Trump 'no interest in NI politics' - White house expert
Carryduff journalist Niall Stanage has been based in Washington DC since 2004 and has covered the four Presidential elections in that period and is the editor of The Hill. He reported first hand from the Iowa caucuses on the most recent election race between President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Damien Edgar caught up with him before his lecture at QUB on Donald Trump's first 100 days in the White House.
Last updated 27th Apr 2017
How much do you think local politicians have been weighing up whether to meet with President Trump, given some of the public reaction to his policies?
"I think every indication that I have is that Donald Trump is quite unpopular here. It's kind of the inverse of the situation that happened here when Barack Obama was elected, when all sorts of politicians from Northern Ireland, the Republic and Britain sought time with him to bathe in the reflected glory I suppose.
"Trump is quite the reverse of that. Theresa May was sort of embarrassed by having that meeting (in January), and then immediately afterwards I believe it was the so called 'Muslim ban' that was introduced and she had to distance herself from that.
"I think for European politicians in general they need to tread very carefully where Donald Trump is concerned."
And with regards to Northern Ireland, how likely do you think a visit is from the US President?
"Well he has a golf course in the Republic of Ireland, so that probably increases the chances of that.
"I'm not sure that he is, to any real extent, curious about the politics of this part of the world, but he may well visit it at some point."
"I do think that he is very sensitive to criticism and that any trips to Western Europe run the risk of public demonstrations, which I do think are a deterrent of a kind to him."
Covering the 2016 election, was it clear how Donald Trump was able to gather mass support?
"Generally I think a swathe of the population was very unhappy with the status quo and I think that played to greatly to his advantage.
"One of the reason Hillary Clinton lost was that she was identified as being part of the status quo because she had been in the frontline of American politics for about a quarter of a century.
"He has definitely utilised social media and Twitter very effectively. He has been the first politician and certainly the first President, to really be able to use that so effectively to cut through the media filter.
"Politicians have always wanted to do that and it's one reason why you see them on daytime talks shows and things like that.
"But Trump has used Twitter to both communicate with his supporters and lambast enemies and critics and it's been very useful.
"The other thing about Trump is that he's been able to use it to drive mainstream media coverage, so he'll tweet something that's seen as particularly newsworthy, and the newspapers, talk radio and TV will cover it.
"So he's able to create a whole news cycle and drive the news agenda, sitting tweeting from wherever he is."
What sort of mood has there been in America since President Trump's inauguration?
"I think, very clearly, it's a very divided and polarised society, I think that the election probably worsened that.
"There is also a belief among some people that having won the election, that Donald Trump would moderate his views and that has not really materialised.
"If you look at that 'Muslim ban' and an unsupported tweet that Barack Obama had tapped his phone, that's basically consistent with the way he behaved on the campaign trail.
"He has definitely utilised social media and Twitter very effectively. He has been the first politician and certainly the first President, to really be able to use that so effectively to cut through the media filter.
"I think that while some supporters of Trump love these sorts of things, it has further exacerbated divisions.
"I think that it has also energised a lot of people on the left of American politics though, who may have become a little bit complacent until the election, in thinking that Hillary Clinton was going to win and since then we have seen a lot more intensity on the left as well as the right."
How do you see the relationship between the UK and USA going forward?
"I'm not sure there will be an enormous change in the way that politics are practiced.
"One thing that you do notice about Trump is that his chemistry or lack of it with certain people tends to be quite important.
"I wasn't at the Theresa May press conference, but I was at the Angela Merkel one and the body language was certainly tense to say the least.
"He seemed to get along OK with Theresa May, obviously Brexit is a complicated issue.
"It would appear that Britain may want to negotiate some kind of trade deal there, and Trump mentions Brexit a lot as a precursor to his own election.
"In terms of the broad strokes of that relationship though, I'm not sure it's going to change all that much."
Having examined his first 100 days in charge, how much do you think they will inform his decision-making going forward?
"Most people lose money on betting what Donald Trump is going to do next.
"He does not really have a fixed ideology and that makes him susceptible to the influence of people within the White House and other people who know him.
"Those people recommend very different courses of action.
"So you have people like Steve Bannon who is very much a hard-right politician. You also have people like Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, who is perceived as a much more moderate figure.
"We have seen some areas where Trump has been more moderate but I don't think we have seen a consistent trajectory away from the campaign trail rhetoric, rather we see a kind of zig-zagging between the two patterns."