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“The American people elected a fighter,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders once said. Granted that was in defense of a Presidential tweet about a facelift, but Trump’s style is nothing if not confident and confrontational. It’s hard to think of a modern president who has (mostly by choice) had to fight on so many fronts, with such a low approval rating, and just one year of government experience.
Here’s a partial list of Trump’s biggest upcoming throwdowns:
Trade: Uncertain renegotiations of NAFTA and the free trade deal with South Korea are underway, while tensions with China are set to grow as Trump takes a harder line on Beijing’s trade practices and tries to shrink the trade deficit.Geopolitics: Rocket Man and the Mullahs — killer band name, also two of the most serious foreign policy challenges in store for Trump this year. North Korea won’t budge on its nukes (see above), and Washington’s bid to roll back Iranian influence in the Middle East and potentially revise the Iran deal would have been main events even before Trump egged on anti-regime protests in the country last week.
Domestic: Whatever Bob Mueller manages to find (or not) on Trump will likely come to light this year, and don’t forget that Trump’s low approval rating could put his Congressional majority at risk in the November midterm elections. Bonus round: the fissures within the GOP that we wrote about a few weeks ago have gotten even more intriguing with the political defenestration of Sloppy Steve Bannon.