Donald Trump Is Still Squeezing Out Pouty Tweets Between Cabinet Appointments

It has been 13 days since Donald Trump won the Electoral College (Hillary Clinton as of last Wednesday is up by over 1.7 million popular votes) but the President-elect sure has been busy.

In less than two weeks, he has made some awful cabinet picks, prompted concern over conflicts of interest between the Trump company and the Trump presidency, seems to be on track to violate the Constitution on his first day in office, and just settled a lawsuit against Trump University for $25 million, though he did not admit to any wrongdoing.

Oh, and he's had time to lash out at beloved Broadway musical Hamilton.

Vice-president-elect Mike Pence attended a performance of Hamilton last Friday and was booed by audience members as he took his seat.

At the end of the show, cast members assembled on stage and actor Brandon Victor, who plays Aaron Burr, made this appeal to Pence directly:

“We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

Pence told Fox News on Sunday that he "wasn't offended by what was said." But, as usual, his message and the President-elect's were completely different. Trump fired off a series of tweets denouncing the Hamilton cast, calling them "rude" and demanding they "apologize."

Victor stood his ground on CBS This Morning today, saying that he had nothing to apologize for. He also invited Trump to attend a performance himself:

Trump also found a moment to take Saturday Night Live to task for its "biased" portrayal of events, most recently in this weekend's cold open.

So where does Trump find all this time? Or, rather why does he find the time? His former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway defended the President-elect on CNN, saying that the tweets only take "five minutes" of his time. She then asks: "Why do you care?" Here's the whole infuriating conversation:

We care because criticizing President-elect Trump—or any public figure—is a First Amendment right, and we at The Stranger will continue to do so, no matter how much Trump's fragile ego is hurt. Join us.</s>Donald Trump has unveiled plans for his first 100 days in office, outlining a list of “executive actions” he plans to take on day one that he pledged would "restore laws and bring back jobs".

The President-elect revealed the plans in a video message released on YouTube in his first public address on policy since his interview on 60 Minutes.

Following Mr Trump’s address to the nation, here is what we know so far about what he plans to do on day one of his presidency, and what his plans are likely to mean in practice.

“On trade, I am going to issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the transpacific partnership, a potential disaster for our country.

“Instead, we will negotiate fair and bilateral trade deals that will bring jobs and industry back onto American shores.”

Mr Trump campaigned on his promise to halt the progress of the TPP trade deal, an agreement signed by 12 countries that together make up almost half the world's economy.

The confirmation that he plans to follow through on his promise will be a blow to President Barack Obama, who had hoped the deal, which was agreed in 2015 with the aim of strengthening economic ties and boosting growth, would be a part of his administration's trade legacy.

In response to Mr Trump’s announcement, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the deal would be “meaningless” without the US, and urged that a “renegotiation” must be possible because without, he said, the US the deal would "collapse the balance of the benefit".

Meanwhile New Zealand Prime Minister John Key suggested the deal could be saved by making some "cosmetic changes" to make it more acceptable to Mr Trump, joking that it should be named the "Trump-Pacific Partnership".

“On energy, I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy, including shale energy and clean coal, creating many millions of high paying jobs.

“That’s what we want; that’s what we’ve been waiting for.”

The President-elect's proposal to cancel restrictions on the production of American fossil fuel resources indicates the start of a withdrawal from the Clean Power Plan, a policy introduced by President Obama in 2014 to tackle climate change.

One of the “job-killing restrictions” Mr Trump is likely referring to is the US EPA-based policy the Obama administration committed to in March, which aims to reduce methane emissions to below 2012 levels by 2025 from the oil and gas sector, as well as explore opportunities for additional methane reductions.

Mr Trump is an avowed climate change denier, and this announcement indicates he will cater to America’s fossil fuel lobby at the expense of the environment, global climate change efforts and the nation’s renewable energy industry.

But some high-profile environmental leaders refuse to believe Mr Trump's presidency can impede efforts to curb global warming, with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency Gina McCarthy urging: “The inevitability of our clean energy future is bigger than any one person or one nation.”

“On national security, I will ask the Department of Defence and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to develop a comprehensive plan to protect America’s vital infrastructure from cyber-attacks and all other form of attacks."

During his campaign, Mr Trump claimed the US wasn’t doing enough to ensure it had “offensive cyber weapons” to protect from “attacks from other nations,” describing cyber attacks as is the "warfare of the future".

Since his election victory Mr Trump has appointed retired general Michael Flynn as his National Security Advisor, who believes the US is falling behind on international cyber security.

Despite the President-elect's evident desire to strengthen the country's cyber security, he has made no clear plans on how this will be implemented. The Department of Defence's Cyber Strategy already lists “Defend the US homeland and US national interests against cyber attacks of significant consequence” as one of its three missions, so it is unclear exactly what new plans the President-elect expects.

“On immigration, I will direct the Department of Labour to investigate all abuses of visa programmes that undercut the American worker."

The President-elect has already indicated on numerous occasions both before and after his presidential victory that he plans to crackdown on illegal immigration.

During his election campaign, Mr Trump pledged to remove 11 million undocumented migrants from the country within the first two years of his presidency, saying: “We have some bad hombres, and we’re going to get them out,” while since his election victory he has said his administration will deport “probably two million [or] even three million” undocumented migrants with criminal convictions".

It is unclear how the investigations into the abuse of visa programmes will be carried out, but it has recently emerged that H-1B, the main visa program for immigrants with university degrees and an offer of employment in the US, could face renewed scrutiny under the Trump administration - perhaps an indication of what is to come.

“On ethics reform, as part of our plan to drain the swamp, we will impose a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists after they leave the administration, and a lifetime ban on executive officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.

Mr Trump campaigned on a promise to "drain the swamp" in Washington, and had already proposed a five-year lobbying ban on all executive-branch officials after leaving government jobs before winning the election.

Trump spokesman Sean Spicer had said the ban would also apply to the transition team members charged with helping to find, vet and hire for the incoming administration, describing the measures as ensuring people won't use government service "to enrich themselves", although the administration has not explained how the ban would be enforced.

But the President-elect has been accused of contradicting himself by engaging lobbyists to assist with his transition, with many helping to assemble departments of government with direct interests to clients they represent.</s>NEW YORK -- Donald Trump held court from high above Manhattan on Monday, receiving a line of former rivals, longtime allies and TV executives while overseeing his presidential transition.

Trump did not immediately announce any appointments after the meetings, which came on the heels of a two-day whirlwind of interviews at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., about 50 miles from Trump Tower.

"His appointments will come out when he's ready and not a moment sooner because these are big decisions and they shouldn't be rushed," Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump's campaign manager, said Monday in New York. She said the Trump team already is "weeks and weeks and weeks ahead" of previous presidential transitions.

The president-elect met with nearly a dozen prospective hires on Monday, all of whom appeared in front of the cameras set up in the Trump Tower lobby.

[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect’s career + list of appointments so far]

Former Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, was first, telling reporters that he was "the best person" to become Veterans Affairs secretary.

Next, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a candidate for interior secretary, said she had "a wonderful discussion" with Trump. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry declined to speak to reporters after his meeting, but he did take time for a photo with the Naked Cowboy, the underwear-sporting, guitar-strumming New York institution.

Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who resigned her post on the Democratic National Committee after endorsing Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, also met with Trump but entered and exited out of sight. She later defended crossing party lines to meet with Trump about U.S. involvement in Syria, saying in a statement that she would never "play politics with American and Syrian lives."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime Trump ally, also arrived with his wife, Callista, and told reporters that he was interested in being a "senior planner" to coordinate long-term Republican efforts across all three branches of government.

Conway said of the visitors, "Not all of them will be in his Cabinet and his federal government, but they are all incredibly important in offering their points of view, their experience and certainly their vision of the country."

No one would say whether Trump would announce more appointments before heading to Florida for Thanksgiving. He was planning to leave today or Wednesday to spend the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence will spend Thanksgiving in Mississippi, where his Marine son is stationed.

Trump did not address the media directly, instead recording a 2½-minute video in which he pledged to appoint "patriots" to his administration. He reiterated a number of his campaign promises, including plans to renegotiate trade deals, scrap excessive regulations and institute a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists.

But Trump met privately with executives and on-air personalities from TV networks Monday. Among the attendees were NBC anchor Lester Holt and Meet the Press host Chuck Todd; ABC anchor David Muir and This Week host George Stephanopoulos; CBS' Charlie Rose and Face the Nation host John Dickerson; CNN's Wolf Blitzer; and several executives at the networks.

Several people familiar with the gathering said Trump was highly critical of coverage of him, telling the journalists that they failed to provide their viewers with fair and accurate coverage. Trump expressed particular ire at CNN and at several reporters at other cable networks, though he did not mention them by name.

The people said Trump saw no need for a constant press pool covering him, although he did not delve into specifics.

None of the attendees would discuss the meeting, which they agreed beforehand would be off the record. Conway said it was "very cordial, very productive, very congenial."

"It's great to hit the reset button," she added.

Conway said the media share a responsibility to deliver the message that the election is settled and that Americans should accept the results.

Hillary Clinton has told donors that she blames the election results on FBI Director James Comey. He told Congress 11 days before the election that the bureau was reviewing further Clinton emails, then said two days before the vote that the review had not changed his decision against recommending charges against her.

Republicans and Democrats criticized Comey at various times over the FBI's handling of Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

"There hasn't been any official statement with regard to Director Comey," Trump spokesman Jason Miller said during the transition team's daily briefing. Asked whether Trump would keep Comey or seek his resignation, Miller said only: "I would imagine that at some point, the two will meet."

Comey is in the third year of a 10-year term that began in September 2013, and the FBI director typically does not change with a new president in order to preserve the job's independence. But presidents can remove a director, as Bill Clinton did in 1993, when he fired FBI Director William Sessions halfway through his first year in office over allegations of ethical issues.

Officials close to Comey have told The Washington Post that he has no plans to leave.

Trump's video included a formal statement that he intends to have the U.S. withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that he opposed during the campaign.

"Instead, we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores," Trump said.

Some world leaders said over the weekend that they might try to modify the pact to make it more appealing to Trump, or seek to implement it without the U.S. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday dismissed those ideas.

"TPP is meaningless without the United States," Abe said during an official visit to Argentina.

He also said the pact couldn't be renegotiated. "This would disturb the fundamental balance of benefits," he said.

Trump's announcement came a day after he met with businessmen to discuss trade as well as the nation's debt and taxes.

Trump hosted billionaire investor Wilbur Ross; Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate at Blackstone Group; and David McCormick, president of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. A person familiar with the hiring process said all three are in the running for treasury secretary, though Steven Mnuchin, a member of the transition team's executive committee, is thought to be the front-runner.

The Ross meeting covered "negotiating the best foreign deals, American manufacturing and job creation," as well as "engaging ambassadors to participate in creating more economic opportunities for America," Trump's office said.

The "in-depth" discussion with Gray "included the economy, global capital markets and the world financial situation," as well as "future legislation regarding the tax code and long-term debt," Trump's transition office said in a statement Sunday night.

With McCormick, Trump and Pence talked about "global financial markets, currency and the American economy," and "special emphasis was placed on restoring long-term economic growth rates on an annual basis of 4 to 5 percent," Trump's office said.

Conway described the parade of visitors as a way for Trump to solicit advice and to demonstrate transparency.

"This is what outsiders do," Conway said. "What do we have to hide?"

Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire, Catherine Lucey, Dave Bauder, Julie Bykowicz, Laurie Kellman, Luis Andres Henao and Almudena Calatrava of The Associated Press; by Jennifer Jacobs, Arit John, Jennifer Epstein and Ben Brody of Bloomberg News; and by Karen Tumulty, Jerry Markon, Sari Horwitz, Elise Viebeck, Robert Costa, Philip Rucker, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Amy B. Wang, Kristine Guerra, Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan of The Washington Post.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Trump unveils his priorities for his first day in the White House

President-elect Donald Trump says the US will quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal on his first day in the White House.

He made the announcement in a video message outlining what he intends to do first when he takes office in January.

The TPP trade deal was signed by 12 countries which together cover 40% of the world's economy.

Mr Trump also pledged to reduce "job-killing restrictions" on coal production and stop visa abuses.

But there was no mention of repealing Obamacare or building a wall on the southern border with Mexico, two actions he said during the campaign he would do as soon as he assumed power.

What is the TPP?

The massive trade deal was agreed in 2015 by nations including the US, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico, but has not yet been ratified by the individual countries.

Its aim was to deepen economic ties and boost growth, including by reducing tariffs.

There were also measures to enforce labour and environmental standards, copyrights, patents and other legal protections.

But its opponents say it was negotiated in secret and it favoured big corporations.

Read more about the TPP and why it matters

How China gains from US leaving TPP

Asia's winners and losers from Trump's TPP dump

Why does Donald Trump dislike the TPP?

During the US presidential election campaign, Mr Trump gave broadbrush arguments against the pact, and used plenty of colourful language.

In June 2016 he described it as "another disaster done and pushed by special interests who want to rape our country, just a continuing rape of our country". In another speech he referred to the TPP as "the greatest danger yet".

But while there was plenty of talk about "taking back control" of the US economy, there were few specifics.

Announcing the plan to pull out of the TPP, he said that the US would "negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores".

What else did Mr Trump say about his plans?

In the video message, Mr Trump said his governing agenda would be based on "putting America first" and that he and the new administration would "bring back our jobs".

Besides quitting the TPP, he committed to several other executive actions that he said he would take on day one.

He said he would cancel restrictions on US energy production. Last year, President Obama brought in the Clean Power Plan, an anti-climate change measure which aimed to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 32% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.

The plan, already on hold due to legal challenges, would have restricted coal power plants and came up against strong opposition in areas where leaders said the plans would devastate local economies.

Mr Trump said: "I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy, including shale energy and clean coal, creating many millions of high-paying jobs.

"That's what we want - that's what we've been waiting for."

What would the Clean Power Plan have involved?

Image copyright AP Image caption It is back to business as usual for coal-fired power plants in the US

Mr Trump, a real estate mogul himself, has been strongly opposed to business regulations throughout his campaign. He blamed them for stifling business. A month before the election, he said that if he won, 70% of regulations could be axed, but safety and environmental rules would stay.

Now he has pledged that for every new regulation brought into force, two old regulations will be eliminated.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What do Trump voters want him to do in office?

In the video, Mr Trump also committed to:

ordering a plan to combat cyber-attacks and other attacks

investigating visa abuses that undercut American workers

imposing a five-year ban on people leaving government to become lobbyists

How might Trump 'drain the swamp'?

What has been the reaction?

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Protesters say the trade deal kills American jobs

Political leaders and commentators in Asia in particular have reacted strongly. Japan's prime minister said the TPP would be "meaningless" without the involvement of the US and the economist Harumi Taguchi said China could move in to fill the "void" left by the deal's collapse.

China continues to push alternatives - the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP), which would include Japan, India and Australia, but not the US, and the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).

China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it would keep "pushing" to conclude talks on the RECP and warned against free trade agreements becoming "fragmented and politicised".

Malaysia's prime minister said it was President-elect Trump's right "to make the policy decisions he thinks right".

A spokesman for Canada's trade ministry said the government would continue to work on the TPP.

"We made a commitment to consult Canadians on the TPP and we will abide by that commitment," he told the BBC.

Read reaction in full

Analysis: Karishma Vaswani, Asia business correspondent

Asian leaders have had some time to prepare for this news - but that is not to say Mr Trump's decision will not sting.

The death of the TPP is a blow to many parts of emerging Asia.

Vietnam and Malaysia were set to gain the most from the deal. They already have access to the US markets for their products, but were hoping to see tariffs on some of their key exports vanish altogether.

Seven Asia-Pacific countries had signed up to the deal and for them, this may have lasting economic and political repercussions.

They could go ahead, as some have signalled, and continue with the deal on their own - but what would be the point without unfettered access to the US market?

Read more

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Singapore Prime Minister and Barack Obama defended the TPP

What did Trump say about who would work with him?

The president-elect said in the video that "truly great and talented men and women, patriots are being brought in and many will soon be a part of our government".

He has spent the last week starting to put together his new team. Some key appointments have been made, but not without controversy.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who was turned down as a federal judge in 1986 due to racism complaints, will head the Justice Department.

And the news that Steve Bannon, former editor-in-chief of the conservative Breitbart website, was the new White House strategist was welcomed by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kris Kobach met Mr Trump on Sunday but photographers focused on what he was holding

Meanwhile, one of Mr Trump's immigration advisers, Kris Kobach, was photographed meeting the president-elect while holding a document that contained some hardline proposals.

Among them was the reintroduction of registration for people arriving from mostly Muslim countries, which was brought in after the 11 September attacks but later dropped.</s>David A. Andelman is editor emeritus of World Policy Journal and member of the board of contributors of USA Today. The opinions in this article belong to the author

(CNN) There's still a small, increasingly fading hope in the United States -- and indeed much of the world observing our "transition process" -- that Donald Trump will suddenly transform through some magical wizardry into a more or less conventional president of the type we've seen in the 44 previous holders of that office.

But if you believe that's going to happen, you haven't been listening to his every utterance for the past 18 months.

As president #41, the now-beloved George H.W. Bush put it so memorably in the line written by the incomparable Peggy Noonan: "Read my lips." Of course he was referring to the second half of that memorable phrase, namely, "no new taxes."

That was 1988. By 1990, a Democratic Congress had pushed through any number of new taxes to cut the budget deficit, which Bush had to sign. Of course Bill Clinton brought that up in his run for the presidency two years later, and Bush became a one-term president.

There are several big differences today, however.

First, Trump has a Republican Congress that seems poised to slavishly ratify even the wackiest ideas and appointments. But second and most important, Donald Trump doesn't seem to care very much at all what people say or think. He just plans to continue being The Donald.

So the world needs to quickly get back to lip reading. It also needs to recall every specific thing that Donald Trump says. Because he certainly seems to remember what the world has been saying about him.

Apparently @realdonaldtrump still hasn't learned that there's no off-the-record with more than two people in the room, let alone scores of journos and their bosses.

Nice. Clearly The Times hadn't been reading its own clips. Two hours later, it was back on—Trump now agreeing to travel to the paper 20 blocks from Trump Tower to make it happen. It's all part of the whiplash that's this presidential transition.

But all this only scratches the surface, as Trump himself even suggests in his endless succession of tweets, which for the moment we will have to settle for in lieu of a press conference or even an on-the-record interview.

Indeed, President-elect Trump seemingly wants to dominate and control his own narrative. After kicking media leaders figuratively down the stairs of Trump Tower on Monday, he promptly released his own taped vision of his first 100 days (no questioners, no questions), then promptly tweeted that Nigel Farage, Britain's Mr. Brexit, would make a great UK ambassador to the Trump court

Despite British Prime Minister Theresa May pointing out that Downing Street names its own ambassadors, Boris Johnson, the UK's Foreign Secretary, was asked questions about Trump's suggestion Tuesday in the Houses of Parliament, and it has continued to be discussed as a serious option on UK media.

And the beat goes on. Yes, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is dead -- at least to Trump. On his vast financial interests that everyone is waiting for him to divest -- as have 44 of his predecessors -- he tweeted, "Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!"

So when nations gathered in Morocco for the COP22 environmental conference last week, hoping to move to the next step in climate modification before the world drowns in melting ice, it would be good for them to take seriously the words of candidate Trump -- global warming denier then and now.

And when European leaders gather Thursday with Ukraine's president to explore that nation's growing separation from Vladimir Putin's Russia, they might listen to the drumbeat of praise for the Russian demagogue from his American counterpart that marked much of the political campaign season in the United States.

Yes, we would do well to heed Peggy Noonan's words and read Donald Trump's lips -- and his tweets, a medium unavailable to Bush 41.</s>David A. Andelman is editor emeritus of World Policy Journal and member of the board of contributors of USA Today. The opinions in this article belong to the author

(CNN) There's still a small, increasingly fading hope in the United States -- and indeed much of the world observing our "transition process" -- that Donald Trump will suddenly transform through some magical wizardry into a more or less conventional president of the type we've seen in the 44 previous holders of that office.

But if you believe that's going to happen, you haven't been listening to his every utterance for the past 18 months.

As president #41, the now-beloved George H.W. Bush put it so memorably in the line written by the incomparable Peggy Noonan: "Read my lips." Of course he was referring to the second half of that memorable phrase, namely, "no new taxes."

That was 1988. By 1990, a Democratic Congress had pushed through any number of new taxes to cut the budget deficit, which Bush had to sign. Of course Bill Clinton brought that up in his run for the presidency two years later, and Bush became a one-term president.

There are several big differences today, however.

First, Trump has a Republican Congress that seems poised to slavishly ratify even the wackiest ideas and appointments. But second and most important, Donald Trump doesn't seem to care very much at all what people say or think. He just plans to continue being The Donald.

So the world needs to quickly get back to lip reading. It also needs to recall every specific thing that Donald Trump says. Because he certainly seems to remember what the world has been saying about him.

Apparently @realdonaldtrump still hasn't learned that there's no off-the-record with more than two people in the room, let alone scores of journos and their bosses.

Nice. Clearly The Times hadn't been reading its own clips. Two hours later, it was back on—Trump now agreeing to travel to the paper 20 blocks from Trump Tower to make it happen. It's all part of the whiplash that's this presidential transition.

But all this only scratches the surface, as Trump himself even suggests in his endless succession of tweets, which for the moment we will have to settle for in lieu of a press conference or even an on-the-record interview.

Indeed, President-elect Trump seemingly wants to dominate and control his own narrative. After kicking media leaders figuratively down the stairs of Trump Tower on Monday, he promptly released his own taped vision of his first 100 days (no questioners, no questions), then promptly tweeted that Nigel Farage, Britain's Mr. Brexit, would make a great UK ambassador to the Trump court

Despite British Prime Minister Theresa May pointing out that Downing Street names its own ambassadors, Boris Johnson, the UK's Foreign Secretary, was asked questions about Trump's suggestion Tuesday in the Houses of Parliament, and it has continued to be discussed as a serious option on UK media.

And the beat goes on. Yes, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is dead -- at least to Trump. On his vast financial interests that everyone is waiting for him to divest -- as have 44 of his predecessors -- he tweeted, "Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!"

So when nations gathered in Morocco for the COP22 environmental conference last week, hoping to move to the next step in climate modification before the world drowns in melting ice, it would be good for them to take seriously the words of candidate Trump -- global warming denier then and now.

And when European leaders gather Thursday with Ukraine's president to explore that nation's growing separation from Vladimir Putin's Russia, they might listen to the drumbeat of praise for the Russian demagogue from his American counterpart that marked much of the political campaign season in the United States.

Yes, we would do well to heed Peggy Noonan's words and read Donald Trump's lips -- and his tweets, a medium unavailable to Bush 41.</s>The US foreign and security policy establishment, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, apprehends that Trump may compel them to exorcise the 'unipolar predicament', and bring foreign and security policies to reflect the desires and priorities of the American public.

The first of a two-part appraisal.

The unthinkable became the thinkable when the biggest political earthquake since the collapse of the Soviet Union a quarter century ago occurred with Donald Trump's election as the President of the United States.

The seismic ruptures are going to be phenomenal. An American commentator aptly compared the event to the two fateful German elections of 1932 that led to Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

Of course, that conjures up powerful symbolism, which is unwarranted in its apocalyptic evocation. What indeed bears comparison is that the post-Cold War international order once again threatens to be overrun and the global economy and geopolitics will radically change course.

What lies in the womb of time?

For a start, it is necessary to remove the cobwebs of the mind. There are two searching questions involved here.

One, how is Trump's Presidency going to fare any better than his predecessor Barack Obama's who also had stormed the citadel in 2008 as an 'outsider', but ended up by 2016 as a faithful valet of the American establishment?

Woven into this is the reality that most observers of American politics -- in India, especially -- are blasé that the US establishment ultimately devours its demons and will remain immutable, permanent.

Two, there is a troubling question whether in the increasingly dysfunctional American political system Congress wouldn't stymie even Trump's best-laid plans?

After all, Obama couldn't ensure the permanence of his greatest foreign policy legacy -- the Iran nuclear deal -- and had to settle for a mere agreement that can always be rewritten or even erased, instead of a full-fledged treaty, because the latter would have needed Congressional approval, which he feared wouldn't be forthcoming.

Both the above two questions have some merit. But then, the circumstances and context in which those struggles took place have changed -- not only within America but in the world in which American power has been operating for the past seven decades or so since World War II.

IMAGE: US President Barack Obama meets President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office, November 10, 2016. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Trump and Obama are not comparable. Obama's election in 2008 was largely a reaction to the exasperating George W Bush Presidency, which had touched its nadir (for a variety of factors that we need not go into here.)

Obama positioned himself with a perfect sense of timing and receptivity to garner the negative fallouts of the Bush era and turn them to his advantage by presenting himself as the harbinger of 'change'.

Quite obviously, the situation today is different. Obama himself enjoys a high rating for his performance as President.

Trump's platform is fundamentally different. First, it is built on the white vote. Cutting across gender, age or education, whites voted for him. Indeed, he tapped the anti-establishment mood, but it was not an angry 'anti-Obama' mood.

Actually, it went far beyond that. It was a dark mood of despair of the dispossessed who felt abandoned by the country's ruling elites and the two mainstream political parties.

Again, Trump understood the groundswell of American nativism and sensed that what passes for the liberal constituency was underestimating its potency.

Trump's celebrity status may have added to his appeal and most certainly his entry as a rank outsider tilting at the windmills of the discredited political system caught attention.

All in all, if Obama's candidacy was tactical, Trump's is strategic.

Therefore, it may have inherent dangers insofar as Trump could be riding the tiger of post-truth politics, which means he is also going to be under incredible pressure to live up to the expectations raised by his narrative.

He does not enjoy the latitude to waffle once in power, as Obama could. Obama's promise of 'change' was inchoate. But Trump's narrative is very specific -- as he underscored in his victory speech in New York: 'The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.'

Obama never brought himself to make such a poignant, horribly accountable promise. Herein lies the salience. What matters is that Trump's domestic agenda cannot be segregated from his foreign policy.

Without a foreign policy that is attuned to the domestic agenda, he cannot deliver on his daunting promises -- 'We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We're going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none, and we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it... We will embark upon a project of national growth and renewal... We have a great economic plan. We will double our growth and have the strongest economy.'

And, vice versa -- if Trump is serious about his domestic agenda, he needs to pursue a certain foreign policy orientation that helps him fulfil his electoral pledge and which at the very minimum will not undermine his priority task of America's reconstruction and relaunch. This needs to be carefully understood.

The second question -- whether Congress would frustrate Trump's programme -- is easy to answer. In systemic terms, the President enjoys free scope of action in foreign policy. The checks and balances that are there in the system are more applicable to domestic policies.

Therefore, except in the event of a war or if appropriations for war are required (which seem far-fetched in terms of Trump's core beliefs), Congress' say in foreign policies is very limited.

Moreover, it must be taken into account that Trump’s victory is comprehensive. He held not only the Republican bastions ('flyover states') but most of the so-called 'battleground states'and the Republican Party's Congressional candidates who had initially distanced themselves from Trump finally rode to victory carried by the wave of white electorate he created.

How could they forget that bitter-sweet experience of snatching victory out of the jaws of near-certain defeat by hanging on to Trump's coat-tails?

IMAGE: President-elect Donald Trump meets with Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Photograph: Zach Gibson/Getty Images

It is a rare thing in the past hundred years that the Republicans will now be controlling the White House and Congress together. That makes Trump a strong President.

While there is likelihood of differences cropping up between the President and the Congressional Republicans, this would happen more on domestic issues -- race, gender and sexuality-issues, abortion, etc, rather than on Trump's military, diplomatic, security policies that overlap in his foreign policy.

This brings us to the third, and most important, question: What are Trump's core foreign policy beliefs? Does he have any such beliefs at all?

The heart of the matter is that behind Trump’s bluster, which he was entitled to as any candidate struggling to reach the centrestage in a high-stakes election involving vastly more experienced politicians, it is possible to discern a consistent worldview.

And it stands out as a coherent and well-informed worldview (especially as regards America’s strengths and weaknesses in a world that is spinning out of control), much as one may agree or disagree with it.

At its core, Trump has repeatedly said that his foreign policy ideology narrows down to 'America First'. He has been plain-speaking as to what he meant by that -- 'My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else. That will be the foundation of every decision that I will make.' Period.

This core belief has been interpreted to mean that Trump is an 'isolationist'. Nothing can be more far-fetched than the thesis that this billionaire who has business interests or has made his vast fortunes in places as diverse as Manhattan, Panama, Vancouver, Istanbul, Dubai, Pune and Bali never heard of the alluring vistas that 'globalisation' opened up.

Most certainly, Trump's prism is different. His engagement with the world community will be on vastly different terms.

It can no longer be in terms of America's sense of destiny borne out of the credo of 'exceptionalism', which Obama used to extol, but will be almost exclusively rooted in the country's self-interests, in terms of safeguarding American security and economic and political interests.

Equally, Trump is adamant that the US' engagements with the outside world need to be cost-effective. As any American businessman would say, there is nothing like a free lunch.

Trump is completely unsentimental about allies and friends. Everything depends on the utility of the relationships and alliances and he will subject them to severe cost-accounting principles.

Trump is probably making a virtue out of necessity here because he is acutely conscious of the state of disrepair within America and of his stated priority to attend to it as priority.

Having said that, a retrenchment by the US from the world arena is far from his thoughts.

Wouldn't he know, after all, that imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism -- if not the monopoly stage of capitalism?

Most certainly, Trump cannot be unaware of the historical place of this stage of capitalism in America. Cartels, protection, the domination of the financiers, colonial policies, military-industrial complex -- these are integral to the working of the American economy.

Put differently, in order to meet the objectives of mercantilism that Trump ardently espouses, the US has no option but to continue to assert its power over other countries.

How does this world view translate in contemporary world politics?

Trump has shared his thinking with regard to the US' relations with Europe, Eurasia, West Asia and Asia-Pacific.

What comes out clearly is that Trump does not attach high importance per se to the US' trans-Atlantic leadership. The dark forebodings in the European mind in regard of a Trump presidency are quite understandable.

IMAGE: Protesters demonstrate against the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement trade accords in Berlin, Germany.

Critics oppose the accords for a number of reasons, including fears over genetically-modified foods, environmental standards, workers' rights and pharmaceuticals.

 Photograph: Axel Schmidt/Getty Images

Europe in the cusp of change

Simply put, Trump is not a fan of Euro-Atlanticism.

It is fairly certain that he is not going to revisit the moribund Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement, TTIP, which was supposed to have been a platinum grade trade agreement between the US and the European Union aimed at promoting trade and multilateral economic growth.

Indeed, the TTIP negotiations have been tortuous and the idea has run to headwinds in Europe itself. Considering that United States and European Union together represent 60% of global GDP, 33% of world trade in goods and 42% of world trade in services, the collapse of the TTIP has serious implications for world trade and the global economic architecture.

A free trade agreement between the EU and the US would have meant potentially the largest such agreement in history, covering 46% of the world economy.

More importantly, TTIP was conceived originally by the US as a companion agreement to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (covering 12 of the Pacific Rim countries, but excluding China), and the two together would have provided key pillars of the US’ containment strategies against Russia and China, alongside the Western alliance system.

If Trump abandons the TTIP, it becomes a serious blow to the EU integration processes, which are already in serious disarray -- coping with the refugee crisis, Brexit, economic difficulties, etc.

Meanwhile, European security, without the overarching compelling trans-Atlantic leadership by the US, is slated to enter unchartered waters.

Added to that, Trump is ambivalent toward the continued relevance of NATO. He has openly demanded that the present arrangement whereby the US underwrites three-fourths of the NATO budget is unacceptable.

However, this is a tall demand at a time when defense budgets among most NATO nations are expected to be flat at best for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, NATO countries also constitute a steady market for American weaponry. The NATO countries' 'interoperability' of alliance assets is a powerful exporter tool for promoting US arms, too.

Evidently, Trump will review the alliance's post-Cold War posturing. It appears that he doesn't yet have his NATO position.

During the second term of the Obama Presidency, following the eruption of tensions over the regime change in Ukraine in February 2014, had shifted the NATO posturing in a pronounced way directed against Russia.

Would Trump see the raison d’etre of the NATO posturing the way his predecessor did? It seems unlikely.

For Obama, this anti-Russian posturing made sense in rallying the European allies behind the US' trans-Atlantic leadership and in giving Washington the space to insert itself and have a decisive say to interfere in Russia's relations with its European partners.

In short, Obama finessed the NATO posturing in such a way as to strengthen the US' containment strategies toward Russia, pursued by successive administrations since Bill Clinton.

On the contrary, from what one can figure out from Trump's pronouncements, he intends to upturn the US' containment strategies against Russia.

How far he will succeed in overcoming the entrenched animus against Russia -- a legacy of the Cold War -- within the US foreign and security policy establishment and the Pentagon (as well as among think-tanks and mainstream media) remains to be seen.

Unsurprisingly, the early Russian comments on Trump's election victory suggest that Moscow is keeping its fingers crossed.

On the other hand, President Vladimir Putin's initial remarks on hearing about the US election results have underscored that Russia will respond positively and eagerly to any effort by Trump to reverse the downhill slide in Russian-American relations.

Therefore, assuming that Trump eventually succeeds in cutting his way through the thicket of institutional opposition to his Russia policies in the Washington Beltway, we may expect a sea change in the European and Eurasian security climate in the coming period.

Trump is unlikely to put the weight of US diplomacy behind shepherding the European countries to keep the sanctions against Russia in place. Now, in the absence of such a US' diktat, a consensus in favour of keeping the sanctions in place is hard to reach.

Thus, the removal of the Western sanctions against Russia in a near future is to be expected -- possibly, as early as the first half of next year.

At best, Trump may link the dismantling of Western sanctions against Russia to an understanding over the future of Ukraine, where again he has hinted at a willingness to concede Moscow's legitimate interests in Eurasia.

The big question will be the deployment of the ABM system by the US on Russia's borders. Again, it is entirely conceivable that Trump may stall on future deployment and the pre-positioning of US military personnel and weapons in Central Europe and the Baltics.

A rollback cannot happen overnight, but may become possible if and when the US-Russia tensions begin to ease.

The bottom line, therefore, is that Russia may be able to regain its due place in its desired habitat, namely, as a European power, able to develop its partnerships without rude American interference.
• A distracted America is set to pull back from Asia</s>David A. Andelman is editor emeritus of World Policy Journal and member of the board of contributors of USA Today. The opinions in this article belong to the author

(CNN) There's still a small, increasingly fading hope in the United States -- and indeed much of the world observing our "transition process" -- that Donald Trump will suddenly transform through some magical wizardry into a more or less conventional president of the type we've seen in the 44 previous holders of that office.

But if you believe that's going to happen, you haven't been listening to his every utterance for the past 18 months.

As president #41, the now-beloved George H.W. Bush put it so memorably in the line written by the incomparable Peggy Noonan: "Read my lips." Of course he was referring to the second half of that memorable phrase, namely, "no new taxes."

That was 1988. By 1990, a Democratic Congress had pushed through any number of new taxes to cut the budget deficit, which Bush had to sign. Of course Bill Clinton brought that up in his run for the presidency two years later, and Bush became a one-term president.

There are several big differences today, however.

First, Trump has a Republican Congress that seems poised to slavishly ratify even the wackiest ideas and appointments. But second and most important, Donald Trump doesn't seem to care very much at all what people say or think. He just plans to continue being The Donald.

So the world needs to quickly get back to lip reading. It also needs to recall every specific thing that Donald Trump says. Because he certainly seems to remember what the world has been saying about him.

Apparently @realdonaldtrump still hasn't learned that there's no off-the-record with more than two people in the room, let alone scores of journos and their bosses.

Nice. Clearly The Times hadn't been reading its own clips. Two hours later, it was back on—Trump now agreeing to travel to the paper 20 blocks from Trump Tower to make it happen. It's all part of the whiplash that's this presidential transition.

But all this only scratches the surface, as Trump himself even suggests in his endless succession of tweets, which for the moment we will have to settle for in lieu of a press conference or even an on-the-record interview.

Indeed, President-elect Trump seemingly wants to dominate and control his own narrative. After kicking media leaders figuratively down the stairs of Trump Tower on Monday, he promptly released his own taped vision of his first 100 days (no questioners, no questions), then promptly tweeted that Nigel Farage, Britain's Mr. Brexit, would make a great UK ambassador to the Trump court

Despite British Prime Minister Theresa May pointing out that Downing Street names its own ambassadors, Boris Johnson, the UK's Foreign Secretary, was asked questions about Trump's suggestion Tuesday in the Houses of Parliament, and it has continued to be discussed as a serious option on UK media.

And the beat goes on. Yes, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is dead -- at least to Trump. On his vast financial interests that everyone is waiting for him to divest -- as have 44 of his predecessors -- he tweeted, "Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!"

So when nations gathered in Morocco for the COP22 environmental conference last week, hoping to move to the next step in climate modification before the world drowns in melting ice, it would be good for them to take seriously the words of candidate Trump -- global warming denier then and now.

And when European leaders gather Thursday with Ukraine's president to explore that nation's growing separation from Vladimir Putin's Russia, they might listen to the drumbeat of praise for the Russian demagogue from his American counterpart that marked much of the political campaign season in the United States.

Yes, we would do well to heed Peggy Noonan's words and read Donald Trump's lips -- and his tweets, a medium unavailable to Bush 41.</s>Donald Trump has issued a video outlining his policy plans for his first 100 days in office and vowing to issue a note of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In the brief clip posted to YouTube on Monday, the president-elect said that “our transition team is working very smoothly, efficiently, and effectively”, contradicting a wealth of media reports telling of chaos in Trump Tower as Trump struggles to build a team.

He said that he was going to issue a note of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and instead “negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back”, and cancel restrictions on the production of shale gas and “clean coal”.

The president-elect promised to form a rule “that says for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated”, and said that he would ask the Department of Defense and the joint chiefs of staff to “develop a comprehensive plan to protect our vital infrastructure from cyberattacks and all other form of attacks”.

Turning to immigration, he promised to direct the Department of Labor to investigate abuses of visa programs “that undercut the American worker”, and he also promised to impose a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists after they leave office and a “lifetime ban on executive officials lobbying for foreign governments”.

He did not appear to acknowledge the fact that his transition team is full of lobbyists, according to reports by Politico, including Cindy Hayden, of tobacco firm Altria, who is in charge of Trump’s homeland security team and Michael Torrey, in charge of the Department of Agriculture on the transition team, who has his own lobbying firm representing the American Beverage Association.

Also absent from the address were a number of Trump’s key campaign pledges, including his core promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and “make Mexico pay for it.”

Nor was there any mention of a ban on Muslims or a registry for Muslim-Americans, though an advisor to Trump, Kris Kobach, accidentally showed a paper to photographers as he entered a meeting on Monday which contained policy proposals for a registry of Muslim immigrants and what appeared to be plans for a border wall on it.</s>DONALD Trump says he will issue an executive action on his first day in office to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

In a video updating Americans on the White House transition, the President-elect described TPP as a “potential disaster for our country”.

The agreement was designed to bring down tariffs and trade barriers between America and a number of Pacific Rim nations including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia and Chile.

Mr Trump said his administration instead intended to generate “fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores”.

In the clip uploaded on Facebook, the President-elect also expressed his intent to cut red tape – saying that “for every new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated”.

Sky Correspondent Greg Milam said: “Donald Trump has been very critical of what trade deals have done for American workers and the damage that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) did in the 1990s – particularly to low-income workers in the Midwest, who it turns out voted for Mr Trump in huge numbers.”

NAFTA was a trade deal which reduced tariffs between the US, Canada and Mexico – with estimates suggesting that Mexican exports to North America have doubled since it was signed.

The President-elect’s announcement comes days after his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump Tower in New York.

Barely an hour before Mr Trump confirmed his intent to withdraw from Trans-Pacific Partnership, Mr Abe had said TPP would be “meaningless” without the US.

Mr Trump’s declaration is also likely to disappoint Barack Obama, who has been calling for the US to reaffirm its support for the trade deal.

The outgoing president had warned that abandoning TPP would cause the US to lose an opportunity to shape the rules of global trade “in a way that reflects our values”.

The President-elect also said during his filmed address on Facebook that his White House transition team was working “very smoothly, efficiently and effectively” ahead of the handover of power on 20 January.

A number of major roles remain up for grabs in Mr Trump’s administration, but he has dismissed reports in recent days that his cabinet selection process is in disarray.

Mr Trump has also reacted angrily to a Saturday Night Live skit which depicted him as overwhelmed and bumbling as he goes about choosing his top team and following up campaign promises.

Alec Baldwin, whose unflattering impression of the Republican proved a big hit with critics in the run-up to the election, has defended the sketch. news.sky.com

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President-elect Donald Trump announces his plans for his first day in office, including quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and canceling restrictions on United States energy production.