Donald Trump on first 100 days: It’s a different kind of presidency

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>President Donald Trump has rattled Washington and been chastened by its institutions for almost 100 days&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He has startled world leaders with his unpredictability and tough talk&comma; but won their praise for a surprise strike on Syria&period; He has endured the steady drip of investigations and a seemingly endless churn of public drama&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s a different kind of a presidency&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said in an Oval Office interview as he approaches the key presidential benchmark of 100 days in office&period; Mr Trump&comma; who campaigned on a promise of instant disruption&comma; indirectly acknowledged that change does not come quickly to Washington&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He showed signs that he feels the weight of the office&comma; discussing the &&num;8220&semi;heart&&num;8221&semi; required to do the job&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Although he retained his signature bravado and a salesman&&num;8217&semi;s confidence in his upward trajectory&comma; he displayed an awareness that many of his own lofty expectations for his first 100 days in office have not been met&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s an artificial barrier&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not very meaningful&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period; He was unclear on whether he should be held accountable for the 100-day plan he outlined with great fanfare in his campaign&&num;8217&semi;s closing days&comma; suggesting his &&num;8220&semi;Contract with the American Voter&&num;8221&semi; wasn&&num;8217&semi;t really his idea to begin with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One hundred days are just a fraction of a president&&num;8217&semi;s tenure&comma; and no president has quite matched the achievements of Franklin D Roosevelt&comma; who set the standard by which all are now judged&period; Still&comma; modern presidents have tried to move swiftly to capitalise upon the potent&comma; and often fleeting&comma; mix of political capital and public goodwill that usually accompanies their arrival in Washington&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump&comma; however&comma; has never really had either&period; A deeply divisive figure&comma; he lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton and had one of the narrower Electoral College victories in history&period; Since taking office on January 20&comma; his approval rating has hovered around 40&percnt; in most polls&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>His early presidency has been dogged by FBI and congressional investigations into whether his campaign co-ordinated with Russians to tilt the race in his favour&period; It is a persistent distraction that Mr Trump would not discuss on the record&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Furthermore&comma; his three months-plus in office have amounted to a swift education in a world wholly unfamiliar to a 70-year-old who spent his career in real estate and reality television&period; For his example&comma; his two disputed travel ban executive orders are languishing&comma; blocked by federal judges&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Capitol Hill&comma; majority Republicans muscled through Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s nominee for the Supreme Court&comma; Judge Neil Gorsuch&comma; but had to blow up long-standing Senate rules to do so&period; Then there was the legislative debacle when Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s own party could not come together to fulfil its long-sought promise of repealing President Barack Obama&&num;8217&semi;s healthcare law&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>HW Brands&comma; a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin&comma; said Mr Trump is learning that &&num;8220&semi;the world is the way it is for a whole bunch of complicated reasons&period; And changing the guy at the top doesn&&num;8217&semi;t change the world&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump would not concede that point&comma; but he did acknowledge that being commander in chief brings with it a &&num;8220&semi;human responsibility&&num;8221&semi; that he did not much bother with in business&period; &&num;8220&semi;When it came time to&comma; as an example&comma; send out the 59 missiles&comma; the Tomahawks in Syria&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mr Trump said&comma; &&num;8220&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m saying to myself&comma; &&num;8216&semi;You know&comma; this is more than just like 79 &lpar;sic&rpar; missiles&period; This is death that&&num;8217&semi;s involved because people could have been killed&period; This is risk that&&num;8217&semi;s involved&period;&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Here&comma; everything&comma; pretty much everything you do in government involves heart&comma; whereas in business most things don&&num;8217&semi;t involve heart&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period; &&num;8220&semi;In fact&comma; in business you&&num;8217&semi;re actually better off without it&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;As for accomplishments&comma; Mr Trump cited &&num;8220&semi;tremendous success&&num;8221&semi; on an undefined strategy for defeating the so-called &&num;8216&semi;Islamic State&&num;8217&semi; group and he talked at length about saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars on the price of F-35 fighter jets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is too soon to say whether the presidency has changed Mr Trump in substantive ways&period; He has backpedalled on an array of issues in recent weeks&comma; including his critiques of Nato&comma; but his self-proclaimed flexibility means he could move back to where he started just as quickly&period; He fires off tweets at odd hours of the morning and night&comma; sending Washington into a stir with just a few words&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He still litigates the presidential campaign&comma; mentioning multiple times during the interview how difficult it is for a Republican presidential nominee to win the Electoral College&period; He is acutely aware of how he is being covered in the media&comma; rattling off the ratings for some of his television appearances&period; But he says he has surprised even himself with some recent self-discipline&colon; He has stopped watching what he perceives as his negative coverage on CNN and MSNBC&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For the moment&comma; Mr Trump seems to have clamped down on the infighting and rivalries among his top White House staff that have spilled into the press and created a sense of paranoia in the West Wing&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He praised his national security team in particular and said his political team in the White House does not get the credit it deserves for its work in a high-pressure setting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This is a very tough environment&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period; &&num;8220&semi;Not caused necessarily by me&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ec9978de9be">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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