The hundredth day of an American president’s term traditionally marks the end of the honeymoon period – a time to take stock of early achievements, launch new legislation, and set a new direction.
But the score card for Donald Trump’s first 100 days doesn’t read well, and the direction for the next four years is looking so new as to radically contradict the premise of his campaign.
Trump hasn’t commenced the wall along the US-Mexican border, his signature campaign pledge.
He has failed (and spectacularly) to repeal and replace the healthcare reforms collectively known as Obamacare, and the courts have thwarted his orders to ban foreign nationals from several mainly Muslim countries from the US.
And on a moral front, his compassion for Syrian children killed in a horrific chemical attack was offset by his decision to turn away 10 000 Syrian refugees.
The administration is under intense pressure from investigations into the Trump team’s Russian connections and purported Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The resignation of General Mike Flynn and the hapless antics of the investigating committees in Congress have only made the saga more damaging.
All the while, American opinion remains divided as ever: Trump currently enjoys the approval of roughly 40% of his people.
Trump’s image problem extends well beyond the US’s borders.
In the past month, I spent a week in China while President Xi Jinping was visiting Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.
I then visited the US, travelling from North Carolina through Virginia and on to Washington, DC.
The Chinese are mostly bemused by the new president, who comes in for plenty of criticism in the Chinese media.
In the US, meanwhile, the president is at the centre of a perpetual media frenzy, lurching from one decision to the next while providing byplay via his own tweets.
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