Early last year, U-S President Donald Trump returned to the White House promising lower prices, tighter borders, fewer wars and a return to what he called common sense government. But now, his administration is facing trade retaliation, an unresolved war with Iran, legal setbacks over immigration and voting, and growing resistance from within his own party. We look at the widening gap between campaign promises and governing reality - from tariffs and war powers to White House ballrooms and a bizarre Senate hearing over FBI recruitment rules.
Listen to Australian and world news and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts.
TRANSCRIPT
For Donald Trump, it is becoming increasingly clear that governing the United States is not quite the same as running The Trump Organisation.
Let's start with Canada.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Donald Trump once presented him with a gold key to the White House, along with a rather unusual warning.
"I opened this box, and it's this big gold key. And I was like, wow, Mr. President, that's fantastic. He's like, yeah, it's a key to the White House. You just bring it, they'll let you in. And then he says, maybe they'll shoot you. And that sort of sums up the relationship that we have. And that's kind of Canada to the U.S."
That joke may have had the U-S President smiling.
But Mr Trump then imposed 50 per cent tariffs on around $28 billion dollars worth of Canadian goods.
Canada retaliated in kind also placing 15 to 50 per cent tariffs on some U-S goods - an awkward development for a president who promised to lower prices and the cost-of-living.
Another promise has proved harder still: ending wars.
Mr Trump says he has helped end or settle eight conflicts, although several remain fragile or incomplete.
Among them, the war in Gaza - his peace plan failing to end the violence entirely.
Yet while presenting himself as a president of peace, Mr Trump revived Department of War as a secondary title for the Defence Department, with Pete Hegseth embracing the title Secretary of War.
And in that spirit, the United States and Israel launched the February attacks on Iran.
Six months on, the conflict remains unresolved, negotiations are deadlocked and oil prices have surged above $150 dollars a barrel.
And matters got more messy when Republican Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Mr Hegseth, accusing him of committing U-S forces to hostilities without congressional approval.
"On February 28th, 2026, Secretary Hegseth directed and caused United States armed forces to be introduced into hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran, notwithstanding that, one, Congress had not declared war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Two, Congress had not enacted any specific statutory authorisation for the introduction of United States armed forces into hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
A Republican congressman challenging a Republican Defence Secretary over a Republican president's war is not the foreign-policy story Mr Trump was selling when he promised to end overseas conflicts.
At home, his immigration crackdown is also running into limits: arrests have surged, but deportations have not kept pace, with immigration agents shooting dead a number of U-S citizens while trying to deport others.
The courts have also blocked Trump administration attempts to restrict birthright citizenship.
And most recently, have knocked down his administration's efforts to tighten postal voting rules before the November midterms.
Mr Trump was particularly unhappy with the fact that some of the justices refusing to back him were appointed by him.
But Attorney-General Todd Blanche says the fight is not over.
"And so our efforts to, and President Trump's efforts to make sure that we have free and fair elections are not going to stop just in November or thereafter. So, I expect you're going to see that work continue."
Yes, President Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices, and is now learning that appointing Supreme Court justices, does not guarantee three automatic yes votes.
The court, however, has been more accommodating over a new White House ballroom, a roughly 560 million dollar project on the site of the demolished East Wing.
Lower courts had briefly halted the erection, raising the possibility that Mr Trump might have to settle for one smaller.
But the Supreme Court has since allowed work to continue.
So, for now, the large ballroom is being erected with Mr Trump and First Lady Melania set to soon hold the biggest balls the White House has ever seen.
And while the administration juggles balls, war, tariffs, immigration, congressional dissent and judges scrutinising everything from ballots to ballrooms, the Senate Judiciary Committee has turned to the F-B-I.
Which is where things become considerably less conventional and more bizarre.
FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee, was asked why the bureau had changed a recruitment rule under which involvement in bestiality could automatically disqualify an applicant.
Mr Patel says the change was intended to ensure trafficking victims forced into degrading acts were not automatically treated as perpetrators.
"In a lot of these cases, when human traffickers, who are some of the worst individuals on planet earth - they don't just traffick you for prostitution, they traffick you for degrading acts of all kinds, they force you into that kind of conduct. And some of these individuals go on to be law enforcement officers who qualified to be law enforcement officers and later applied to the FBI."
Republican Senator John Kennedy sought further clarification.
"But you're not telling us today that if a human being had sex with an animal that they can still be an FBI agent.
(OFF-CAMERA, PATEL SAYING: NO).
KENNEDY SAYING: Are you? (OFF-CAMERA, PATEL SAYING: NO)
KENNEDY SAYING: They can't be. (OFF-CAMERA, PATEL SAYING: THEY CANNOT."
But that was just not clear enough.
Republican Senator John Kennedy wanted to know who the old rule had disqualified.
"KENNEDY: "Tell me what it said before."
PATEL: It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously we are never going to hire the criminal.
KENNEDY: Either side of what? The bestiality?
PATEL: Yes.
KENNEDY: So you disqualified the animal?
PATEL: We have great canines, but we're not going to disqualify them."
KENNEDY: "I understand."
Then Democratic Senator Cory Booker chimed in.
"We don't have an FBI Director. We have a lackey here. Who's using - and frankly, he's not even a good lackey, he's an incompetent lackey. He's like an 18 year old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. ... This is ridiculous. This is a sham. And what's bad is not the person who's sitting there, who is a mockery to the office he holds, what is bad is the people who are enabling him to do so."
It's not an ideal situation for Mr Trump's Republican party, with mid-term congressional elections coming up in November.
