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Donald Trump's election as President of the United States prompted an unprecedented scramble by countries around the world to try and anticipate the actions of one of the world's most unpredictable men.
And worryingly, after 100 days in office, many questions remain unanswered, and the signals just as hard to decipher.
But there is one thing everyone can agree on: Mr Trump is not business as usual, for better or worse.
The Trump-China Story
During the election campaign China bore the brunt of Mr Trump's foreign policy venom.
Beijing was accused of underhand trade practices, running up a massive trade surplus, and being a currency manipulator.
As a reminder, in October then presidential candidate Mr Trump declared: "I will direct my secretary of the treasury to label China a currency manipulator. China is a currency manipulator. What they have done to us by playing currency is very sad."
But in a swift change of tone, after meeting with Chinese President, Xi Jinping in April he tweeted:
The wheeler dealer president was offering China a deal: Help contain North Korea's nuclear weapons program and we won't press the trade or currency war button.
And if the Chinese leadership proves unwilling or incapable of reigning in its belligerent neighbour, then the US will do the job alone. Or perhaps with allies like Australia (though he hasn't asked us yet).
But that's not the limit of the Trump-China story…
Before inauguration Mr Trump and his senior advisers were making hawkish statements about China's claims to the South China Sea reinforced by a string of increasingly militarised islands.
The clear message was the US would not tolerate such illegal behaviour and, if necessary, would take unspecified action to end it.
So far, no show. And the aggressive language has given way to cooperation as he cultivates rather than confronts his counterpart on Beijing, Xi Jinping.
"He's a friend of mine. I think he's doing an amazing job as a leader, and I wouldn't want to do anything that comes in the way of that", Mr Trump said.
That change of tone could be reversed if its deemed China is not doing enough on North Korea, but these are early days.
US-Russia relations
One key relationship has shifted in the other direction. Before and just after the election, the long distant "bromance" between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump appeared to herald a new and improved era for the cold war foes.
"If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with Russia. Russia can help us fight ISIS," Mr Trump said just before becoming president.
But plans for a grand alliance against Islamic State (IS) that included the Russians and the Syrian government evaporated with the airing of horrendous pictures of children and babies gasping for life after what the Americans said was the deliberate use of chemical weapons by the regime of Bashar al Assad.
Mr Trump's answer to that horror was to rain Tomahawk missiles on the airbase hosting the Syrian planes accused of launching that attack.
Not only was the US actively targeting a Russian ally, but Moscow's own planes and pilots were sharing that base.
Any hope of a reset in that relationship was blown to pieces.
Cooperation on destroying IS won't happen any time soon — and now you can add US military accusations that the Russians are supplying the Taliban in Afghanistan with weapons to the growing list of grievances that have turned a cool relationship into a political tundra.
All of which is good news for NATO. Europe's security blanket was, until recently, decidedly unloved by Mr Trump during his election campaign.
"I think NATO may be obsolete," he said adding another complaint that many NATO nations weren't pulling their weight, financially or militarily.
But with Vladimir Putin no longer a potential ally, suddenly NATO is back.
"I said it was obsolete; it's no longer obsolete," Mr Trump said recently.
That statement was backed up by Vice-President Mike Pence, who told an audience in Munich in February: "The United States of America strongly supports NATO and will be unwavering in its commitment to our trans-Atlantic alliance".
So what's left to tick off the checklist?
There are several outstanding issues which have yet to be addressed by Mr Trump.
The deal done by former president Barack Obama with the Iranian Government to reign in its nuclear program has been described by Mr Trump as a disaster. Yet despite earlier promising to scrap it, that hasn't happened yet.
And the full ramifications of Mr Trump's plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico and rebalance trade with the country are not yet clear.
A policy that was quickly and ruthlessly enacted was the scrapping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership which was a multilateral trade deal Australia hoped would significantly boost trade. That, in its original form, is very dead.
In the short term, the immediate concerns for Australia should probably be Donald Trump's words and actions on North Korea. The threat of a possible military conflict there is almost unimaginable.
There is no simple, painless end to the long running stand-off. The risk of an enormous death and injury toll not to mention the wholesale destruction on both sides of the DMZ of any open hostilities would rule war out. Or would it?
"Well, there's a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely," warned Mr Trump.
In that scenario, you can bet Australia will be asked to get involved. Again.
And if Beijing is deemed to have failed in its Washington-assigned mission to deter Pyongyang from its nuclear path, then the Chinese could find themselves back on the Trump blacklist.
We have always been affected by the actions of the president of United States. What's changed is that decades of predictability, and of precedence, are no longer the bedrock of White House policy.
This is a brave new world and while Mr Trump may have a clear vision of it, he has yet to share it in a coherent way that makes sense to rest of us.
Topics: donald-trump, world-politics, united-states
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