Trump shatters US global role

For eight decades the United States has built a global order around its interests and values. In 100 days, Donald Trump has torn it down.

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The United States remains, by most measures, the world's most powerful country and Trump has vowed to strengthen it further by aggressively promoting domestic business and ramping up military spending.

But the Republican billionaire offers a far more unilateralist vision than any modern US president.

Reviving views long seen as antiquated, Trump has vowed US expansionism, setting sights on the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada, which he has belittled as the "51st state."

In another throwback, Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on both friends and foes a step that was mostly suspended following a market rout, except against China, which is seen as Washington's top adversary.

Yet the property tycoon-turned-president who boasts of his dealmaking skills has also been open to reaching transactional agreements with rivals, including China and Russia.

He and Vice President JD Vance have been less committed to maintaining post-World War II security guarantees to allies, especially in Europe, seeing the region's developed countries as commercial competitors who are freeloading on US defence.

"His initiatives are shattering what we have known, certainly since World War II," said Melvyn Leffler, a historian of US foreign policy at the University of Virginia.

fler, a historian of US foreign policy at the University of Virginia.