Executive disorder: Trump’s first 100 days

0:10Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist. I'm your host, Rosie Bloor. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

0:2450 years ago today, Saigon fell. That iconic moment heralded the end of the Vietnam War, and thousands of people fled the country. So what happened to that Vietnamese diaspora? Our correspondent finds out. And for decades Alice Tan Ridley sang gospel, Motown and blues in the New York subway Later she went on tour, but she'd go back to busking because she loved the intimacy of being close to her audience Our obituaries editor remembers her

1:01First up though

1:10After 100 days back in the White House, America is a free, proud, and sovereign nation once more, and our magnificent destiny is closer than ever before. Three months of Trump 2.0 have been tempestuous, to say the least. Remember the plane crash he suggested could have been caused by diversity and inclusion policies? We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions. And the plan for America to assume control of Gaza? The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it. And then there was the time Donald Trump and J.D. Vance teamed up on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

1:51You should be thanking the president for... In the Oval Office, live on TV. You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cars. Not paying cars. But that's not all. We've heard talk of Canada becoming the 51st state, U.S. residents have been sent to El Salvador prisons, and of course, there's that global trade war. So, are you ready for the next 1 ,360 days? The most surprising thing about Donald Trump's first 100 days at this point is that it's only been 100 days. It feels considerably longer, And that is partly a function of how much he's packed into his first 100 days.

2:37John Priddo is our US editor. You have to acknowledge, even if you're somebody who is not a big fan of Donald Trump, he has demonstrated an ability to seize the moment, act with extraordinary speed, dominate the airwaves. Donald Trump has attempted to rule through executive orders And he's setting up a real test of American institutions. And what we're seeing, what we will see, is how those institutions will respond and how America's constitution, the unwritten bit that we don't talk about so much, how that gets rewritten in real time. John, let's just take a step back for a minute. Ahead of the inauguration in January, you predicted chaos.

3:22You didn't perhaps predict chaos of this scale. What has most surprised you about what we've seen in the last 100 days? You're being very kind, Rosie, because chaos, I feel like, was the easy part to predict. Being more specific about what form the chaos would take was harder. I was sceptical that he would come in and introduce huge tariffs because I thought that would unsettle financial markets and cause inflation and that he would back off from that, even though it was what he promised on the campaign. and that's another lesson to take Donald Trump seriously when he says he's going to do something.

3:59I happen to think he'll back off on the biggest tariffs. The China tariffs I think will come down but still we'll end up at a level of tariffs that are considerably higher than when Donald Trump came in. And as for the other things, he has set about attacking institutions that are important to the Democratic Party, the democratic elite, in a way that recalls a revolution, frankly. He's taken on systemically important institutions in the culture, whether those be elite universities, law firms. He's chosen his targets pretty carefully. They're often targets that are not hugely popular with the large majority of American voters.

4:43It's only really, I think, those tariffs that have caused hears approval ratings to fall, and they have fallen quite far and quite fast in the past 100 days. There's a lot to take in there, John. One of the things that surprised me is that Republicans in Congress haven't even pushed back on any of this, neither the institutional change, nor, as you say, the huge economic implications of the tariffs. What's going on there? You're completely right, Rosie. They haven't pushed back, but nor has Donald Trump, nor has the Republican Party actually passed legislation, which is when you will see some fractions in the coalition come to the surface.

5:24I would explain it by just reminding you and our listeners that every single Republican who's elected to the House of Representatives has been elected since Donald Trump took over the party in 2015. Every single Republican senator has run in and won a Senate primary if they were contested since Donald Trump took charge of the party. So these folks feel that they owe him their jobs. That wasn't the case at the beginning of his first term to the same degree. But I'd also say it's early. And like with any good economist, we need to think on the margin a little bit. And I think we will see some of the limits of his power as Republicans in Congress get into the negotiation over how they want to rewrite tax legislation.

6:10That's a big legislative fight coming up and one where there are really hard trade-offs that Donald Trump won't be able to just kind of wave a wand and make disappear. Republicans' majorities in the House of Representatives are quite thin. And so you don't need the whole of the Republican Party to oppose him. One or two can make life very difficult for him to pass legislation. John, you've mentioned that Trump has been trying to erode or disrupt institutions that might oppose him and that he's done a lot through executive power rather than through legislation. Do you think that he might permanently change the presidency?

6:49Each presidency does permanently change the presidency in small ways. And when presidents try to rule through executive orders, the courts then have to step in and say, well, does the president have authority to act here? And one of the things that the Trump administration has noticed is that under the Constitution, there are some quite broad provisions given to the presidency in a time of emergency. And the president, by and large, gets to say when an emergency is happening and when isn't. Now, Donald Trump, I think, is pushing this so far in his executive orders that he's essentially challenging the courts to see if they will stand up to him and whether they will allow this huge expansion of executive power, which then future presidents will be able to use as well, Democratic presidents too, or whether the courts will say, actually, we don't think that's how the statute was intended to be used.

7:45And we're going to define your power in a more narrow way. And last I looked at the Supreme Court, the Trump administration had won four cases and lost four. And so we're still at the early stage, I think, of seeing how this plays out. And beyond the courts, are we going to get resistance from other places too? We will see not exactly resistance from Congress, but Donald Trump won't have it all his own way. And then in 2026, we'll have the midterms. Democrats, according to betting markets, are north of 80 % favourites to take the majority in the House of Representatives. At that point, it becomes even harder for him to get legislation through.

8:22We'll see some resistance and pushback in civil society and institutions like universities, but other institutions in civil society too, as they get more confident. And then we've seen already, and I think this will continue, significant pushback from investors. And that's not out of political conviction. And many investors were pretty optimistic and excited about what a second Donald Trump term would mean for the stock market and for the economy. But investors deal in reality. The reality of the first 100 days in terms of economic policy has not been good. And they've taken it out on him as a result.

9:04And I think that will prove to be a real constraint as well. You've told us about the chaos and you've also talked about Trump's intent. Are there reasons to feel optimistic through all this as well? I don't want to come on the intelligence and be Panglossian. And I think there is real concerns about what's happened in the first 100 days, particularly in the areas of suspension of due process, habeas corpus when it comes to immigration enforcement, sending migrants to prison in El Salvador, deporting US citizens. in some cases. I think that is a real concern. I think the economic policy has been very damaging.

9:44It's extraordinary how the administration has been able to inflict a wound on itself, on the American economy, so speedily. But I think we have been in the phase of the presidency where Donald Trump has dominated. And I think the response to that will take some time and it will be a bit slower. And so because of that delayed reaction, we get the impression that Donald Trump is omnipotent and he can do whatever he wants. And I think that's not how American governance works. And I think we'll see that over the next couple of years. I don't know if that counts as optimism and meets your threshold, Rosie, but that's my attempt to give you some.

10:20I'll stick with that. John, thank you so much. Great to have you on the show. Thank you.

10:28And you can hear more analysis on the tornado of events in the past 100 days on the current episode of Checks and Balance, our weekly US politics podcast. You need to be a subscriber to listen.

10:50This is now what is left of the American involvement in Vietnam. 50 years ago today, on April 30th 1975, Saigon fell. The capture of the South Vietnamese capital by communist troops from the north marked the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of people tried to flee. America, which had supported the South, staged rescues in planes and helicopters. Other people escaped on their own, many embarking on dangerous journeys in small boats. Vietnamese refugees ended up all over the world. The impact of the fall of Saigon was pretty wide-ranging. Joshua Spencer is one of our news editors in Asia. This was a hugely embarrassing loss and evacuation for America, and it seriously damaged American credibility for many years to come, and also its potential ability to project power abroad.

11:46But another hugely important impact of the fall of Saigon was that it created this massive Vietnamese diaspora, which spread all around the world. These were refugees that fled in boats, planes, and helicopters. And since that time, some of these refugees have had huge success in the countries they've moved to. But they've also played a big role in Vietnam's development and they've moved back to Vietnam in doing so. A lot of them have moved to Saigon, actually, which now today is known as Ho Chi Minh City. Josh, I haven't heard much about the Vietnamese diaspora. Just how many people are we talking about here and what role have they played in Vietnam?

12:24The Vietnamese diaspora is huge. It's more than five million people. And they've sent lots of money back to Vietnam in the years since 1975. They sent around$15 billion worth last year, which is among the highest numbers of any country in Asia. But they've also helped in a different way. Many of them have come back to Vietnam and they brought with them the sort of money, the skills and the education that they've picked up while living abroad. And they've helped to shape Vietnamese business, Vietnamese society and much more. Have many people gone back? They have, Rosie, yeah. There are some people that fled in 1975 who have made the return, but it's also been their children and later generations who've gone back.

13:06These are people who don't remember the war. They don't remember living in Vietnam, many of them. And they see Vietnam in a different way to perhaps their parents who remember the war and the conflict. A lot of these people, they're not just coming back for work, but they're also coming to reconnect with their Vietnamese heritage. They're coming back to a perceived homeland. And they have a really good quality of life. They find that there's good job opportunities in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia. There's a huge manufacturing sector, tech sector, where they can get high paying jobs, particularly with the education that they've received in America, where many of them have grown up.

13:45And obviously things are cheaper. The cost of living is lower. So they tend to enjoy that ability to spend more and also an ability to connect with their heritage and their history that they've missed from growing up abroad. And what about the older people who've moved back, those who were actually in Vietnam during the war? That's definitely something that happened, particularly in the 1990s and the 2000s. Those people tended to be moving more. And the government at the time launched policies to try and win back over that diaspora. But there are difficulties. Some of these people do remember the fall of Saigon, or their parents do, and they have these painful memories associated with it.

14:25One of the people I spoke with was Tin Nguyen, who left in 1975 in an American Navy battleship. How old were you when you left? I was 17. You were 17? Yeah. So you remember it quite well. Oh, very well. Yeah. I remember it like yesterday. He ended up living in New Orleans for a while, then moved to Silicon Valley, got involved in the tech industry, eventually chose to return to Vietnam in the summer of 2002, set up a software company and he's remained ever since. In general across Vietnam particularly younger people they don't think so much about the war these days. If you don't grow up in a country you may not know some cultural references, you may not speak the language quite as well as a Vietnamese person who's grown up there but the good thing for them is that there's a huge amount of other Vietnamese diaspora who have returned so within that they have a community that they can meet with and those are some of the people I met with when I was there.

15:20John Vu, who's in his 30s, he works in the sustainable development sector in Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City. You can have a high quality of life here in Vietnam. He returned in 2019 from America and he came partly for work, but also to reconnect with his Vietnamese heritage. I've never felt more free than being on the back of a motorbike here in Vietnam. Mimi Vu and Tru Lang also grew up in America but chose to return to Vietnam. I remember flying into Ho Chi Minh and I was like, where are all these tall buildings? I was like, where's the jungle? Where's the buffaloes? Why are there so many cars and tall buildings?

16:00You know, so really it was an awakening. The only reason why I'm in Vietnam is because my dad made me fly for jobs here. And for him, it was about pride, family pride, ethnic pride. It was like, you're privileged, you're well-educated. It's now your duty and responsibility to go to Vietnam and help the global country. Josh, the fall of Saigon is such an iconic moment in the history of America's war there. How do people feel about it now in Vietnam 50 years on? I was in Ho Chi Minh City in the days leading up to it just for the rehearsals and there were thousands of people out and about watching troops marching in huge parades.

16:42There were military jets zooming overhead.

16:48Firework displays, drone shows, people holding Vietnamese flags. It was a kind of moment of unity for the country to some people, particularly as they face a difficult economic situation with Donald Trump slapping really high tariffs on them and potentially threatening their biggest export market. There's a moment of people coming together. But at the same time, most people don't remember the war. They're more focused on the here and now and the future. And they want to be part of a new story for Vietnam. And they're optimistic about that rather than looking to the past. Josh, thank you so much.

17:23Thank you, Rosie.

17:28Thank you.

17:58for the best offer.

18:08Orpheus was surely the first of the buskers.

18:20Anne Rowe is our obituaries editor. He strolled through Hades with his lyre, comforting the lost souls, looking at Sisyphus heaving his rock and Tantalus with his food cravings, making them feel just a bit better. And in the end, getting even evil Pluto to accede to his requests.

18:51The power of music is a wonderful thing. And music showed its power, too, in the subway system of New York, where for three decades, Alice Tan Ridley sang gospel, Motown, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, to the commuters who were racing to the trains. She would look at these people as they moved along the platforms, and their faces creased into worry about their jobs or their mortgages or just the day ahead of them. And she wanted to turn each frown into a smile. One of her favorites was Midnight Train to Georgia, a steering ballad about a man leaving L.A. and his lover wanting to come with him away from the stars to a place where she'll be happy.

19:58As she prepared to do her day's work, however, she took rather more than a lyre. She packed a big blue valise with an amplifier, a microphone, a lot of flyers about her act, a set book of a hundred pieces that she liked to sing, and a folding chair and a cushion. And all this she heaved down to the subway platform, and there she would sing, usually for about three hours. people used to wonder whether she must be homeless or a beggar if she was doing that she wasn't begging for money at all she was doing a professional job as far as she was concerned on a good day she could earn 300 and since she was a single mother divorced two children to bring up she certainly had to earn well to keep the bills paid and the food on the table and she found busking was the thing.

21:12She tended to have an optimistic and happy attitude to life. She didn't let things get her down. If something had gone wrong, she moved on to the next thing. So if she found, for example, that her husband had for six years been living with another woman as his wife, she let it go. She did divorce him, but she still considered him a close friend. The fact was that she loved working down in the subway because she loved New York. She'd been brought up in a little place called Lumpkin in Georgia, which was hidden away in the pine woods when she was brought up. There were still problems with the Ku Klux Klan there.

21:56They were not a wealthy family, but they were all brought up to do something skilled in the music line, either playing an instrument or singing. It was her mother who trained them in that. And two of her siblings, she had seven siblings, actually moved to New York before her, her brother Roger and her sister Dorothy, and she would come up and visit the city and be absolutely amazed by it. all the cars, the people, the lights. And as far as music went, it was really like making music in a great cathedral.

22:32And all this time, she was, however, wondering if she might be a star. But it wasn't until 2009 that a young Israeli called Devir Asulin came along and offered to be her agent. He thought that she would do very well if he put her up for America's Got Talent.

22:57So in 2010, Alice Tan Ridley went to Las Vegas and sang in front of the three-man jury and was absolutely sensational.

23:12And love

23:20My love has come along She sang a song called At Last and the jury were simply gobsmacked and didn't know what to say about her except that one, Sharon Osbourne, said, why have you been hiding underground all this time? And that was really what the audience was thinking.

23:40So she got through to the semifinals and also wowed people, but unfortunately not quite so much as the group that won. So she took it in her stride as she normally did, because a certain amount of fame had arrived just from being in the TV world, as she put it. She went on tour, she went abroad too, to South America and Europe, and looking as great a star as she could hope to be. By 2014 she had actually gone back to busking again

24:16The reason she had was very simple She loved the closeness of it When she sang her songs there and people came up and stood beside her She would hug them and she would encourage them to sing a duet with her She was giving New York something rather unexpected and always comforting and stirring, a real peel of joy.

24:44Anne Rowe on Alice Tan Ridley, who has died aged 72.

25:00That's all for this episode of The Intelligence. We'll see you back here tomorrow.