WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and
governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided
by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political
systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies
around the world.

Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, people—and, later, corporations—have
been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed
Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise,
for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many
of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing before the
outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

Map of Silk Road

But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have spurred increases in cross-
border trade, investment, and migration so large that many observers believe the world has
entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development. Since 1950, for example, the
volume of world trade has increased by 20 times, and from just 1997 to 1999 flows of foreign
investment nearly doubled, from $468 billion to $827 billion. Distinguishing this current wave of
globalization from earlier ones, author Thomas Friedman has said that today globalization is
“farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper.”

This current wave of globalization has been driven by policies that have opened economies
domestically and internationally. In the years since the Second World War, and especially during
the past two decades, many governments have adopted free-market economic systems, vastly
increasing their own productive potential and creating myriad new opportunities for international
trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to
commerce and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services, and
investment. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built
foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. A
defining feature of globalization, therefore, is an international industrial and financial business
structure.

Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information
technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life. Information technologies
have given all sorts of individual economic actors—consumers, investors, businesses—valuable
new tools for identifying and pursuing economic opportunities, including faster and more informed
analyses of economic trends around the world, easy transfers of assets, and collaboration with far-
flung partners.

Globalization is deeply controversial, however. Proponents of globalization argue that it allows

poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while
opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an unfettered international free market has
benefited multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local
cultures, and common people. Resistance to globalization has therefore taken shape both at a
popular and at a governmental level as people and governments try to manage the flow of capital,
labor, goods, and ideas that constitute the current wave of globalization.

To find the right balance between benefits and costs associated with globalization, citizens of all
nations need to understand how globalization works and the policy choices facing them and their
societies. Globalization101.org tries to provide an accurate analysis of the issues and controversies
regarding globalization, without the slogans or ideological biases generally found in discussions of
the topics. We welcome you to our website.
GLOBALIZATION IS MOVING PAST THE U.S. AND ITS VISION OF WORLD ORDER
By Peter S. Goodman

LONDON — If globalization were ever going to unravel, the beginning would probably feel
something like this.

President Trump, the leader of the country that built the world trading system, continues to disrupt
international commerce as a weapon wielded in pursuit of national aims. He has unleashed trade
hostilities with China, placed tariffs on steel made by allieslike Europe and Japan, and restricted
India’s access to the American market. He vowed to hit Mexico with tariffs mere months after
he agreed to a new version of a deal liberalizing trade across North America.

But globalization has become such an elemental feature of life that it is probably irreversible. The
process of making modern goods, from airplanes to medical devices, has become so mind-bendingly
complex, involving components drawn from multiple continents, that a few unexpected tariffs will
not prompt companies to swiftly close factories in China and Mexico and replace them with plants
in Ohio and Indiana.

What does appear to be ending is the post-World War II era in which the United States championed
global trade as immunization against future conflict, selling the idea that the free exchange of goods
was a pathway toward a more stable world order.
American administrations forged rules governing disputes, enabling countries to trade with
diminished fear of capricious political intervention. In ceding this role, Mr. Trump has weakened
the rules-based trading system while removing a counterweight to China, whose transactional
approach to trade places scant value on transparency and human rights.

“One thing is really clear: There has got to be a reset in the world trading system,” said Swati
Dhingra, an economist at the London School of Economics. “It’s all breaking at the seams at this
point.”

The trade war unleashed by Mr. Trump has injected higher costs and confusion into the global
economy, forcing businesses to anticipate the next venue for hostilities. American retailers and
manufacturers voiced that complaint on Monday in testimony to the Office of the United States
Trade Representative, ahead of Mr. Trump’s plans to put tariffs on a further $300 billion worth of
Chinese imports.

“This is now the post-American world economy, one in which globalization is much more spotty,”
said Adam S. Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
“The world is a riskier place, where access to markets is a lot less sure.”

In the Trump framing, the United States is best served by the unsentimental exploitation of its
position as the world’s largest economy. It must brandish threats of limiting access to its market to
force other countries to capitulate to its demands.
But the rest of the planet is increasingly refusing to play along, instead seeking alternatives to trade
with a suddenly mercurial United States. This year, Europe and Japan set in motion a mammoth
trade deal that generates fresh opportunities for their companies, while leaving American players
at a disadvantage.
Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a separate trade deal forged by 11 countries, Japan agreed to
open its heavily protected market to agricultural imports, handing American farmers a lucrative
opportunity. Days into his presidency, Mr. Trump closed that window by renouncing American
participation in the deal. Now, European farmers have secured their own broadened access to the
Japanese market.

China has responded to Mr. Trump’s tariffs with levies on American goods, including soybeans,
wood products, and machinery. At the same time, China has lowered tariffs on imports from
countries like Germany and Canada, lifting the fortunes of American competitors in those nations,
according to an analysis by Chad P. Bown at the Peterson Institute.

For example, China doubled duties on American agricultural and fish products to an average of 42
percent from 21 percent, Mr. Bown found. At the same time, China lowered average tariffs on the
same wares from the rest of the world to 19 percent.

Mr. Trump has sold his trade war as a means of returning jobs to a forsaken American heartland. In
his version, naïve presidents allowed other nations, especially China, to steal factory jobs from the
United States. His tariffs will pressure multinational companies to bring those jobs back.

But if that story makes for rewarding politics, it rests on antiquated economic assumptions about
the global marketplace.

Mr. Trump’s trade war will probably not increase the number of American jobs, although it has
imperiled paychecks at auto plants and other factories that rely on imported components. What it
will bring is higher prices for manufactured goods, economists say, along with uncertainty over the
terms of trade. It is sapping vitality from an already weakening world economy.

Entire supply chains — expansive linkages of parts for factory goods — have formed across Asia,
Latin America and Europe. The United States could recreate those supply chains at home, but at a
far higher cost. In the meantime, American industries would be severely constrained.

The largest manufacturers use China as a base to sell products to the world, limiting their exposure
to American levies. Caterpillar, the agricultural and construction equipment company, operates
factories in China, but sells many of its finished products within Asia.

Companies that are inclined to leave China are more likely to move production to other low-cost
nations like Vietnam rather than bring work back to the United States. Hasbro, the toy company, is
considering shifting production to the United States, but GoPro, the maker of mobile cameras, is
looking at Mexico.

A poll last month by the American Chamber of Commerce in Chinafound that 40 percent of its
member companies had moved factory operations out of China or were considering doing so.
Among those leaving, fewer than 6 percent were going to the United States, while more than a third
were focused on Southeast Asia or Mexico.

Companies that do resume making goods in American factories are likely to buy robots and other
machinery, rather than hiring large numbers of Americans.
The calculus of technology and geography — never simple — has been rendered more complicated
by Mr. Trump’s trade war. Canary, an oil field services company based in Denver, has been seeking
to shift purchases of equipment from Chinese to Mexican suppliers to avoid American tariffs,
its chief executive recently asserted.
Yet in refusing to rule out across-the-board tariffs on Mexican goods, Mr. Trump left the corporate
world guessing about the commercial map. Where can a company invest without worrying about a
fresh outbreak of trade hostilities? That question hangs over the world economy even after the
president relented on threats to impose tariffs on Mexican goods.

“It’s not so much you don’t know where to go,” Mr. Posen said. “There is no place to go. In a world
in which there is arbitrary use of commercial regulation by the United States, no cross-border
investment looks to be as safe and useful as it used to.”

Companies are mostly hesitating, limiting orders and holding off on investments in the hope that
time will bring clarity. A similar worry now discourages commerce in Britain, as it remains stuck in
its Brexit quagmire. With no inkling on the rules that will govern future dealings between Britain
and the rest of the European Union, investment is slowing.

But Brexit is a regional affair. Mr. Trump’s trade war is downgrading expectations for
growth worldwide.
Globalization did not happen by government design, and it will not be dismantled by political
predilections. Businesses will continue to tap world markets and trade across borders — a wealth-
enhancing formula, even as many major economies have failed to equitably distribute the bounty,
leaving communities vulnerable to job losses.

Still, the risks are considerable. Mr. Trump’s relentless focus on factory jobs has produced an
unhelpfully nostalgic view of the American economy, Mr. Posen said, obscuring the reality that 80
percent of the country’s output comes from so-called services industries. China’s retaliation to Mr.
Trump’s tariffs makes it harder for American accounting, legal services and engineering companies
to crack the Chinese market.

The escalating trade war has dealt a potentially grievous blow to the workings of the global
commercial system, and especially to its de facto referee, the World Trade Organization.

Many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs have come with the credibility-straining legal justification that they are
required for national security. Trade experts have derided his approach as an existential assault on
the concept of a rules-based trading system.

The dispute with Mexico elevates the fear. The Trump administration cited a domestic law created
to enable presidents to cut off finance to rogue regimes, deploying a remedy for unfair trade —
tariffs — as a cudgel in an unrelated dispute over immigration policy.

“This set of tariffs against Mexico is completely outside the W.T.O.,” said Meredith Crowley, an
international trade expert at the University of Cambridge in England. “It’s just a big punch in the
nose to the W.T.O.”

Among the institution’s members, the sense is deepening that its rules need updating. The
organization was not built to address the disruptive force of China, a colossal economy that has
subsidized key industries while pursuing a vast collection of global infrastructure projects known
as the Belt and Road Initiative.

Beijing has lavished credit around the world in exchange for promises that recipient governments
use the cash to hire Chinese construction companies, willingly doing business with authoritarian
regimes from Egypt to Iran.

In conducting his trade war outside the W.T.O. framework, Mr. Trump has ironically bolstered
China’s mode of operation — one in which bottom-line concerns take precedence over labor and
environmental standards, while national interests eclipse general principles.

“This is openly violating the rules of game,” said Ms. Dhingra, the economist.
TRUMP TO BRING 'AMERICA FIRST' TO WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
WASHINGTON - Donald Trump will take his populist message directly to the world's political and
business elite later this month, becoming the first US president to attend the World Economic
Forum in Davos in nearly 20 years.

Trump -- who ran for president on a nationalist "America First" platform -- will mingle at the
annual Alpine festival of globalism in Switzerland, and perhaps offer a few views of his own, the
White House said.

"The president welcomes opportunities to advance his America First agenda with world leaders,"
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

"At this year's World Economic Forum, the president looks forward to promoting his policies to
strengthen American businesses, American industries and American workers."

A string of US presidents have avoided attending the annual upscale event, fearing a sojourn to a
European ski resort would make them look out of touch. 

The last president to go was Bill Clinton, who attended in 2000.

The gathering might seem antithetical to Trump's brand of politics, but the White House insists his
message will be the same surrounded by chalets as it would be in Washington.

LOOKING TO MAKE HIS MARK?

Trump, a real estate mogul-turned-president, has rarely shied away from the rich and famous, but
may have additional geopolitical incentive to attend.

Last year, the forum was dominated by the appearance of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Xi became the first Chinese leader to go, picking up the mantle of defender of free trade and
globalization in the face of Trump's protectionist rhetoric. 

"No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war," Xi warned, fueling a sense of rapidly growing
China stepping into a space vacated by the United States.

During a decades-long spending spree, China has bankrolled infrastructure projects from Sri Lanka
to Zambia, often earning political influence in the process.

Last year, the Trump administration was represented by informal emissary Anthony Scaramucci,
who challenged Beijing to match words and deeds.

Firms were also quick to point out the gap between Xi's rhetoric and the realities of doing business
in China, which is a frequently tortuous affair.

'AMERICA FIRST'

But it is unclear how Trump's pitch for "America First" trade will play among the disciples of a
global rules-based order.
"The question appears to be whether he'll play to the global Davos audience or use his speech to
shock the crowd with the anti-globalization rhetoric he loves to use back home," said Scott
Mulhauser, former chief of staff at the US Embassy in Beijing. 

"The two sides of Trump stand in particular contrast on trade and globalization and may even both
appear in the same speech," added Mulhauser. 

"So this one should be fascinating -- and the signals he sends will be heard at home and across the
globe."

Since coming to office in January 2017, Trump has ripped up or sought to renegotiate a series of
trade pacts that underpin global commerce.

A series of investigations into Chinese trade practices have put his administration on a collision
course with Beijing.

This year's Davos gathering takes place January 23-26, with a theme of "Creating a Shared Future in
a Fractured World."

TRUMP ON OPRAH: SHE WON'T RUN IN 2020 BUT I'D WIN ANYWAY

FILE PHOTO: Talk show host Oprah Winfrey speaks at a Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barak
Obama (D-IL) rally in Des Moines, Iowa, US, December 8, 2007. Ramin Rahimian, Reuters

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump weighed in Tuesday on fevered speculation about a

potential 2020 White House bid by Oprah Winfrey, saying she probably would not run against him,
but if she did, he would win.

"I'll beat Oprah," Trump said of the Oscar-nominated actress and talk show host.
"I like Oprah," he said, noting that he had appeared on her long-running afternoon program. 

"I know her very well," he said, before adding: "I don't think she's going to run."

Winfrey's rousing speech at Sunday's Golden Globes Awards ceremony ignited speculation that the
billionaire talk show queen is harboring Oval Office ambitions.

Some Democrats -- still reeling from Hillary Clinton's shock loss to Trump in 2016 -- have embraced
the idea of having their own celebrity candidate.

But there is little indication that the 63-year-old actually wants the job.

"I don't think at this point she is actually considering it," said Winfrey's best friend Gayle King, who
is also a television personality.

King suggested, however, that the actress was "intrigued" by the idea of running.

"I also know, after years of watching the Oprah show, you always have the right to change your
mind," she said.

FOCUSED ON TRUMP'S RE-ELECTION 

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was also drawn into the speculation on
Tuesday about a potential Winfrey candidacy.

Asked by a reporter whether she had any advice for an "outsider" considering a White House run,
Sanders said: "I'm not going to focus on anyone's campaign other than President Trump's re-
election."

"I'm sure if she decides to run, which I think the president states he doesn't feel she will, I'm sure
she'll have help with that," Sanders added.

Sanders was also asked whether she believed Winfrey was qualified to run for president.

"Look, I disagree very much on her policies," the spokeswoman said. "Is she a successful individual?
Absolutely.

"But in terms of where she stands on a number of positions, I would find a lot of problems with that,"
Sanders said. "But that would be something she would have to determine and lay out if she made a
decision to run."

Sanders was also questioned about a tweet from Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump praising Winfrey's
Golden Globes speech.

"Just saw @Oprah's empowering & inspiring speech at last night's #GoldenGlobes," Ivanka Trump
tweeted Monday night.

"Let's all come together, women & men, & say #TIMESUP #UNITED," she said in a reference to the
campaign to end sexual harassment.

Sanders said the message from the White House is that "everyone should come together."
TRUMP CALLS FOR TWO-STEP PROCESS ON IMMIGRATION, PUSHES BIPARTISAN DEAL

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), holds a bipartisan meeting with
legislators on immigration reform at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 9, 2018. Reuters

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would back a two-step
immigration approach that initially protects young "Dreamer" immigrants from deportation if it
includes immigration restrictions and provisions for a border wall with Mexico that Democrats have
opposed.

At a White House meeting of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Trump said after the first
phase was complete he wanted to move quickly to even more contentious issues including a possible
pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants that is opposed by many
Republicans.

"If you want to take it that further step, I'll take the heat, I don't care," Trump told lawmakers of a
broad immigration bill. "You are not that far away from comprehensive immigration reform."

Trump said he would sign any bill that gives legal status to undocumented immigrants brought to the
country as children as long as it had the border security protections he has sought, including funding
for a border wall.

"If you don't have the wall, you don't have security," Trump told the lawmakers.
Trump and his fellow Republicans, who control the U.S. Congress, have been unable to reach
agreement with Democrats on a deal to resolve the status of an estimated 700,000 young immigrants
whose protection from potential deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or
DACA, program ends in early March.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Under pressure from immigrant groups ahead of midterm congressional elections in November,
Democrats are reluctant to give ground to Trump on the issue of the wall - his central promise from
the 2016 presidential campaign.

But after the meeting, lawmaker from both parties said they would meet as early as Wednesday to
continue negotiations on a deal covering DACA and border security, as well as a visa lottery program
and "chain migration," which could address the status of relatives of Dreamers who are still in the
United States illegally.

"From that standpoint it was a very productive meeting," said U.S. Senator David Perdue, a
Republican. "We have a scope now."

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who also was at the meeting, said negotiators in Congress still
faced difficulties but it was important that Trump had shown he had "no animosity toward the Dream
Act kids" and the “wall is not going to be 2,220 miles wide."

The U.S. Congress has been trying and failing to pass a comprehensive immigration bill for more
than a decade, most recently when the Senate passed one in 2013 that later died in the House of
Representatives.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters the broader bill with a path to citizenship
was not a focus for now.

"Our focus is on the four things that I laid out. That's where our negotiation is and that's phase one,"
she said at a regular White House briefing.

"We're certainly open to talking about a number of other issues when it comes to immigration, but
right now this administration is focused on those four things and that negotiation, and not a lot else at
this front."

The immigration negotiations are part of a broader series of talks over issues ranging from funding
the federal government through next September to renewing a children’s health insurance program
and giving U.S. territories and states additional aid for rebuilding following last year’s hurricanes and
wildfires.

Top congressional leaders did not attend the hour-long meeting. Instead, the guest list included
lawmakers from both parties involved in the immigration debate, such as Republican Graham and
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat.

Many of the Dreamers are from Mexico and Central America and have spent most of their lives in
the United States, attending school and participating in society.
Trump put their fate in doubt in early September when he announced he was ending former President
Barack Obama's DACA program, which allowed them to legally live and work in the United States
temporarily.

Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, said a DACA bill could win
support for passage even though there are differences between the parties over constitutes necessary
border security.

"Democrats are for security at the border," Hoyer told Trump during the meeting. "There are
obviously differences, however, Mr. President, on how you affect that."

On Monday, Trump announced that he was ending immigration protections for about 200,000 El
Salvadorans who are living legally in the United States under the Temporary Protection Status
program. Haitians and other groups have faced similar actions.

A congressional aide told Reuters that negotiators in Congress also have been talking about
legislation that would expand TPS in return for ending a visa lottery program that Republicans want
to terminate.

SOUTH KOREA'S MOON SAYS TRUMP DESERVES 'BIG' CREDIT FOR NORTH KOREA
TALKS

South Korean President Moon Jae-in attends his New Year news conference at the Presidential Blue
House in Seoul, South Korea, January 10, 2018. Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in credited US President Donald Trump on Wednesday
for helping to spark the first inter-Korean talks in more than two years, and warned that Pyongyang
would face stronger sanctions if provocations continued.

The talks were held on Tuesday on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone, which has
divided the two Koreas since 1953, after a prolonged period of tension on the Korean peninsula over
the North's missile and nuclear programs.

North Korea ramped up its missile launches last year and also conducted its sixth and most powerful
nuclear test, resulting in stronger international sanctions. Tuesday's talks, the first since December
2015, were held to resolve problems, revive military consultations, and avert accidental conflict.

"I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks," Moon told
reporters at his New Year's news conference. "It could be a resulting work of the US-led sanctions
and pressure."

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged threats and insults over the past year,
raising fears of a new war on the peninsula.

Washington had raised concerns that the overtures by North Korea could drive a wedge between it
and Seoul, but Moon said his government did not differ with the United States on how to respond to
the threats posed by Pyongyang.

"The denuclearization of the Korean peninsula the two Koreas agreed upon jointly (in the past) is our
basic stance that will never be given up," he said.

"I’m open to any form of meeting, including a summit (with North Korea), under right conditions,"
he said. "Having said that, the purpose of it shouldn’t be talks for the sake of talks."

However, Pyongyang said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons with Seoul because they were
only aimed at the United States, not its "brethren" in South Korea, nor Russia or China, showing that
a diplomatic breakthrough remained far off.

Washington still welcomed Tuesday's talks as a first step to solving the North Korean nuclear crisis.
The US State Department said it would be interested in joining future talks, with the aim of
denuclearizing the North.

The two Koreas agreed to hold multiple talks on a number of issues, including between military
officials from both sides, and Pyongyang said it would send a large delegation to next month's
Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Moon also said his government would continue working towards recovering the honor and dignity of
former "comfort women", a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japan's wartime
brothels.

However, he also said historical issues should be separated from bilateral efforts with Japan to
safeguard peace on the Korean peninsula.

"It's very important we keep a good relationship with Japan," Moon said.
On Tuesday, South Korea said it would not seek to renegotiate a 2015 deal with Japan despite
determining that the agreement was not enough to fundamentally resolve the divisive issue, and
called for Japan to take more steps to help the women.

BOOS GREET TRUMP ON POLITICAL HOME TURF

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he leaves with Vice President Mike Pence at the White
House. Carlos Barria, Reuters/file photo

U.S. President Donald Trump's mixed reception from football fans on his political home turf in the
U.S. south on Monday underscored the risk in his unrelenting and contentious focus on core
supporters.

The 45th president rarely moves outside his comfort zone, and so it was meant to be on a two-state
whirlwind tour Monday.

Trump visited the conservative bastions of Tennessee and Georgia, cozying up to farmers and
throwing red meat to college football fans by attending a championship final game.

The day -- flush with paeans to gun ownership, the flag and life at home on the ranch -- was a decent
snapshot of Trump's first 12 months in office.

Since entering the White House, Trump has played squarely to his conservative base, with
uncompromising positions on immigration and a host of wedge issues. 

"Oh are you happy you voted for me?" he told members of the Farm Bureau, a farmers group, who
applauded wildly. "You are so lucky that I gave you that privilege."
White House aides assume he is already running for reelection in 2020, and they are betting his
coalition of rural, white and conservative voters can deliver another victory. 

But that looks like an increasingly risky proposition.

Like predecessor Lyndon Johnson, Trump's movements have been limited by his deep unpopularity.

His approval ratings nationwide are around 35-40 percent and in some states they are even more
anemic.

Whole swathes of the country are virtual no-go zones.

He is the first president in decades not to visit the country's most populous and economically
important state, California, in his first year in office.

On Monday, in Atlanta, as he strode to midfield to observe the nation anthem in a college football
championship, a chorus of boos blended between the cheers to serve as a small but symbolic
warning.

While Trump's most vociferous supporters, including his son Donald junior played down the jeers --
and in some case even denied they happened -- some in the Republican party will worry.

A Republican president, visiting the south, during a sports event between two overwhelmingly right-
leaning states should be an easy victory.

Already, party stalwarts are concerned about what is in store for November congressional elections.

"If Trump's approval rating is still in the thirties on election day, it's going to be an extraordinarily
tough environment for Republicans," said Alex Conant, a Republican operative with Firehouse
Strategies.

- 'Tough to do' -

"Just as important as raising his favorable ratings is lowering his strong disapproval ratings. That will
be tough to do if he's only focused on his base."

Yet Trump has shown a marked unwillingness to modulate his attack-dog approach. 

In speech after speech, he lampoons the media, courts right-wing adulation and attacking immigrants
and his many critics. 

On Monday his administration gave an estimated 200,000 Salvadorans 18 months to leave the
country. 

But buried in Monday's speech there was perhaps the very faintest glimmer of a broadening of his
strategy -- with Trump making a play for African American votes by underscoring falling
unemployment rates in that community.

And on landing in Georgia he also signed into law measures creating a national historic park for
Martin Luther King Junior, and was joined by on Air Force One by Alveda King, the slain pastor's
niece. 
He notably did not tweet about Oprah Winfrey, amid fevered -- and largely unsubstantiated --
speculation that she may challenge him in 2020. 

Still, courting African-America voters will be a difficult gambit for a politician who cut his teeth by
criticizing America's first black president.

And there are already signs that Republicans are preparing the ground for a less than stellar showing
in November.

"Historically," Vice President Mike Pence told US radio channel "you have to acknowledge that the
first midterm election for the party in power in the White House is always challenging."

It could be especially challenging for such a polarizing president.