America last? While Trump looks abroad, problems grow at home

"Daddy's home." So said a White House social media post, accompanied by a video featuring the song Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home) by Usher and images of Donald Trump at the Nato summit in The Hague.

- By David Smith WASHINGTON

The US president's fundraising allies were quick to market $35 T-shirts with his image and the word after Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, referred to Trump's criticism of Israel and Iran over violations of a ceasefire by quipping: "And then Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get [them to] stop."

Yet even as Trump seeks to project an image of global patriarch, there are signs of trouble on the home front. His polling numbers are down. His party is struggling to pass his signature legislation. Millions of people have marched in protest against him. Critics say the president who claims to put America First is in fact putting America Last.

Trump is not the first president to find the foreign policy domain less restrictive than the domestic sphere, where a rambunctious Congress, robust judiciary and sceptical media are constant irritants. But rarely has the gap between symbolic posturing abroad and messy politicking at home been so pronounced.