April 29 marks 100 days since Donald Trump was sworn into the Oval Office and pledged to put "America First!" With more than 1,360 days to go in his presidency, here's a look at what you need to know so far.
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'Putting America first,' Trump ditches TPP deal
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Ahead of Trump's 100th day in the White House, DW asked Germans living in the United States to rate President Donald Trump's performance.
In New York, DW's Miodrag Soric met Michael Hansen who heads a tech training firm with over 5,000 employees worldwide:
Michael Hansen assesses 100 days of Trump
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- 'America first!'
Trump promised to swiftly check off the list of his campaign promises once he became president. What looked like a promising start for his administration quickly sunk into the mire of Washington. Here's a look at his top five campaign promises:
Trump's pledge to build a wall on the US-Mexican border has left many people on edge. In the border city of Nogales, the gaps between fences often provide divided family members with the only glimpse of each other.
Life on US-Mexico border
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- Culture shock
After 100 days, Trump's presidency has brought exclusion, says US-based German photographer Reiner Leist. He told DW how politics change the way we view art - and why both art and politics benefit from stamina.
But Trump's actions so far haven't come without protest. We talked to the US photographer Steve Schapiro who's made it his mission to chronicle American life:
DW's Washington, DC, bureau chief Miodrag Soric talks about the mood in the capital and the rift in US society.
DW has compiled a list of documentaries that shed light on the polemical leader and the issues he is facing. One upcoming docu-series exploring life in Trump's America is a project on race by rapper Jay Z.
New documentaries you need to watch to understand Trump's 100 first days
As the US president reaches the 100-day mark, these films shed led on the polemical leader and the issues he is facing.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Augstein
Jay Z's 'Race'
While rapper Jay Z is working on a six-episode documentary series on racial inequality in Trump's America, other recent background films can help us grasp the issues the US president has been dealing with for the past 100 days. Other documentaries reveal how his political circle is organized - and how he ticks.
Image: Getty Images/TIDAL/T. Wargo
'The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth'
The first season of this political docu-series followed the 2016 presidential race. Now in its second season, this Showtime program covers Trump's first 100 days in office by exploring the stories behind the headlines. A feature film made out of the material collected during season one of "The Circus," entitled "Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time," also premiered at Sundance.
'Get Me Roger Stone'
This documentary on Trump's adviser and longtime Republican operative, Roger Stone, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival before its upcoming Netflix release on May 12. The man has been influencing US politics for decades - for the worse, just like a "malevolent Forrest Gump," says journalist Jeffrey Toobin in the film. The backgrounder reveals how deeply interconnected Stone and Trump are.
'HyperNormalisation'
BBC director Adam Curtis (pictured) is renowned for his cult signature style, combining weird archive footage with overarching historical storytelling. When he released "HyperNormalisation" in October 2016, a 165-minute film charting the rise of post-truth politics, he was criticized for focusing on Donald Trump - then still believed to be a short-lived phenomenon. Who were those critics again?
Image: Getty Images/S. Gries
'La Frontera'
Shortly before his 100th day in office, Trump postponed funding to his US-Mexico border wall to avoid a spending freeze. Fiercely opposed by many politicians, it remains to be seen if his campaign pledge will ever be fulfilled. In the meantime, further arguments against it are found in "La Frontera," which follows a man walking along the whole border, meeting the people who live and work there.
Image: The Southern Documentary Project
'An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power'
The trailer for this follow-up to former Vice President's Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" came out on March 28, opening with Trump complaining he wished for more global warming. That same day, the US president signed an executive order curbing the enforcement of climate regulations - and added two more in that vein just before reaching his 100-day mark. The film hits theaters on July 28.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Sundance Institute
'Obamacare in Trump Country'
Another one of Trump's main campaign promises was to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. That hasn't worked out yet, as the president failed to secure his party members' vote last March for a replacement plan. A short Vox documentary meets Trump voters in the sate of Kentucky - people who directly benefited from the plan - to understand what they were hoping for.
Image: Reuters/K. Lamarque
'You've Been Trumped Too'
"You've Been Trumped" (2011) featured Trump's construction of a luxury golf course on a Scottish coastline and the ensuing disputes he had with the local residents. Refusing to sell their land, a family had their water supply cut off - an ongoing situation, as this follow-up film shows. The documentary "reveals the corporate, sociopathic nature of Trump's political vision," writes "The Guardian."
Image: trumpedfilm.com
'Risk'
Trump's first months of presidency were also overshadowed by FBI inquiries into Russia's possible intervention in the elections. This is part of Oscar-winner Laura Poitras' new film on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, "Risk." Following the US Justice Department's recent declaration that his arrest was a "priority," the filmmaker is now updating the doc just before its theatrical release on May 5.
Image: picture alliance/empics/D. Lipinski
'City of Ghosts'
One of Trump's unusually more popular moves since January was the airstrike on Syria - which, however, didn't impact the country's ability to wage war. Trump's failed travel ban is more emblematic of his views towards Muslim refugees. A must-see film for him to change that will be "City of Ghosts," described as "the definitive Syria documentary" by "The Guardian." It will be released on July 7.
Image: Reuters
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But if you're looking for a good laugh instead, The Simpsons are here to help process these past few weeks with humor. Years ago, The Simpsons predicted the future: Donald Trump would become US President. The idea seemed absurd at the time, but now that man has been in that very office for the past 100 days. The Simpsons noted the irony in their latest viral clip.
DW spoke with YouTube star Flula Borg - a German native who has built somewhat of a cult following in the USA - about his thoughts on the new US president.
From lifting restrictions on mining coal to removing barriers to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, Trump has wasted little time in pushing through legislation at the expense of the environment. But how much will his policies have on the environment in the long-term? Will a growing global consensus and technological innovation be enough to stem their potential damage?
For booksellers, Trump has been the stuff of dreams. North American magazines and blogs have been listing a range of must-read books, in an attempt to understand the new president's behavior. At the end of January, Orson Wells' 1949 dystopian novel "1984" shot to the top of the bestseller lists as readers, fraught with "alternative facts," grappled to understand the political situation.
9 must-read books to face the Trump era
US President Donald Trump has made booksellers' dreams come true. North American magazines and blogs have been listing a range of must-read books, in an attempt to understand the new president's behavior.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
'1984'
George Orwell's "1984" pops up repeatedly on lists, with the literary classic opening a window into authoritarian regimes. The dystopian novel delves into what it means to live in a state of tyranny, including omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation. Pictured here is a film still from the 1956 movie adaptation of the novel.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
'The Origins of Totalitarianism'
Hannah Arendt's essay "The Origins of Totalitarianism," originally published in English in 1951, has also garnered considerable attention. Arendt (1906-1975), who fled Nazi Germany, was one of the first political theorists to analyze how totalitarian political movements rose in the early 20th century. A few weeks ago, online bookseller Amazon briefly ran out of the work.
Image: Leo Baeck Institute
'Brave New World'
What college student, or high school student for that matter, hasn't read Aldous Huxley's novel "Brave New World"? The 1932 novel looks at how society is kept in line through psychological manipulation and conditioning.
Image: Chatto & Windus
'The Handmaid's Tale'
Margaret Atwood's feminist dystopia "The Handmaid's Tale" has resurfaced on the nightstands of women participating in political protests, such as at the massive Women's March in Washington in January. The 1985 novel, set in a futuristic New England, looks at the oppression of women in a totalitarian theocracy after the overthrow of the US government. Natasha Richardson starred in a 1990 film.
Image: picture-alliance / Mary Evans Picture Library
'The Man in the High Castle'
In 1962, Philip K. Dick's novel "The Man in the High Castle" envisioned how life could have looked in the United States under totalitarian rule by the victorious Nazi Reich and Japanese Empire. A TV series loosely based on the novel was released in 2015. As part of its advertising campaign, a New York subway was controversially covered in the imagery of the show, seen here.
Image: Getty Images/S. Platt
'The United States of Fear'
Tom Engelhardt's "The United States of Fear," published in 2011, looks at how fear has fueled massive US investment in the military and national security, only to ultimately gridlock the country.
Image: Haymarket Books
'Things That Can and Cannot Be Said'
"Things That Can and Cannot Be Said" is a collection of essays and conversations by Arundhati Roy and John Cusack, who reflect on their talks with NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in Moscow in 2014. Surveillance and the nature of the state take center stage in these dialogues and texts, as well as the role of symbols, such as flags, amid patriotism.
Image: picture alliance / Christian Charisius/dpa
'The Power of the Powerless'
Vaclav Havel's 1978 essay "The Power of the Powerless" offers a compelling alternative to the current gloom-and-doom outlook. The Czech writer and former president expands on methods of resistance among ordinary citizens and how totalitarian regimes can give birth to dissidents.
Image: DW/M. Pedziwol
'The Captive Mind'
Polish poet and Nobel Prize laureate Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) became an American citizen in 1970. His non-fiction "The Captive Mind" drew on his experiences as a dissident writer in the Eastern Bloc. It is an intellectual reckoning with the allure of Stalinism and the deadening of the mind through Western consumerism.