump’s numerous policy pivots and resets also raise questions about the very definition of his fluid brand of “Trumpism”, which revolves around his ubiquitous “America First” slogan, a seemingly simple idea that is nevertheless tough to explain.
Meanwhile, the internal squabbles in the White House have not helped the president move forward with articulating his longterm vision.
All too aware that he does not have much to show, Trump lashed out with a tweet decrying the “ridiculous standard of the first 100 days” — one his own team has repeatedly said was vital.
Now, Trump, who regularly talks about possibly running for re-election, has more than 1,300 days ahead of him until his first term ends.
After listening for 10 minutes, I realised it’s not so easy.
DONALD TRUMP Following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on North Korea