100 DAYS OF VICISSITUDE

Donald J. Trump completes 100 days in office—a benchmark imposed by history—this week. Trump has enshrined uncertainty in global discourse.

- SHANKKAR AIYAR Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India ([e-mail])

In a blitzkrieg of actions—executive orders, declarations of emergency and a flurry of directives—the US president has wedged the world between incertitude and vicissitude, between chaos and the promise of a new order.

The cosy comfort of the status quo of the past decades is unravelling—within the US and world over. Global trade is in suspended animation following his yo-yo on tariffs, the imposition and the 90-day pause. In its recent forecast, the IMF has trimmed global growth to sub-3 percent and warned of worse if uncertainty persists.

Stock indices tanked and rallied, but the benchmark S&P 500 trailed its highs by over 500 points and investors lost billions the world over. Barring Warren Buffet, each of the top 10 on Bloomberg Billionaires Index lost money. Mood music in America's consumption corridors—University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey—is at a nervous 52, way below December's 74. Public opinion is split, with less than half of US voters approving of Trump's performance. And yes, the price of eggs is higher.

Trump is not the apprentice he seemed to be in 2016. He arrived with executive smarts and a submissive legislative party. Unconstrained by convention, DJT issued 139 executive orders and deployed national emergency powers. Definitions matter. While 12 states have gone to court, a study by Brennan Center shows Trump can access 137 laws to propel his agenda and that standby powers do not expressly require a declaration of war.