Hostility to supposedly bad trade deals was a main theme of President Donald Trump’s campaign, and he seems to mean business: Not only has he withdrawn the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but he also confirmed his intention to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. His exact plans for NAFTA, however, aren’t clear.NAFTA could stand some improvement. The problem is that every way to make it better would, from Trump’s point of view, make it worse. That’s why his apparent sincer

Can the energy of last weekend’s post-inaugural march be channeled into electoral politics?　This question becomes more urgent as President Donald Trump lays the ground for wrecking-ball policies that will weaken America at home and abroad.　Having recently returned from Hong Kong, I suggest that protest organizers study the approach of young activists there against a far more fearsome opponent -- the communist government in China. When their massive demonstrations failed to budge Beijing, they tr

At the red-hot center of President Trump’s first 10 days in office has been his strategist Stephen Bannon, who proclaims a global populist movement for “Judeo-Christian” values and against radical Islam. Bannon is a passionate ideologue who is the intellectual center of the new administration. For nearly a decade he has been advertising his desire to turn America and the world upside down. He’s now doing exactly that. Trump’s “America First” trade policies and his anti-refugee travel ban are ear

It’s beginning to look as if President Trump is having second thoughts about his campaign promise to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. If so, he will be following in the footsteps of his predecessors -- and putting the national interest above politics.Trump wasn’t the first presidential candidate to promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem, but his commitment has been taken more seriously than those of past candidates. David Friedman, Trump’s choice for ambassador to Isra

One of the applause lines of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was his suggestion that he would bring back waterboarding and “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”Trump later drew back to some degree from that sickening suggestion, but the idea that his administration might subject suspected terrorists to torture keeps resurfacing.Last week it was reported that a draft executive order is circulating that contemplates modifications in interrogation practices and implies that limits in cur

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”—Emma Lazarus, inscribed on the Statue of LibertyBut if you’re from Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya or Somalia, the wait time is at least 120 days for the process to begin.And if you’re from Syria, your entry is considered “detrimental to the interest of the United States” and you cannot pa

The opening days of Donald Trump’s presidency are forcing the traditional news media to choose between squarely reporting on the president and more directly challenging him when he makes statements that are demonstrably false. The strategic choice between a watchdog mission and an active opposition must be made mindfully. Otherwise the media will find itself tacking back and forth between objectivity and persuasion, an approach that could squander both aims.　The state of play is driven by uncert

It’s beginning. The legal system’s constitutional defense against President Donald Trump’s policies won its first battle this weekend when several federal district courts blocked the implementation of his executive order banning immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries.　The lawyers’ resistance won’t always succeed, and it will face many bumps in the road over the next four years. The resistance got a big assist this time from Trump himself, who ignored the Department of Justice and its f

Let’s stop acting like wounded innocents.　The US has been big-footing around the globe for more than a century. We have influenced elections in other countries and when that didn’t work, we have deposed leaders who did not support our interests. Prominent examples include intervening several times in Central America and supporting coups that replaced elected leaders with dictators in Iran, Congo and Chile.　The Russians did to us what we have been doing to others for a long time.　Russia’s motivat

No experience in government. Volatile, combative, thin-skinned and hooked on impulsively tweeting out unvarnished boasts, complaints, insults and made-up claims. A top staff of misfit elves with no White House experience, serious legislative or policy accomplishments, and only work in campaigns, party politics and news-ish media. A first day in office eclipsed by protests across the country, probably the largest political demonstration in American history.No wonder President Trump’s first days a