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Donald Trump on Tuesday is celebrating the first 100 days of what is already one of the most radical and far-reaching presidencies in US history, as polls show Americans are becoming disenchanted with the economic and political tumult.The 47th president will mark the milestone in trademark style, seeking to rejuvenate his base with a rally in the battleground state of Michigan that swung his way in November as he soundly defeated Kamala Harris.Trump has shaken up the United States like few presidents before him. His billionaire backer Elon Musk has led the decimation of the federal workforce, and the president himself has reshaped relations with the world by slapping sweeping tariffs, berating allies and eliminating the vast majority of foreign aid.Polls show Trump has quickly seen the honeymoon that Americans historically accord presidents at the start of their terms evaporate.A poll published Sunday by The Washington Post and ABC News found that only 39 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance.The survey showed net disapproval even on what was his most popular issue — his aggressive crackdown on immigration — as controversy swirls over deportations without due process.Trump angrily dismissed the polls, writing on his Truth Social platform that they are “fake” and saying: “We are doing GREAT, better than ever before.”But even famously defiant Trump has been tacitly acknowledging that he must moderate some policies as stock market turmoil takes a toll.Wall Street, down more than six percent since Trump took office, ticked up Tuesday on news he would soften some of the sweeping tariffs impacting automakers.He also recently backtracked on threats to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has warned that Trump’s tariffs would likely reignite inflation.- ‘Having a lot of fun’ -After a 2017-2021 term in which some aides sought to rein him in, Trump has surrounded himself this time with unabashed loyalists.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth marked the 100 days with a video promoting a collectible miniature of Mount Rushmore in which Trump’s likeness has been added to presidential greats.”The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” Trump said in an interview with The Atlantic magazine.”And the second time, I run the country and the world,” he said, adding “I’m having a lot of fun.”Trump since January 20 has also unleashed political revenge.In the grand entrance hallway of the White House, he has moved a portrait of Barack Obama, the United States’ first Black president, to make way for a painting of himself surviving an assassination attempt.He has used threats of cutting off government access and contracts to pressure law firms whose partners once were involved in cases against him, and he has frozen billions of dollars in funding for universities — hotbeds of criticism against the administration.- Stretching limits -Unlike most presidents, Trump has focused more on energizing his base than broadening his appeal — and many supporters are still with him.Frank Tuoti, a 72-year-old retired machinist from New Hampshire, said: “So far, I’m very satisfied with the job he’s doing.” But he concedes that the tariff instability has made him “a little concerned about the economy.”The rival Democratic Party has seized on economic anxieties although it has also struggled in polling.”Trump is to blame for the fact that life is more expensive, it’s harder to retire, and a ‘Trump recession’ is at our doorstep,” the Democratic National Committee said, calling the 100 days a “colossal failure.”Even with Congress narrowly in Republican hands, Trump has tested the limits of presidential power by signing more than 140 executive orders, many of which have faced court scrutiny.Trump has sought to end birthright citizenship — which is guaranteed by the US Constitution — and Musk has summarily axed billions of dollars appropriated by Congress.Trump has shown signs of impatience. He promised on the campaign trail to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, but Russia has rebuffed a broad ceasefire offer.Reminded of his promise to end the war on “day one” in an interview with Time magazine, the former reality TV star responded: “Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest.”

Retail giant Amazon insisted Tuesday it had never approved a proposal — slammed by the White House — to show consumers how much US tariffs add to each price tag.”The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and is not going to happen,” said Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle.Earlier Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that the e-commerce site would soon start showing “how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product,” citing a person familiar with the matter. The White House swiftly slammed the report, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling it “a hostile and political act by Amazon.” “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” she added during a briefing in Washington.After taking office in January, Trump slapped a 10 percent baseline tariff on most countries, along with higher levies on dozens of countries — only to then pause the elevated rates for 90 days to allow for trade talks. The White House has also imposed steep duties on China, and additional sector-specific measures — leading Beijing to impose its own retaliatory tariffs on US goods.Trump’s tariffs already starting to have an impact on businesses in the United States. Package delivery giant UPS said Tuesday it plans to cut 20,000 positions worldwide in 2025 following a significant drop in business for Amazon, its largest customer.UPS Chief Executive Carol Tome said the firm, which had around 490,000 employees at the end of 2024, was reacting to a “changing trade environment.”

Canada’s The Metals Company said Tuesday it applied to the United States to mine deep sea minerals in international waters, a world first made possible by President Donald Trump’s embrace of the industry.Deep sea metals are highly sought for use in electric vehicle batteries and electric cables, but environmental groups have raised the alarm about the ecological cost of their extraction.The request for a commercial exploitation license, submitted to US authorities by the TMC USA subsidiary, is for the mining of polymetallic nodules — deposits made up of multiple metals — in the Pacific’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone.”Today marks a major step forward — not just for TMC USA, but for America’s mineral independence and industrial resurgence,” said Gerard Barron, chairman and CEO of The Metals Company.TMC, which hopes to be the first firm to harvest the valuable nodules, said in March it would seek the first commercial deep-sea mining license from Washington.It marked an abrupt shift in strategy as it had initially indicated that it would submit its request to the International Seabed Authority in June, which has jurisdiction over the seabed in international waters.TMC justified cutting out the ISA because of the organization’s slow pace in adopting a mining code that establishes the rules for exploiting seabed minerals.Just weeks after TMC’s about-turn, Trump signed an executive order speeding up the review of applications and the issuing of exploration permits — including in international waters. Washington, not a member of the ISA, governs the commercial extraction of minerals from the international seabed under a 1980 law that was the basis of Trump’s executive order.Greenpeace campaigner Ruth Ramos said the announcement would “be remembered as an act of total disregard for international law and scientific consensus.”Environmental campaigners argue that deep-sea mining threatens ecosystems about which little is known. 

US consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to survey data published Tuesday, reflecting concerns about President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.The Conference Board’s US consumer confidence index fell 7.9 points to 86.0 in April, the research organization announced in a statement, noting that mentions of tariffs in write-in responses had reached an “all-time high.”This was the lowest level since May 2020, a spokesperson confirmed to AFP. “Consumer confidence declined for a fifth consecutive month in April,” Conference Board senior economist Stephanie Guichard said in a statement.”The three expectation components — business conditions, employment prospects, and future income — all deteriorated sharply, reflecting pervasive pessimism about the future,” she added. Donald Trump’s tariff plans have unnerved investors, sending market volatility soaring and consumer confidence plunging. Confidence in the financial markets has also tanked, according to Guichard, with 48.5 percent of consumers expecting stock prices to fall over the next 12 months — the highest share since October 2011.In another worrying sign, average 12-month inflation expectations reached seven percent this month which, Guichard said, was the “highest since November 2022, when the US was experiencing extremely high inflation.”If sustained, higher inflation expectations can cause a vicious cycle of price hikes, as businesses preemptively raise prices in anticipation that their costs will rise further in the future. “Bad confidence numbers don’t translate into poor consumer spending, luckily,” Navy Federal Credit Union corporate economist Robert Frick wrote in a note shared with AFP. “The real test of how Americans spend will be seen tomorrow when personal income numbers are released,” he said. “Those have been rising strongly, and history shows that if we have money, we’ll spend it despite the jitters we may be feeling,” he added. 

The White House on Tuesday slammed Amazon over reports it would soon tell consumers how much US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have contributed to the price tag on its goods.”This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a briefing in Washington. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” she added. Earlier Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that the e-commerce site will soon start showing “how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product,” citing a person familiar with the matter. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.After taking office in January, Trump slapped a 10 percent baseline tariff on most countries, along with higher levies on dozens of countries — only to then pause the elevated rates for 90 days to allow for trade talks. The White House has also imposed steep duties on China, and additional sector-specific measures — leading Beijing to impose its own retaliatory tariffs on US goods.The uncertainty kicked up by the on-again, off-again tariff rollout has shaken financial markets, briefly pushing volatility up to levels not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic.While the endpoint of Trump’s tariffs is currently unknown, they are already starting to have an impact on businesses in the United States. Package delivery giant UPS said Tuesday it plans to cut 20,000 positions worldwide in 2025 following a significant drop in business for Amazon, its largest customer.UPS Chief Executive Carol Tome said the firm, which had around 490,000 employees at the end of 2024, is taking the actions to “reconfigure” its operations in reaction to a “changing trade environment.”

German sportswear giant Adidas on Tuesday warned that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs will increase prices for its products in the United States, and the hardline trade policies could dent its ongoing recovery.The firm makes a large chunk of its goods in Asian countries that Trump has singled out for running hefty trade surpluses with the United States, including China, which is facing the highest US levies.CEO Bjorn Gulden said Adidas had reduced its exports from China to the United States “to a minimum”, but added that the group was still “somewhat exposed to those currently very high tariffs”. “What is even worse for us is the general increase in US tariffs from all other countries of origin,” he said, adding that they “will eventually cause higher costs for all our products for the US market”.He said it was “currently impossible” to work out by how much prices might rise or conclude what impact this might have on consumer demand.Adidas’s shares were down around one percent in early afternoon trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.Beyond China, Adidas also makes products in countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The North American market accounted for around a fifth of the group’s sales last year. – Kanye crisis -The US tariffs are set to deal a hefty blow to the company just as it was getting back on its feet following a torrid period triggered by the end of its lucrative tie-up with US rapper Kanye West.The group developed the popular Yeezy line of trainers with West but halted the collaboration in late 2022 after the rapper sparked anger with anti-Semitic outbursts online. Adidas was robbed of a vital revenue stream and left saddled with a mountain of Yeezy trainers, which it had to offload at knockdown prices, leading it to slump to its first annual net loss in over three decades in 2023.But it has turned a corner under Gulden, who has focused on promoting Adidas’s classic trainers. The company logged a better-than-expected net profit of 428 million euros ($488 million) from January to March, with sales rising to 6.1 billion euros.Gulden said that, after such a strong performance, the group would typically hike its outlook but had decided against doing so due to the tariff uncertainty.The group stuck to its guidance, predicting operating profit of 1.7 billion to 1.8 billion euros for the year.However, the CEO added that Adidas recognised that there were “uncertainties that could put negative pressure on this later in the year”.The affects of US tariffs in the second quarter “should not be huge”, he said, but added that the “impact will then come in (the third quarter) for the US market”.The sports outfitter would try to compensate for the uncertainty in the United States by “delivering even better results in the rest of the world”, Gulden added.

German sportswear giant Adidas on Tuesday warned that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs will increase prices for its products in the United States, and the hardline trade policies could dent its ongoing recovery.The firm makes a large chunk of its goods in Asian countries that Trump has singled out for running hefty trade surpluses with the United States, including China, which is facing the highest US levies.CEO Bjorn Gulden said Adidas had reduced its exports from China to the United States “to a minimum”, but added that the group was still “somewhat exposed to those currently very high tariffs”. “What is even worse for us is the general increase in US tariffs from all other countries of origin,” he said, adding that they “will eventually cause higher costs for all our products for the US market”.He said it was “currently impossible” to work out by how much prices might rise or conclude what impact this might have on consumer demand.Much of Adidas’s production is based in Asian countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The United States is a major market for Adidas and last year the group made over a fifth of its sales there.The US tariffs have dealt a hefty blow to the company just as it was getting back on its feet following a torrid period triggered by the end of its lucrative tie-up with US rapper Kanye West.The group developed the popular Yeezy line of trainers with West but halted the collaboration after the rapper sparked anger with anti-Semitic outbursts online, robbing Adidas of a key revenue stream.From January to March, Adidas reported that its net profit more than doubled to 428 million euros ($488 million), beating analyst expectations, as sales rose to 6.1 billion euros.Gulden said that, after such a strong performance, the group would typically hike its outlook but had decided against doing so due to the tariff uncertainty.The group stuck to its guidance, predicting operating profit of 1.7 billion to 1.8 billion euros for the year.However the CEO added that Adidas recognised that there were “uncertainties that could put negative pressure on this later in the year”.

After 100 days of political chaos and economic shock that have sent his approval ratings tumbling, Donald Trump hopes to regain the unqualified adulation of his supporters Tuesday at one of his bread-and-butter events: a public rally.To mark the symbolic milestone in his second term, the Republican US president is visiting the site of one of his last campaign events, in Michigan, a battleground state that swung his way in November’s election.”The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said in an interview with The Atlantic magazine, referring to advisors and cabinet members whom he considered incompetent or disloyal lieutenants in his first term.”And the second time, I run the country and the world,” he crowed, adding “I’m having a lot of fun.”Many of the former real estate tycoon’s voters remain behind Trump.”He knows what he’s doing,” Karen Miner, a 57-year-old wine store owner in Reno, Nevada, told AFP.- ‘No equal’ -“So far, I’m very satisfied with the job he’s doing,” said Frank Tuoti, a 72-year-old retired machinist from New Hampshire. But he concedes that the tariff instability has made him “a little concerned about the economy.”Trump on Monday railed against predecessor Joe Biden’s economic policy, boasting on his Truth Social platform that he would reverse the country’s fortunes.”The USA lost Billions of Dollars A DAY in International Trade under Sleepy Joe Biden. I have now stemmed that tide, and will be making a fortune, very soon,” the president wrote.Trump’s chief spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said a Tuesday morning press briefing will focus on the economy, after one on Monday that addressed the administration’s migration policies.”No one does it better than President Trump. There is no equal, it’s not even close,” Tom Homan, who oversees the mass deportation program fiercely criticized by opponents and rights groups, told reporters at the White House.Now surrounded exclusively by loyalists, Trump since January 20 has unleashed in terms of tariffs, foreign policy — and political revenge.In the grand entrance hallway of the White House, he has moved a portrait of Barack Obama, America’s first Black president, to make way for a painting of himself surviving an assassination attempt.And in the Oval Office, the Republican with notoriously brash style and taste has filled the historic room with golden ornaments.- Sinking approval rating -Pushing the limits of presidential power, the Republican has already signed over 140 executive orders.In the process, he has called birthright citizenship into question, attacked universities and law firms, rolled back environmental policies, entrusted his mega-billionaire ally Elon Musk with dismantling large parts of the federal bureaucracy, and launched a protectionist trade offensive against much of the world — before partially retracting it.Many of his executive orders have been blocked by judges, with whom the executive branch has engaged in an unprecedented bout of arm wrestling.Trump, whose political career was built on deepening divisions, cannot claim the high approval ratings that generally accompany the first 100 days of a US president.Opinion polls have been unanimous in noting a particularly sharp slide in his approval ratings, fueled by concern about tariffs and his attacks on the institutional order.According to a poll published Sunday by the Washington Post and ABC News, only 39 percent of Americans approve of how Trump is conducting his presidency.With the exception of Bill Clinton and now Trump, US presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan have had an approval rating topping 50 percent after their first 100 days in office, according to the Pew Research Center.Trump called the polls “Fake News” in a Truth Social post on Monday.”We are doing GREAT, better than ever before,” he boasted.- ‘Too far’ -Fully 64 percent of respondents said Trump is “going too far” in his efforts to expand presidential powers.It is impossible to know how long Trump, who at 78 is the oldest US president ever elected, will maintain his frenetic pace.He has shown signs of impatience. He promised on the campaign trail to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, but has grown frustrated with the complicated diplomacy involved. Reminded in a recent interview with Time magazine that he often said he would end the war on “day one,” the former reality TV star responded: “Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest.”

The United States has lost seven multi-million-dollar MQ-9 Reaper drones in the Yemen area since March 15, a US official said Monday, as the Navy announced a costly warplane fell off an aircraft carrier into the Red Sea.Washington launched the latest round of its air campaign against Yemen’s Huthis in mid-March, and MQ-9s can be used for both reconnaissance — a key aspect of US efforts to identify and target weaponry the rebels are using to attack shipping in the region — as well as strikes.”There have been seven MQ-9s that have gone down since March 15,” the US official said on condition of anonymity, without specifying what caused the loss of the drones, which cost around $30 million apiece.The US Navy meanwhile announced the loss of another piece of expensive military equipment: an F/A-18E warplane that fell off the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in an accident that injured one sailor.A tractor that was towing the F/A-18E — a type of aircraft that cost more than $67 million in 2021 — also slipped off the ship into the sea.”The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement.The carrier and its other planes remain in action and the incident is under investigation, the Navy added. No details of recovery work were released.- Weeks of heavy strikes -It is the second F/A-18 operating off the Truman to be lost in less than six months, after another was mistakenly shot down by the USS Gettysburg guided missile cruiser late last year in an incident that both pilots survived.The Truman is one of two US aircraft carriers operating in the Middle East, where US forces have been striking the Huthis on a near-daily basis.The military’s Central Command said Sunday that US forces have struck more than 800 targets and killed hundreds of Huthi fighters, including members of the group’s leadership, as part of the operation.Huthi-controlled media in Yemen said Monday that US strikes hit a migrant detention center in the movement’s stronghold of the capital Saada, killing at least 68 people.Then early Tuesday, rebel channel Al-Masirah reported two strikes on Bani Hashish, northeast of the capital, citing the local governorate. The Iran-backed Huthis began targeting shipping in late 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel’s military after a shock Hamas attack in October of that year.Huthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal — a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of the world’s shipping traffic.The United States first began conducting strikes against the Huthis under the Biden administration, and President Donald Trump has vowed that military action against the rebels will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday disbanded the authors of the United States’ premier climate report, a move scientists said threatens to derail a critical assessment mandated by Congress and vital to the nation’s preparedness against global warming.In an email sent to contributors of the Sixth National Climate Assessment (NCA6), the administration said the report’s “scope” was being “reevaluated” and informed participants they were being “released from their roles,” with no timeline offered for potential reengagement.The decision follows mass firings earlier this month at the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the federal body overseeing the congressionally required report, and marks the latest flashpoint in Trump’s sweeping efforts to reshape the federal government, particularly in the realm of science.Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and a former author on NCA6’s chapter on coastal impacts, blasted the move as reckless and politically motivated.”Today, the Trump administration senselessly took a hatchet to a crucial and comprehensive US climate science report by dismissing its authors without cause or a plan,” Cleetus said in a statement. “Trying to bury this report won’t alter the scientific facts one bit, but without this information, our country risks flying blind into a world made more dangerous by human-caused climate change.”The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Other authors also took to social media to confirm they had received identical notices, expressing frustration and alarm over the unprecedented disruption of the scientific process.Since returning to office, Trump has embarked on an aggressive overhaul of federal institutions, firing thousands of civil servants, including climate scientists and public health experts. It has also steered agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Institutes of Health away from climate and environmental research.The disruption of NCA6 comes at a perilous time: global temperatures have begun to breach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial levels, according to recent international analyses, fueling worsening wildfires, droughts, floods, and storms across the United States.The National Climate Assessment, first published in 2000, is a cornerstone of US government climate understanding, synthesizing input from federal agencies and hundreds of external scientists. Previous iterations have warned in stark terms of mounting risks to America’s economy, infrastructure, and health if greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed.While not directly prescriptive on policy, the reports have served as critical guideposts for lawmakers, businesses, and local governments planning climate resilience measures.Under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the federal government is legally obligated to deliver the climate assessment to Congress and the president. It remains unclear whether the administration’s actions will ultimately delay, compromise, or cancel the report entirely.