新闻纵贯线 Today updated 20:00 2017/07/28（在线收听）

身在炙烤？特朗普政府内忧外扰半年盘点

Welcome to 'Today' - an hour of world news and analysis -- from a different perspective. I'm Jingnan

It has only been six months since Donald Trump took up residence at the White House as the 45th president of the United States.You would expect some early difficulties with any new administration, but Trump seems to be eternally dogged with problems.Key among them, an ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and attempts to impose sanctions on Moscow as a result.Attempts to overturn former president Obama's healthcare reforms seem to be getting nowhere, with opposition to change coming even from within the Republican party in the Senate.And each week seems to bring some change in staffing in the heart of Trump's administration.

What does all this tell us about the Trump presidency? Are they simply teething problems at the beginning of a new administration? How can Trump steady the ship? And should the world be concerned at the seeming unending political sideshow in Washington?

For more on this, CRI' Jingnan is now joined in the studio by Tao Wenzhao, Senior research fellow at Institute of American Studies, at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;Zhao Hai, Research Fellow, at National Strategy Institute, at Tsinghua University and on the phone we have Robert J. Spitzer,Distinguished Service Professor and Department Chair of the Political Science Department, at State University of New York Cortland