Trump's adversarial policy stance a deal-breaker

PRESIDENT-elect Donald Trump views himself as a juggler of foreign and domestic policy, and a tough dealmaker. He admires former president Franklin D Roosevelt for his unmatched skill in "keeping many balls in the air".

Mr Trump, of course, does not have the stature of FDR, who once described himself as "a juggler", one who multitasked many issues: he engineered the American economic recovery from the Great Depression of the 1930s, and he not only helped his country emerge victorious in World War II but also as the pre-eminent global economic power. For these reasons, he is considered America's greatest president.

FDR told Henry Morgenthau Jr, his Secretary of the Treasury, in 1942: "You know I am a juggler, and I never let my right hand know what my left hand does... I may have one policy for Europe, and one diametrically opposite for North and South America. I may be entirely inconsistent, and furthermore I am perfectly willing to mislead and tell untruths if it will help win the war."