On October 22, 2016 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump presented a plan for his first 100 days in office as US president. His “contract with the American voter” was meant to ensure that America’s economy was revitalised and citizens were protected.
As we hit that 100-day milestone, the Centre in conjunction with ABC News 24 and Radio National hosted a public forum with experts to chart the president's progress on his action plan. Had Trump delivered on congressional term limits, lobbying bans, funding cuts for sanctuary cities and restrictions on immigration? What about his promises to label China a currency manipulator and to cancel billions in payments to UN climate change programs?
The panels on foreign policy, domestic politics, and the media examined which policies have fallen victim to political pragmatism and which have been delivered, sometimes in the face of fierce opposition. There was also an opportunity for attendees to engage with the speakers.
John Barron
Journalist and broadcaster, ABC
John Barron was previously an Honorary Associate at the US Studies Centre. He is anchor of “Planet America” on ABC-TV and author of the book “Vote For Me” about the 2008 Presidential campaign.
The Honourable Kim Beazley, AC
Former Australian Ambassador to the United States of America
The Honourable Kim Beazley AC is a member of the US Studies Centre Board of Directors. Mr Beazley was the 33rd Governor of Western Australia. Prior to being installed as Governor, Mr Beazley had dedicated almost three decades to a career in Federal Parliament, representing the WA seats of Brand and Swan. Mr Beazley took up an appointment as Ambassador to the United States of America in February 2010. He served as Ambassador until January 2016.
Damien Cave
Australia Bureau Chief, The New York Times
Damien Cave is the Australia Bureau Chief for The New York Times. He’s covered more than a dozen countries for The Times, including Mexico, Cuba, Iraq and Lebanon.
Adam Creighton
Economics Correspondent, The Australian
Adam Creighton is an award-winning economics journalist with a special interest in tax and financial policy. He spent most of 2016 at the Wall Street Journal in Washington DC. He won the Citi Journalism Award for Excellence in 2015, and was runner up in the internationally recognised Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2014. He started his career at the Reserve Bank of Australia and studied economics at Oxford, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar.
Dr Gorana Grgic
Senior Lecturer in US Politics and Foreign Policy, United States Studies Centre (jointly appointed with the Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney)
Dr Gorana Grgic is a jointly appointed Senior Lecturer at the Department of Government and International Relations and the United States Studies Centre. Her research interests include US politics and foreign policy, transatlantic relations, conflict resolution and democratisation. She is the author of Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric Federations (Routledge 2017).
Barbara Heineback
Strategic consultant for President Bill Clinton’s Administration
Barbara Heineback was the first African American woman to serve as a press officer to a First Lady (Rosalynn Carter). Heineback served as a consultant through her firm to non-profit, corporate, and private clients around the globe. Heineback also served as a strategic consultant for President Bill Clinton’s Administration, the NAACP, Scripps Healthcare, Silicon Graphics, Biotechs, the Bi-national Emergency Medical Care Committee and the San Francisco Library.
Professor Valerie Hudson
Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair, Texas A&M University
Dr Valerie Hudson is Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair at Texas A&M University. An expert on international security and foreign policy analysis, as well as gender and security, she received her PhD in political science at The Ohio State University and came to Texas A&M University from a senior faculty position at Brigham Young University. She is the 2017 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian National University.
Sara James
Correspondent, NBC News
Sara James is an Emmy award-winning journalist who appears on ABC News Breakfast, ABC News 24 and other ABC broadcasts. As a correspondent for NBC News and Dateline NBC based in New York, she filed reports from Sudan, Bosnia and Croatia, Pakistan, Haiti, the Mideast, Japan and China, Australia and New Zealand and all fifty of the United States.
Stephen Loosley, AM
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney
Stephen Loosley served in the Australian Parliament during the Hawke and Keating Governments where he chaired both the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Senate Regulations Committee.
Professor Simon Jackman
Professor Simon Jackman was Chief Executive Officer of the United States Studies Centre from April 2016 to May 2022. Between 1996 and 2016, he was a Professor of Political Science and Statistics at Stanford University. Jackman's teaching and research centres on public opinion, election campaigns, political participation, and electoral systems with special emphasis on American and Australian politics.
Ashley Townshend
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, United States Studies Centre
Ashley Townshend is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre and Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Security at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the founding co-chair of the annual US-Australia Indo-Pacific Deterrence Dialogue and was the Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre from June 2017 to June 2022.
