A year after Trump's victory
In November 2016, 63 million US voters elected Donald Trump as president. Since then hardly a day has gone by without scandals and calls for impeachment proceedings. One year after his election victory commentators take stock of the policies of the 45th US president.
Presidential office hasn't tamed Trump
One great hope of the Republicans hasn't been fulfilled in Trump's first year in office, Dnevnik observes:
“Many Republicans knew that they had put someone in office who had hacked his way to the top of the party and had nothing in common with the Eisenhower or Reagan tradition. But they hoped that being president would change Trump. ... However, the opposite has happened. The Republicans have adjusted to Trump. They have realised that they must tolerate and support him officially. Trump doesn't have the psychology of a person who can be tamed by their office, no matter how important that office may be. This has become clear over the last ten months and it's unlikely to change in the future.”
The economy is keeping the president in power
A year after his election Trump's approval ratings are lower than those of any US president in the last 70 years. Reality quickly catches up with those who make promises they can't keep, El Mundo observes:
“The polls reflect the disappointment with a loud and inefficient administration that has been marked by the failure to keep almost all the election pledges - most of which were impossible anyway. Trump won the election using the populist and nationalist tactic of presenting simplistic solutions to extremely complex problems. ... His erratic foreign policy and the nuclear threat from North Korea expose the failure of Trump's childish isolationism. Despite everything the US economy continues to function, providing a lifeline for a president who has little to celebrate on this anniversary.”
China replacing the US
Trump will be in China on Wednesday, the anniversary of his electoral victory. He is relinquishing the US's former power to China, Le Temps observes:
“During the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, a poster showed an athlete from Ancient Greece handing the baton to a Chinese runner from the Han Dynasty. The implicit message was that China was taking over from the West. And that's just the message the 45th president of the United States is getting ready to give in his meeting with the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. At the end of his Asian tour, Donald Trump will look like the leader of a power in decline. At least that's how the Chinese propaganda machine will portray things. And it won't be wrong about that.”
Administration scores points in foreign policy
Even before Trump's Asia trip ends his overall performance in foreign policy has been pretty good so far, Jyllands-Posten comments:
“First of all it has to be said that Trump's biggest results during his first year in office have been in the area of foreign policy. Not only has he put together a stronger alliance against North Korea and China, he also achieved something none of his predecessors - not even Obama - managed to do: he persuaded the allies to commit to spending more on defence. It's thanks to Trump that several Nato capital cities have finally realised that more countries need to contribute more.”