https://www.scmp.com/rss/324344/feed April 29, 2017 marked US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office in his first administration. The milestone has been used as a benchmark since the first term of Franklin D. Roosevelt. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Tuesday that Obama administration aides left behind taunting notes for incoming Trump officials when they handed over their offices in 2017. Numerous Obama aides denounced the accusation as fiction. “We came into the White House. I’ll tell you something, every office was filled with Obama books and we had notes left behind that said ‘you will fail,’ ‘you aren’t going to make it,’” Grisham told conservative radio show host John Fredericks in an... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038490/you-will-fail-trump-spokeswoman-says-obama-aides?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3038490/you-will-fail-trump-spokeswoman-says-obama-aides?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Nov 2019 21:27:55 +0000 A US federal judge in Texas ruled on Friday that the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is unconstitutional, a decision that was likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court. US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth agreed with a coalition of 20 states that a change in tax law last year eliminating a penalty for not having health insurance invalidated the entire Obamacare law. The news was celebrated by US President Donald Trump soon after it broke. As I predicted all along,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2178136/us-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2178136/us-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Dec 2018 03:02:33 +0000 On August 18, Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, ­resigned. That came shortly after Bannon’s sensational interview with Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of the progressive magazine American Prospect, which published it on August 16. In the interview, Bannon claimed: “The economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, 10 years at most, of hitting an inflection point from which... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2108071/why-beijing-should-mourn-not-cheer-exit-steve-bannon-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2108071/why-beijing-should-mourn-not-cheer-exit-steve-bannon-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Aug 2017 09:00:45 +0000 The generally accepted definition of an ethical leader is that they should have personal integrity and honesty, respect human rights and equality; abide by the rule of law and exercise good governance. Donald Trump seems to have breached them all in his six months as US president. Firstly, he has refused to place his business interests in a blind trust, as some of his predecessors did. Instead, he put his vast holdings in a revocable trust managed by his two sons. Trump is able to do this... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105328/how-donald-trump-making-case-against-democracy-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105328/how-donald-trump-making-case-against-democracy-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Aug 2017 02:17:38 +0000 Last summer, the prospect of Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump presiding over the annual Bastille Day celebrations in Paris as presidents of France and the US respectively was almost unthinkable. Yet on Friday, it was the former Rothschild banker and the New York property developer who celebrated the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into the first world war in a sign of the extent to which the political landscape in the leading Western democracies has changed over the past year. The contrast... https://www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2102871/are-investors-wrong-be-so-bullish-europe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2102871/are-investors-wrong-be-so-bullish-europe?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Jul 2017 00:33:06 +0000 What happened in the US on Tuesday was surely a rejected pilot reel for a B-grade TV reality show about an apprentice president playing at running the White House. Donald Trump abruptly fired James Comey, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with a four paragraph letter hand-delivered to his office. Either the president was badly informed about the whereabouts of the director or he wanted to deliver a petty humiliation in front of FBI staff, because Comey was not in his office in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2093778/shock-firing-fbi-chief-james-comey-yet-another-episode?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2093778/shock-firing-fbi-chief-james-comey-yet-another-episode?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 May 2017 09:03:57 +0000 US President Donald Trump is reviewing a possible breakup of large US banks. Trump said that he was considering a “21st century” version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall law that separated consumer lending and investment banking and was repealed in 1999 by President Bill Clinton. “I’m looking at that right now,” Trump said of breaking up banks in the 30-minute Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. “There’s some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we’re going to look at... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2092282/trump-considers-breaking-wall-streets-big-banks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2092282/trump-considers-breaking-wall-streets-big-banks?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 May 2017 05:43:15 +0000 Top US Democrat Nancy Pelosi has admitted something of a Freudian slip. In a conversation with host Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week, the US House Minority Leader discussed US President Donald Trump’s 100 days in office and whether the Democratic Party could work with him. “I see everything as an opportunity. And I’ve never have seen so much willingness to help win. And winning means winning for the American people, that either we win or whoever wins understands the priorities of the American... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091987/trump-marked-100-days-office-nancy-pelosi-let-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091987/trump-marked-100-days-office-nancy-pelosi-let-one?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 May 2017 05:43:53 +0000 After 100 days full of fits and starts, US President Donald Trump is barrelling into the second phase of his presidency focused on attempting to secure big victories that have eluded him on the economic pillars of his agenda. With an eye toward keeping his core promise of creating jobs and ramping up economic growth, Trump has fixated on tax reform as the next undertaking of his administration - an opportunity for him to land a first major legislative victory after repeated failures to pass a... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091977/after-flip-flops-and-missteps-how-will-trump-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091977/after-flip-flops-and-missteps-how-will-trump-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 May 2017 05:01:40 +0000 US President Donald Trump said he would soon make a “big decision” on the Paris climate change agreement amid fears that he could make good his promise to pull out of the landmark 2015 pact. “I’ll be making a big decision on the Paris accord over the next two weeks, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said in a speech in Pennsylvania Saturday marking his first 100 days in office. Trump’s administration has been split on the climate agreement, with Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091850/trump-will-make-big-decision-2015-paris-climate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091850/trump-will-make-big-decision-2015-paris-climate?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Apr 2017 08:19:02 +0000 US President Donald Trump is holding on to his threat to label China as a currency manipulator as a bargaining chip to deal with North Korea, analysts say, even though Beijing may not play ball. Going back to his core support base in a campaign-style rally in Pennsylvania to mark his first 100 days in the White House, Trump said now was “not exactly the right time” to confront Beijing when President Xi ­Jinping (習近平) was helping him rein in North Korea’s aggressive pursuit of ballistic missiles... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091837/not-exactly-right-time-trump-hedges-bets-calling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091837/not-exactly-right-time-trump-hedges-bets-calling?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Apr 2017 04:28:25 +0000 The White House press corps gathered on Saturday for its annual black-tie dinner, a toned-down affair this year after Donald Trump snubbed the event, becoming the first incumbent US president to bow out in 36 years. Without Trump, who scheduled a rally instead to mark his 100th day in office, the usually celebrity-filled soiree hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association took a more sober turn, even as it pulled in top journalists and Washington insiders. Most of Trump’s administration... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091834/white-house-press-carry-annual-dinner-washington?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091834/white-house-press-carry-annual-dinner-washington?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Apr 2017 04:12:16 +0000 US President Donald Trump hit the road to celebrate his first 100 days in the White House with cheering supporters at a campaign-style rally, touting his initial achievements and lashing out at critics who have given his tenure poor marks. Trump told a Pennsylvania crowd he was just getting started on meeting his campaign promises. He repeatedly attacked an “incompetent, dishonest” media, saying they were not telling the truth about his administration’s accomplishments. “My administration has... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091827/donald-trump-hails-very-productive-first-100-days?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091827/donald-trump-hails-very-productive-first-100-days?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Apr 2017 01:14:30 +0000 Thousands of people across the US marched in rain, snow and sweltering heat Saturday to demand action on climate change — mass protests that coincided with President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office and took aim at his agenda for rolling back environmental protections. At the marquee event, the Peoples Climate March in Washington, DC, tens of thousands of demonstrators made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue on their way to encircle the White House as temperatures soared into the 90s... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091826/americans-march-rain-snow-and-blistering-heat-demand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091826/americans-march-rain-snow-and-blistering-heat-demand?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Apr 2017 23:38:09 +0000 From his resounding setbacks in Congress to his stunning policy flip-flops, Donald Trump has faced a steep learning curve in his opening months at the White House. Although the new US 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 on Saturday, a cold, hard reality is setting in for the billionaire businessman who promised supporters he would “win,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091761/trumps-first-100-days-chaotic-discovery-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091761/trumps-first-100-days-chaotic-discovery-power?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Apr 2017 12:11:28 +0000 The first impression of the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency begins with a question: has it really only been 100 days? There’s been such a frenzy of activity by this preternaturally distractible US president that it seems hard to believe he has only been in office since late January. Trump has been a godsend to journalism. Newspaper subscriptions and online page views are up, and audiences are rushing back to cable news channels, all to see what Trump and his team will do next. It’s a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2091204/first-100-days-president-trump-drunk-stumbling-down-highway?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2091204/first-100-days-president-trump-drunk-stumbling-down-highway?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Apr 2017 10:00:30 +0000 Franklin D. Roosevelt set the gold standard for an American president’s first 100 days, and created the obsession with it, by passing 15 major pieces of legislation soon after taking office in 1933 during the Great Depression. Some remain on the books today. His successors have not thanked him for setting the bar so high. Donald Trump has dismissed the 100-day benchmark as not very meaningful and “ridiculous”. At the same time, however, he has boasted about his achievements and unleashed a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091656/mixed-results-donald-trumps-first-100-days?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091656/mixed-results-donald-trumps-first-100-days?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2017 19:17:44 +0000 While the White House has pulled out all the stops – eager to tout its accomplishments – in hyping the 100-day marker of Donald Trump’s presidency, which falls on Saturday, the president has characteristically declared it an “artificial barrier” and a ridiculous standard with little meaning in the scheme of things. Not so fast! Ever since the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, during which 15 major pieces of legislation were passed by Congress in his first 100 days – designed to shore up the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091435/relations-china-and-north-korea-trump-has-makings-statesman?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091435/relations-china-and-north-korea-trump-has-makings-statesman?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2017 13:02:18 +0000 Donald Trump’s first 100 days were always going to be interesting. Never before have Americans elected a person to the Oval Office who knew so little about foreign policy, and who appeared to care so little about it. But it seemed simply unimaginable that he could conduct himself as president in the reckless, ill-informed way that he presented himself as a candidate. Nevertheless, it seemed equally hard to imagine that he could undergo the kind of changes that would be needed if he was to fulfil... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091408/syria-and-north-korea-crises-show-donald-trump-his-bumbling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091408/syria-and-north-korea-crises-show-donald-trump-his-bumbling?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2017 10:00:34 +0000 President Donald Trump seems destined to serve his 100th day in office without House passage of a major Republican health care bill or enactment of a budget financing the government for the rest of this year. But at least the government probably won’t be shut down – for at least another week. The House won’t vote on a reworked health care overhaul until at least next week, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, told reporters late on Thursday. Party leaders made that decision after spending all day... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091517/trump-wont-get-house-ok-health-bill-his-100th-day?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091517/trump-wont-get-house-ok-health-bill-his-100th-day?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2017 09:56:36 +0000 He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is. US President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House. “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump said in an interview. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.” Why Trump is a test case for tit-for-tat in foreign relations A wealthy businessman from New York, Trump assumed... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091425/i-thought-it-would-be-easier-trump-reflects-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2091425/i-thought-it-would-be-easier-trump-reflects-his?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2017 04:06:04 +0000 As with any human interaction, international relations, whether economic or political, is a combination of cooperation and competition. The “cooperation” part benefits all involved, whether by sustaining world peace or boosting growth and prosperity through free trade. The “competition” part creates serious risks, from economic impediments to war and environmental destruction. So why don’t countries cooperate more? The answer comes down, in part, to the so-called prisoner’s dilemma. Countries... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091420/why-trump-test-case-tit-tat-foreign-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091420/why-trump-test-case-tit-tat-foreign-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2017 03:59:38 +0000 A day after President Donald Trump’s tax plan for corporate America, more questions than answers remain on just how his vision will affect businesses. Economists and analysts also differed over whether the plan will lead to a flood of repatriation from China, exacerbating the capital flight that had only begun to ease after months of draconian government policies. The Trump administration’s top economic adviser Gary Cohn and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday proposed to cut... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2091208/what-does-trumps-tax-plan-mean-china-economists-are-divided?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2091208/what-does-trumps-tax-plan-mean-china-economists-are-divided?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Apr 2017 17:00:00 +0000 “An inch ahead in politics is darkness,” goes a Japanese proverb. Not surprisingly, politicians tend to rely instinctively on family members, who they can naturally trust to steer them through the shadows. Hence dynasticism and politics have always gone hand in hand in Asia – and now it seems America, too. Prabowo Subianto, who lost to Joko Widodo in Indonesia’s presidential election in 2014, but whose fortunes seem to be turning with the defeat of Widodo’s ally Basuki “Ahok” Purnama in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2090865/what-jared-kushner-has-learn-malaysian-indonesian-dynasties?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2090865/what-jared-kushner-has-learn-malaysian-indonesian-dynasties?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Apr 2017 13:30:00 +0000 Dates legally set for elections are real and must be observed. “Hundred-day reviews” are artificial and offer only limited insight into the new Trump administration, which will reach the milestone, however arbitrary, on Saturday. This would normally blow over as but a blip in the media cycle, but for two things that should be somewhat embarrassing now. When campaigning for the US presidency, Donald Trump made a lot of what he would accomplish in his first 100 days, some of which he has done, and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091167/100-day-record-donald-trumps-imagination-far-cry-reality?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2091167/100-day-record-donald-trumps-imagination-far-cry-reality?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Apr 2017 09:20:44 +0000 US President Donald Trump indicated an openness on Monday to delaying his push to secure funds for his promised border wall with Mexico, potentially eliminating a sticking point as lawmakers worked to avoid a looming shutdown of the federal government. Trump, in a private meeting with conservative media outlets, said he may wait until Republicans begin drafting the budget blueprint for the fiscal year that starts on October 1 to seek government funds for building a wall along the US-Mexico... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2090384/trump-may-put-pursuit-wall-funding-hold-bid-avert?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2090384/trump-may-put-pursuit-wall-funding-hold-bid-avert?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Apr 2017 04:45:30 +0000 For nearly 100 days, President Donald Trump has rattled Washington and been chastened by its institutions. He’s startled world leaders with his unpredictability and tough talk, but won their praise for a surprise strike on Syria. He’s endured the steady drip of investigations and a seemingly endless churn of public personnel drama. “It’s a different kind of a presidency,” Trump said in an Oval Office interview with The Associated Press, an hour-long conversation as he approached Saturday’s key... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2090040/trump-approaching-100-days-says-its-been-different?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2090040/trump-approaching-100-days-says-its-been-different?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Apr 2017 03:15:30 +0000 After two weeks away, the 535 members of Congress return to Washington on Monday facing a critical deadline: they have five days to keep the government from shutting down, on the 100-day milestone of Donald Trump’s presidency. In a rare show of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans are united in their determination to keep the lights on. But it’s unclear how they will navigate the competing interests of their parties and the White House to find a solution that the three sides can... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2089901/us-government-could-run-out-money-trumps-100th-day?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2089901/us-government-could-run-out-money-trumps-100th-day?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Apr 2017 05:00:30 +0000 For months US President Donald Trump railed against China over trade but the only concrete outcome he extracted from his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping was a promise to start 100 days of talks on narrowing the substantial US trade deficit. The compromise pales with Trump’s election-trail threats to label China a currency manipulator and slap punitive tariffs on Chinese imports. Now the big questions are whether Trump can assemble the right trade team to negotiate with... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2086099/can-washington-narrow-its-trade-deficit-beijing-100?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2086099/can-washington-narrow-its-trade-deficit-beijing-100?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Apr 2017 15:45:30 +0000 In the two months or so since Donald Trump’s unexpected victory in the US presidential election, there has been quite a bit of speculation as to the foreign policies his government will pursue once in power. As a candidate, Trump, when he did address issues of foreign policy, vacillated and often switched positions, with the exception of trade. After his inauguration on Friday, Trump’s actual plans for US foreign policy remain mostly unclear. There are, however, two primary areas that interested... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2064189/what-watch-out-donald-trumps-first-100-days-office?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2064189/what-watch-out-donald-trumps-first-100-days-office?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jan 2017 01:00:00 +0000 Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 45th president of the United States - in a new political era that has been cheered and feared. Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, took the oath of office outside the domed US Capitol, with US Chief Justice John Roberts presiding. Here’s how the day unfolded (in EST and Hong Kong times): Evening: The Trumps and Pences will attend three official inaugural balls, according to the presidential inaugural committee . Two, titled “Liberty and Freedom: The... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2064048/inauguration-latest-trump-heads-church-then-see?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2064048/inauguration-latest-trump-heads-church-then-see?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jan 2017 14:45:15 +0000