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President Trump tells Mexico to either slow the increasing flow of migrants from Guatemala or face higher tariffs on Mexico's exports to the U.S. For the first time in recent decades Trump uses tariffs as a tool of diplomacy to reverse policies of countries with which it is in an unfavorable position. For the first time Trump uses negotiations to convey America's position that when it comes to some issues such as migration or trade because of the slippage in America's middle class incomes the U.S. should be considered as the same as a developing country. So that no preference should be given to other countries to the detriment of people in the U.S. when it comes to jobs, incomes, and funding for social services. Mexico a developing country could no longer insist that Guatemalans should not find a home in Mexico just because it was a developing country, if its policies supported the flow of migrants from Guatemala to the U.S. as in the case of Mexican president Lopez Obrador.   ...

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On BBC: See key moments video of US Liberation Day, Rose Garden April 2, 2025. DJT describes decades of inaction by previous American presidents as the US and American workers, and factory towns were looted and pillaged of their factories by other nations. At one point he said the US lost 90,000 factories and it would be impossible to put 90,000 tacks on a map to show these lost factories from cheating by other trading nations including Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea. And use of third nations Mexico and Vietnam by China, and Mexico by Germany to ship into the US. All this stops on April 2, 2025. In this way the US which made 100% od the worlds computer chips lost an entire industry to Taiwan. It also lost its electronics industries. And its pharmaceutical industry, so that antibiotics if not imported would not be available to the people of the United States. It becomes a antional security issue when the shipbuilding industry is also gone where one shipbuilding plant in china makes more ships than all the plants in the USA. And nothing was done about this till today. DJT said there is a simple way to avoid these tariffs- make in the USA and there are no tariffs. Already Apple he says has committed to invest $500 billion in the US and Taiwan to build the largest semiconductor plant in the world in the USA. And total investments in the US now add up to $10 trillion, says DJT. ...

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Trump turns to early supporters of his campaign in his appointments to key positions. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is the new Attorney General. Mike Pompeo, three time Congressman from Kansas, as CIA Director, and Mike Flynn, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency under president Obama for 2 years, as the National Security Advisor. Among people Trump is meeting to broaden the new administration team are- Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, and Michelle Rhee, a Democrat who was chancellor of schools in the District of Columbia.

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Production cuts of 9.7 million barrels a day of oil are negotiated by president Trump to save the global oil industry. Yet demand has dropped by 30 million barrels a day by April 12, 2020 from the pandemic.

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Borchers of the Washington Post reflects on why president Trump gave the long rambling interview in July 2017 to the NYT.  President Trump has  called the NYT both "failing" and "a crown jewel." He particularly respects the reporter Maggie Haberman, a reporter with whom Trump has a long relationship and whose reporting he respects. Haberman is seen by Trump as an influential political reporter, whose view counts, and who can be critical but also seeks to be fair in reporting. During the election campaign the NYT carried reporting critical of Trump, yet it also had reporters who were critical of Hillary Clinton. In many ways both the NYT and the WSJ from different points of view seek a place in the middle with fair reporting, needed particularly in today's politics where ideology sometimes trumps common sense and U.S. traditions of fairness.

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The U.S. vice presidential debate between Mike Spence and Tim Kaine showed Kaine focussing attention on Trump's crude attacks on women, praise for Russian president Putin, and opposition to the minimum wage. Spence's tone was measured and his focus was on deflecting the attacks on the crude language used by Trump in the campaign by saying Trump was "not a polished professional politician," like the others, and not responding to the Kaine references to Trump. Spence stuck to issues about immigration open borders, abortion, president Obama's inaction in Syria, the plight of workers in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He did not respond to repeated questions on Trump's failure to disclose his tax returns and his business failures leading to close to a billion dollars in losses and not having paid taxes for 18 years, as disclosed by the New York Times. Spence had to choose between hurting his own chances for reelection with the traditional Republican voters alienated by Trump and standing up for Trump's crude language against women and minorities. He deftly tried to the best using his skills as a radio broadcaster. Kaine who is usually more measured and thoughtful, had to choose between his traditional style of speaking and the role he was expected to play bringing to the public's attention the crude language and style of the Trump campaign and the instability reflected in it. He used his skills as a litigator to ask repeated questions on Trump, especially on the taxes, which leads to questions about funding infrastructure development and jobs without the wealthy paying their share of taxes. ...

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U.S. president Trump has a meeting with the Pope at the Vatican in which both were seated at a wooden desk in the pope's private study, and both listened carefully. Trump told the pope, "Thank you, thank you, I won't forget what you said." The pope gave Trump an encyclical on the environment, in which he said that capitalism had contributed to degrading the environment and this hurt the poor. Trump said he would read the encyclical. The U.S. president was critical of the Paris climate change accord on the campaign trail in 2016. Now as he decides whether the U.S. should withdraw, aides at the White House in favor of it see this as an opportunity for Trump to get a better understanding of the issue before deciding. Mr. Trump gave the pope a first edition copy of Martin Luther King's writings, and Francis gave Trump a medal bearing an olive branch. Trump then met for 50 minutes with the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin.

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In a first at Davos World Economic Forum, China's president Xi Jinping uses the 2017 meeting to give a one hour long spirited defense of the world trading system, critical of U.S. president elect Trump's protectionist views without naming him. Xi pointed out that "no one will be winners in a trade war." And went on to add that restricting world trade was like "locking oneself in a dark room, keeping out wind and rain from outside but also light and air." For the first time Jinping stated that China would take the U.S. role of defending the world trading system from attack as needed. On climate change Xi defended the Paris accords, and gave China's commitment to pursue changes regardless of what the U.S. under president Trump does. This follows Chancellor Merkel of Germany's statements on the issue critical of the views of president elect Trump, and taking the lead to defend the world trading system. Xi also pointed out that many of the ills that led to voter discontent in the West were not really from the freeing up of trade but from the pursuit of excessive profit with the financial crisis of 2008.   ...

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President Richard Nixon was named by a grand jury in 1974 but was never charged with a crime says WSJ. By the time he left office Nixon's reputation had suffered severe damage. NYT reports that this is different with Mr. Trump who seeks the nomination of the Republican party in 2024, raising a whole new set of issues of what is and is not appropriate behaviour for the office of the president of the US or for that matter any high office in the United States of America. Ultimately new standards will be set and the past few years make be looked back on as an anomaly in the history of the US.

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The Wall Street Journal looks back at president Trump's first year in office from the inauguration speech to the passage of the new tax law. Race and immigration issues form the background of much of the domestic politics as Democrats prepare to shutdown government by December 2017 over a comment by the president. This happens during a meeting between the two parties on the Dreamer legislation to allow children of people illegally in the U.S. to stay in the country, when the president makes a derogatory remark about immigrants from Haiti and says he prefers immigrants from Norway. Efforts to repeal the Obama healthcare legislation fail during the first year. Democrats win a Senate seat in Alabama. A special counsel, Mr. Mueller, is appointed to investigate the Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. The tax law is skewed towards more tax cuts for the wealthy than the middle class, with the increase in the deficit not justifying the cut as infrastructure and other needs in health and education require funding. In international affairs Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and takes a strong stand on Iran and North Korea.    ...

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President Trump faces criticism for allowing the trade deficit to grow and following tax policies that have aggravated the fiscal deficit.  

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Peggy Noonan, former press spokesperson for president Reagan, says what the president does in private is as important as what happens in public- that the tweets by president Trump done in private have not helped in the first 100 days. She says attacks on the Freedom Caucus deepened divisions in the Republican party. The failure to shake German chancellor Merkel's hand was not a proper diplomatic move and shows lack of public respect for Germany with which America shares a common history. Her sense is that what counts today is a constructive mentality and keeping perspective for the long run, and in this respect the first 100 days are not encouraging, she says.

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A Washington Post reporter tells why his reading list for 2018 has on it Winston Churchill's book "The Gathering Storm." A book suggested to him by Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. Authoritarian tendencies are evident in the interview with Schmidt of the NYT, including the idea expressed by president Trump that the Justice Department is something over which the president has "absolute rights." In a interview on CNN, Carl Bernstein, the reporter who covered the Watergate scandal of president Nixon, clarified that it was not just the break  into the Watergate apartments that led to impeachment of Nixon. Bernstein stated that it was the way in which Nixon used the powers of the presidency that led to the problems he faced.

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In his commencement address to to 1000 cadets graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, DJT tells graduates to think big, take risks and hold on to the culture. He says president Dwight D. Eisenhower who graduated from West Point believed that it was important to think big the harder the challenge, as problems sometimes difficult to solve become easier to tackle when one thinks big at the larger problem. Other advice was to hold on to the momentum achieved in any task to move on to the next step which may lead to big results. And always living with thrifty habits and hard work that pays of with perseverance. A certain CEO of a large bank who has been around almost forever says most important in life is to go out and listen to people, talk to people, the only way to find out what is happening. He also says courtesy and humility are very important. These are not habits DJT mentioned at West Point but are very important in real life along with hard work and perseverance to achieve lasting results. ...

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Strident tone of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defending tariffs, the economy, and affordability. Bessent defends the DJT administration's tariffs plan, its effort to bring back jobs, its policies on gas prices that have cut inflation, and the president's Big Bold Beautiful Bill with it's provisions for Businesses to expand investment in the economy using a rapid depreciation provision. He has called the critics as having "Trump Derangement Syndrome." Part of this is based on his economic experience and understanding of how tariffs can be used to level the playing field where the EU, Japan, China, Mexico and other countries have taken advantage of trade policy for their own gains to the detriment of the US and communities in the Nation that lose jobs and factories. One of the assets to the current administration of DJT is Bessent's grasp of financial markets, his extensive experience in the field as a business person. He was able to convince the president to withdraw tariffs or mitigate tariffs to adjust for the effects on financial markets in the US and worldwide.  ...

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With heightened scrutiny of president Trump's interactions with Russia, and lack of detailed documentation of what was said at meetings, Mr. Trump told reporters - "I never worked for Russia." House Democrats are looking at whether there was an effort to limit documentation of meetings. 

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Politic magazine covers the differing views inside president Trump's trade advisers and the conflicts inside the team. Mr. Navarro publicly rebukes Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's comments about the trade war being on hold.

Ptresident Trump's nationalist allies inside and outside the adminstration applaud his action on imposing tariffs showing that he is not soft on trade. Others in the Republican side see the presidents tactical moves and negotiating tactics of continually shifting position creating confusion, and when applied with allies like Canada and the European Union doing lasting damage to relations.

 

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Two articles of impeachment are passed on U.S. president Trump in the House of Representatives by Democrats, with all Republicans opposed. The party votes make this a political affair, with all Democrats favoring impeachment and all Republicans favoring stopping this process. Its harder in the Senate as all Republicans in the Senate are almost certain to vote against impeachment and the Senate Republican majority making impeachment a political exercize of one party.