Trump’s first 100 days: America First president is overturning world order

President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk, joined by his son X Æ A-Xii, speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP)
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Updated 28 April 2025
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Trump’s first 100 days: America First president is overturning world order

  • “What we’re seeing is a huge disruption in world affairs,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations. “No one is certain at this point what to make of what’s happening or what will come next”

WASHINGTON/TOKYO/BRUSSELS: He has launched an unprecedented global tariff war and slashed US foreign aid. He has disparaged NATO allies and embraced Russia’s narrative about its invasion of Ukraine. And he has spoken about annexing Greenland, retaking the Panama Canal and making Canada the 51st state.
In the chaotic first 100 days since President Donald Trump returned to office, he has waged an often unpredictable campaign that has upended parts of the rules-based world order that Washington helped build from the ashes of World War II.
“Trump is much more radical now than he was eight years ago,” said Elliott Abrams, a conservative who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush before being appointed US special envoy on Iran and Venezuela in Trump’s first term. “I have been surprised.”
Trump’s second-term “America First” agenda has alienated friends and emboldened adversaries while raising questions about how far he is prepared to go. His actions, coupled with that uncertainty, have so unnerved some governments that they are responding in ways that could be difficult to undo, even if a more traditional US president is elected in 2028.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Countries consider defense boosts, closer China ties amid US policy shifts

• Experts warn of lasting damage to US relations with traditional allies

• White House says Trump is taking swift action to bring peace and prosperity

All this comes amid what the Republican president’s critics see as signs of democratic backsliding at home that have raised concerns abroad. These include verbal attacks on judges, a pressure campaign against universities and the transfer of migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison as part of a broader deportation drive.
“What we’re seeing is a huge disruption in world affairs,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations. “No one is certain at this point what to make of what’s happening or what will come next.”
This assessment of Trump’s shakeup of the global system comes from Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials, foreign diplomats and independent analysts in Washington and capitals around the world.
Many say that while some of the damage already done could be long-lasting, the situation may not be beyond repair if Trump softens his approach. He has already backtracked on some issues, including the timing and severity of his tariffs.
But they see little chance of a dramatic shift by Trump and instead expect many countries to make lasting changes in their relationships with the US to safeguard against his erratic policy-making.
The fallout has already begun.
Some European allies, for instance, are looking to boost their own defense industries to reduce reliance on US weapons. Debate has intensified in South Korea about developing its own nuclear arsenal. And speculation has grown that deteriorating relations could prompt US partners to move closer to China, at least economically.
The White House rejects the notion that Trump has hurt US credibility, citing instead the need to clean up after what it calls former President Joe Biden’s “feckless leadership” on the world stage.
“President Trump is taking swift action to address challenges by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table to end their war, stemming the flow of fentanyl and protecting American workers by holding China accountable, getting Iran to the negotiating table by reimposing Maximum Pressure,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement.
He said Trump was also “making the Houthis pay for their terrorism ... and securing our southern border that was open to invasion for four years.”
More than half of Americans, including one in five Republicans, think Trump is “too closely aligned” with Russia, and the American public has little appetite for the expansionist agenda he has laid out, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on April 21.

HIGH STAKES
At stake, say experts, is the future of a global system that has taken shape over the past eight decades largely under US primacy. It has come to be based on free trade, rule of law and respect for territorial integrity.
But under Trump, who has been scornful of multilateral organizations and often views global affairs through the transactional lens of a former real estate developer, that world order is being shaken up.
Accusing trading partners of “ripping off” the US for decades, Trump has set in motion a sweeping tariffs policy that has roiled financial markets, weakened the dollar and triggered warnings of a slowdown in worldwide economic output and increased risk of recession.
Trump has called the tariffs necessary “medicine” but his objectives remain unclear even as his administration works to negotiate separate deals with dozens of countries.
At the same time, he has all but reversed US policy on Russia’s three-year-old war in Ukraine and engaged in an Oval Office shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late February. He has warmed to Moscow and stirred fears that he will force NATO-backed Kyiv to accept the loss of territory while he prioritizes improved relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The administration’s belittling of Europe and NATO, long the central pillar of transatlantic security but accused by Trump and his aides of freeloading off the US, has caused deep unease.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after winning February’s election, expressed concern about European relations with the United States, saying it would be difficult if those who put “America First” actually made their motto “America Alone.”
“This really is five minutes to midnight for Europe,” Merz said.
In a further blow to Washington’s global image, Trump has employed expansionist rhetoric long avoided by modern-day presidents, which some analysts say could be used by China as justification if it decides to invade self-governed Taiwan.
With his blustery style, he has insisted that the US will “get” Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish island. He has angered Canada by saying it has little reason to exist and should become part of the US He has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, which was handed over to Panama in 1999. And he has proposed that Washington take over war-ravaged Gaza and transform the Palestinian enclave into a Riviera-style resort.
Some analysts say Trump may be seeking to resurrect a Cold War-style global structure in which big powers carve up geographic spheres of influence.
Even so, he has offered no details on how the US could acquire more territory, and some experts suggest he may be assuming extreme and even over-the-top positions as bargaining ploys.
But some countries are taking him seriously.
“When you demand to take over a part of the Kingdom of Denmark’s territory, when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in about the country that we have admired for so many years?” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a news conference in Greenland in early April. “This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations.”
COPING WITH TRUMP 2.0
Other governments are also beginning to recalibrate.
The European Union — which Trump has claimed, without evidence, was formed to “screw” the US — has prepared a range of retaliatory tariffs if negotiations fail.
Some countries such as Germany and France are looking at spending more on their militaries, something Trump has demanded but which could also mean investing more in their own defense industries and buying fewer arms from the US
With its historic friendship with the US now strained, Canada is seeking to strengthen economic and security links to Europe. This comes against the backdrop of Canada’s national elections on Monday dominated by voter resentment of Trump’s actions, which have triggered a nationalist wave and fueled perceptions that the US is no longer a reliable partner.
South Korea, too, has been rattled by Trump’s policies, including his threats to withdraw US troops. But Seoul has vowed to try to work with Trump and preserve the alliance it regards as critical against the threat of nuclear-armed North Korea.
US ally Japan is also on edge. It was taken by surprise by the magnitude of Trump’s tariffs and “is now scrambling to respond,” said a senior Japanese government official close to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
A key question is whether some governments will quietly hedge their bets by forging closer trade ties to China, Trump’s number one tariff target.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing in early April, and China said recently it exchanged views with the EU on bolstering economic cooperation.
Beijing has cast itself as a solution for nations that feel bullied by Trump’s trade approach, despite its own record of sometimes predatory practices internationally, and is also trying to fill the vacuum left by his cuts in humanitarian aid.
Aaron David Miller, a former veteran US diplomat in Republican and Democratic administrations, said it’s not too late for Trump to shift course on foreign policy, especially if he begins to feel pressure from fellow Republicans uneasy over economic risks as they seek to retain control of Congress in next year’s mid-term elections.
If Trump holds firm, the next president could try to re-establish Washington’s role as guarantor of the world order, but the obstacles could be steep.
“What’s happening is not yet beyond the point of no return,” said Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “But how much damage is being done now to our relations with friends and how much adversaries will benefit is probably incalculable.”

 


Chinese aircraft carriers in Pacific show country’s ‘expansionist’ aims, Taiwan says

Updated 49 min 4 sec ago
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Chinese aircraft carriers in Pacific show country’s ‘expansionist’ aims, Taiwan says

  • China has been flexing its muscles by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters

TAIPEI: The two Chinese aircraft carriers spotted conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time send a political message about the country’s “expansionist” aims, Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Wednesday.

Japan’s defense minister said the previous day that the appearance of the Chinese aircraft carriers signified Beijing’s intention to further widen its capabilities beyond its borders.

Koo said the armed forces had a “full grasp” of the carriers’ movements.

“Crossing from the first island chain into the second island chain sends a definite political message and their expansionist nature can be seen,” he told reporters in Taipei.

The first island chain refers to an area that runs from Japan down to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, while the second island chain spreads further out into the Pacific to include places like the US territory of Guam.

China’s navy, which has been honing its abilities to operate farther and farther from the country’s coast, said on Tuesday the carrier operations were a “routine training” exercise that did not target specific countries or regions. China operates two carriers, with a third undergoing sea trials.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, keeps a close watch on Chinese military movements given the regular drills and war games Beijing stages around the island, and has been modernizing its weapons to better face the People’s Liberation Army.

Taiwan Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Ching-jan, speaking to lawmakers later on Wednesday, said a dozen or so of 66 Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets ordered from the United States should arrive this year, with the rest in 2026.

“The US side was optimistic about next year’s scheduled delivery at last month’s meeting on the project, and was very optimistic about the delivery of more than 10 aircraft this year,” he said.

Taiwan has complained about delivery delays for the jets, which have advanced avionics, weapons and radar systems to better face down the Chinese air force, including its J-20 stealth fighter.

Since May, China has been flexing its muscles by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters, according to security documents and officials, in moves that have unnerved regional capitals.

Japan’s defense ministry confirmed the two carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, were operating in separate areas of the Pacific on Saturday, both near remote southern islands belonging to Japan.

Earlier, Japan said the Liaoning sailed within its exclusive economic zone near Minamitorishima, a remote island east of Iwo Jima.


Australian murder suspect denies drying deadly mushrooms

Updated 11 June 2025
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Australian murder suspect denies drying deadly mushrooms

  • Erin Patterson denies all charges in the trial, which has made headlines worldwide
  • She says the beef-and-pastry dish, which she cooked in individually sized portions, was poisoned by accident

SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of murdering three people with death cap mushrooms denied Wednesday that she turned the fungi into dry powder for the fatal meal.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking a beef Wellington lunch with the mushrooms.

She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth lunch guest – her husband’s uncle – who survived the dish after a long stay in hospital.

Patterson denies all charges in the trial, which has made headlines worldwide.

She says the beef-and-pastry dish, which she cooked in individually sized portions, was poisoned by accident.

Three months before the lunch, phone records placed Patterson in the Victoria state township of Loch, where a sighting of death cap mushrooms had been posted online, the court heard.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers alleged that within two hours of finding death cap mushrooms in Loch, Patterson bought a dehydrator to use on the fungi.

Patterson admitted to buying the dehydrator.

But she denied purchasing it to dry the death cap mushrooms or that she went to Loch to find the dangerous fungi.

A month later, phone records placed Patterson in a second town in the area, Outtrim, just days after a sighting of death cap mushrooms had been posted online, the court heard.

Patterson denied she went to the area to find the fungi, but said she may have driven by the area.

Rogers suggested Patterson “blitzed” the death cap mushrooms into a powder in order to hide them in the meal.

“Disagree,” Patterson said.

The court heard Patterson had told people that she served the beef Wellington leftovers to her children a day after the lunch, as her sickened guests lay in hospital.

The accused said she scraped off the mushroom and pastry from the dish because her children were fussy eaters.

The prosecutor asked Patterson why she would feed leftovers to her children, while knowing or suspecting that the same meal had put her guests in hospital.

“I didn’t know or suspect that,” Patterson replied.

The prosecutor accused her of telling a “lie about feeding the leftovers” because it gave her “some distance from a deliberate poisoning.”

Patterson replied: “I don’t see how it could, but I disagree.”

The home cook had also invited her estranged husband Simon to join the family lunch at her secluded home in the Victoria state farm village of Leongatha.

But Simon turned down the invitation saying he felt uncomfortable going, the court heard previously. The pair were long estranged but still legally married.

Simon’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, attended the lunch. All three were dead within days.

Heather’s husband Ian fell gravely ill but recovered.

The trial in Morwell, southeast of Melbourne, is expected to last another two weeks.


Former student kills 10 in Austrian high school shooting

Updated 11 June 2025
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Former student kills 10 in Austrian high school shooting

  • Shooter acted alone and took his own life in the toilet at Dreierschuetzengasse high school in Graz
  • Europe has been shaken by attacks at schools and universities in recent years that were not connected to terrorism

GRAZ, Austria: Austria will observe a national day of mourning and a minute’s silence on Wednesday after a former student shot dead 10 people at a high school in an unprecedented case of gun violence that stunned the Alpine country.

The 21-year-old shooter acted alone and took his own life in the toilet at Dreierschuetzengasse high school in Graz, police said.

Investigators found a good-bye letter addressed to the suspect’s parents during a search of his residence, but it included no clues about his motive.

After arriving in Graz, Chancellor Christian Stocker described the shooting as “a national tragedy.”

“This is a dark day,” he told reporters Tuesday as he announced three days of national mourning. A minute’s silence will be observed across the country at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Wednesday.

Nine victims were immediately confirmed and a woman died later in hospital from her wounds, an official said. A 17-year-old French student was among the victims, his father said.

Twelve people suffered serious injuries and police said support was being provided to witnesses and those affected.

According to police, the alleged perpetrator was an Austrian from the Graz region who used two legally owned weapons.

He was a former student at the high school, but never finished his studies there, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters.

Bouquets of flowers and candles were placed in front of the school, which has around 400 students aged between 14 and 18, and nearby businesses closed.

One resident, originally from the United States, whose children attend a nearby elementary school and kindergarten, said she was “shocked” and it was “a lot to take in.”

“In my home country it happens more often as we know, but that it happens here is unheard of,” she said, declining to give her name.

“Graz is a safe city,” said Roman Klug, 55, who said he lived close to the school that he said was “known for its openness and diversity.”

Condolences poured in from across Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that “France extends its deepest sympathy to the victims’ families, the Austrian people and Chancellor Stocker during this difficult time.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “our thoughts are with our Austrian friends and neighbors” following the “horrific” shooting.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban offered his “deepest condolences.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the news from Graz touches my heart,” while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her sympathies to the families of the victims following the “tragic news.”

Attacks in public are rare in Austria, which is home to almost 9.2 million people and ranks among the 10 safest countries in the world, according to the Global Peace Index.

While still less common than in the United States, Europe has been shaken by attacks at schools and universities in recent years that were not connected to terrorism.

In France, a teaching assistant was killed in a knife attack at a school in the eastern town of Nogent on Tuesday.

In January, an 18-year-old man fatally stabbed a high school student and a teacher at a school in northeastern Slovakia.

And in December, a 19-year-old man stabbed a seven-year-old student to death and injured several others at a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia.

In December 2023, an attack by a student at a university in central Prague left 14 people dead and 25 injured.

A few months earlier, a 13-year-old gunned down nine fellow classmates and a security guard at an elementary school in Belgrade.


Pentagon slashes in half its request for Air Force F-35s – media report

Updated 11 June 2025
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Pentagon slashes in half its request for Air Force F-35s – media report

  • The Air Force now plans to seek $3.5 billion for the F-35 aircraft, and another $531 million for advance procurement of materials for it

The Pentagon is scaling back by half its request to Congress for the US Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-35 jets, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

A US Defense Department procurement request document sent to Capitol Hill this week asked for 24 of the planes, down from 48 that were forecast last year, the report said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Lockheed Martin and the Department of Defense did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

The Air Force now plans to seek $3.5 billion for the F-35 aircraft, and another $531 million for advance procurement of materials for it, the report said.

The Pentagon has also requested 12 of the Navy’s carrier version of the F-35, lower than the 17 Congress approved for this fiscal year, while the Marines would also see a reduction of two from this year’s funding, the report added.

In May, Lockheed Martin’s finance chief said the firm expects to be awarded a finalized contract on its F-35 jets, which have been beset by delays related to a technology upgrade.

The defense contractor delivered a total of 110 F-35 fighter jets to the United States and its allies in 2024. Lockheed’s F-35 program accounts for around 30 percent of the company’s revenue.


California governor says ‘democracy is under assault’ by Trump as feds intervene in LA protests

Updated 11 June 2025
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California governor says ‘democracy is under assault’ by Trump as feds intervene in LA protests

  • Gavin Newsom: ‘California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next’
  • California governor is head of the heavily Democratic state known as the epicenter of the so-called Trump resistance

LOS ANGELES: Calling President Donald Trump a threat to the American way of life, Governor Gavin Newsom depicted the federal military intervention in Los Angeles as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation’s democracy.

In a speech Tuesday evening, the potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate said the arrival of National Guard and Marine troops in the city at Trump’s direction was not simply about quelling protests that followed a series of immigration raids by federal authorities. Instead, he said, it was part of a calculated “war” intended to upend the foundations of society and concentrate power in the White House.

“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next,” a somber Newsom warned, seated before the US and California flags. “Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived.”

As head of the heavily Democratic state known as the epicenter of the so-called Trump resistance, Newsom and the Republican president have long been adversaries. But the governor’s speech delivered in prime time argued that Trump was not just a threat to democracy, but was actively working to break down its guardrails that reach back to the nation’s founding.

″He’s declared a war. A war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself,” Newsom said. “He’s delegitimizing news organizations, and he’s assaulting the First Amendment.”

Newsom added that Trump is attacking law firms and the judicial branch – “the foundations of an orderly and civil society.”

“It’s time for all of us to stand up,” Newsom said, urging any protests to be peaceful. “What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.”

His speech came the same day that Newsom asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents, with some guardsmen now standing in protective gauntlet around agents as they carried out arrests. The judge chose not to rule immediately, giving the Trump administration several days to continue those activities before a hearing Thursday.

Trump has activated more than 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines over the objections of city and state leaders, though the Marines have not yet been spotted in Los Angeles and Guard troops have had limited engagement with protesters. They were originally deployed to protect federal buildings.

Newsom’s speech capped several days of acidic exchanges between Trump and Newsom, that included the president appearing to endorse Newsom’s arrest if he interfered with federal immigration enforcement. “I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing,” Trump told reporters.

Over the years, Trump has threatened to intercede in California’s long-running homeless crisis, vowed to withhold federal wildfire aid as political leverage in a dispute over water rights, called on police to shoot people robbing stores and warned residents that “your children are in danger” because of illegal immigration.

Trump relishes insulting the two-term governor and former San Francisco mayor – frequently referring to him as Gov. “New-scum” – and earlier this year faulted the governor for Southern California’s deadly wildfires.

Trump has argued that the city was in danger of being overrun by violent protesters, while Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have called the federal intervention an unneeded – and potentially dangerous – overreaction.

The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated in the city’s downtown hub. Demonstrations have spread to other cities in the state and nationwide, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York City, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made.

Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. It’s one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a US president.

“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” he said from the Oval Office.