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Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of gaining city status for his SpaceX spaceport in the southern US state of Texas became a reality on Saturday, when voters overwhelmingly backed turning his Starbase into a new municipality.The ballot, which also named a senior SpaceX representative as its mayor with 100 percent of the early vote, was never really in doubt.Most of the 283 eligible voters were SpaceX employees at the site on Boca Chica Bay bordering Mexico, or had connections to the company, whose billionaire chief has long eyed a human mission to Mars.”Starbase, Texas,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, “Is now a real city!”His post came after polls closed and unofficial results published by Cameron County showed an unambiguous 97.7 percent backing the project.Musk himself is registered to vote, Cameron County Election Coordinator Remi Garza told AFP, but the South African-born embattled 53-year-old had yet to cast his ballot when the early voting period closed on April 29.Official documents show that nearly 500 people live around the base in Cameron County, on land mostly owned by SpaceX or its employees.The change allows Starbase to control building and permitting and avoid other regulatory hurdles, while collecting taxes and writing local law. The vote came at a difficult time for Musk, who is expected to reduce his role as the unofficial head of US President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” to instead focus more on his troubled car company, Tesla.The early voting also confirmed as mayor Bobby Peden, who is vice president of testing and launches at SpaceX, according to LinkedIn. He was the only name on the ballot.The Texas base launched in 2019 and is a key testing site for the company’s rocket launches.Not everyone had been upbeat about the prospect of a SpaceX town.Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, earlier voiced concern over the environmental impact, warning of more “destruction.””They would attempt more illegal dumping, they would build up their dangerous rocket operations and cause more seismic activity, cause our homes to shake, and that they would destroy more of the wildlife habitat in the region,” she told AFP before election day.- Environmental concerns -It was Musk himself who proposed the name Starbase in a social media post during a visit to the facility four years ago.Then, last December, general manager of SpaceX Kathryn Lueders appealed to local authorities to grant the site city status.Lueders argued in her letter that SpaceX already maintained infrastructure there like roads, education services and medical care.She promised the creation of the new city would not undermine SpaceX efforts to mitigate the base’s environmental impact.SpaceX did not respond to an AFP request for comment.The hub overlooks the Gulf of Mexico — renamed the Gulf of America by Trump — and there is controversy over access to Boca Chica Beach.A Texas House State Affairs committee rejected a bill this week by Republican lawmakers that would have given coastal cities with spaceports control over beach access.Hinojosa, the activist, said SpaceX has limited access to Boca Chica Beach for many years and told AFP she worried the vote could cut access entirely to a beach “our families have been going to for generations.”The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, descendants of an Indigenous tribe in the area, has also complained.In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency and Texas authorities found that SpaceX was responsible for repeated spills and releasing pollutants into Texas waterways.In response to reports that its rockets had caused damage to wild bird nests, Musk quipped on social media: “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week.”

Researchers at Dartmouth College believe artificial intelligence can deliver reliable psychotherapy, distinguishing their work from the unproven and sometimes dubious mental health apps flooding today’s market.Their application, Therabot, addresses the critical shortage of mental health professionals. According to Nick Jacobson, an assistant professor of data science and psychiatry at Dartmouth, even multiplying the current number of therapists tenfold would leave too few to meet demand.”We need something different to meet this large need,” Jacobson told AFP.The Dartmouth team recently published a clinical study demonstrating Therabot’s effectiveness in helping people with anxiety, depression and eating disorders. A new trial is planned to compare Therabot’s results with conventional therapies.The medical establishment appears receptive to such innovation. Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association (APA), described “a future where you will have an AI-generated chatbot rooted in science that is co-created by experts and developed for the purpose of addressing mental health.”Wright noted these applications “have a lot of promise, particularly if they are done responsibly and ethically,” though she expressed concerns about potential harm to younger users.Jacobson’s team has so far dedicated close to six years to developing Therabot, with safety and effectiveness as primary goals. Michael Heinz, psychiatrist and project co-leader, believes rushing for profit would compromise safety.The Dartmouth team is prioritizing understanding how their digital therapist works and establishing trust. They are also contemplating the creation of a nonprofit entity linked to Therabot to make digital therapy accessible to those who cannot afford conventional in-person help.- Care or cash? -With the cautious approach of its developers, Therabot could potentially be a standout in a marketplace of untested apps that claim to address loneliness, sadness and other issues. According to Wright, many apps appear designed more to capture attention and generate revenue than improve mental health.Such models keep people engaged by telling them what they want to hear, but young users often lack the savvy to realize they are being manipulated.Darlene King, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee on mental health technology, acknowledged AI’s potential for addressing mental health challenges but emphasizes the need for more information before determining true benefits and risks. “There are still a lot of questions,” King noted.To minimize unexpected outcomes, the Therabot team went beyond mining therapy transcripts and training videos to fuel its AI app by manually creating simulated patient-caregiver conversations.While the US Food and Drug Administration theoretically is responsible for regulating online mental health treatment, it does not certify medical devices or AI apps. Instead, “the FDA may authorize their marketing after reviewing the appropriate pre-market submission,” according to an agency spokesperson.The FDA acknowledged that “digital mental health therapies have the potential to improve patient access to behavioral therapies.”- Therapist always in -Herbert Bay, CEO of Earkick, defends his startup’s AI therapist Panda as “super safe.” Bay says Earkick is conducting a clinical study of its digital therapist, which detects emotional crisis signs or suicidal ideation and sends help alerts.”What happened with Character.AI couldn’t happen with us,” said Bay, referring to a Florida case in which a mother claims a chatbot relationship contributed to her 14-year-old son’s death by suicide.AI, for now, is suited more for day-to-day mental health support than life-shaking breakdowns, according to Bay.”Calling your therapist at two in the morning is just not possible,” but a therapy chatbot remains always available, Bay noted.One user named Darren, who declined to provide his last name, found ChatGPT helpful in managing his traumatic stress disorder, despite the OpenAI assistant not being designed specifically for mental health.”I feel like it’s working for me,” he said.”I would recommend it to people who suffer from anxiety and are in distress.”

Influential billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday he would retire from leading his Berkshire Hathaway business group by the end of the year and that he would recommend his chosen successor Greg Abel take over.Buffett’s success, coupled with his ability to explain his thinking in clear soundbites, has made him highly influential in the business and financial communities, earning him the nickname “The Oracle of Omaha.”Buffett indicated several years ago 62-year-old Abel would be his pick for successor.”The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett, 94, told an annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, the Midwestern city where Berkshire is based. Buffett said he believed the board of directors would be “unanimously in favor of” his recommendation.”I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases, but the final word would be what Greg said in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be,” he added.Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a medium-sized textile company when he bought it in the 1960s into a giant conglomerate, now valued at more than $1 trillion and with liquid assets of $300 billion.- ‘Wizard of Wall Street’ – Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities described Buffett as the “Wizard of Wall Street” and said his announcement could come as a relief to those worried about succession. “This helps alleviate concerns about who will replace him and may very well be well received by his followers,” Cardillo told AFP.The company on Saturday reported first-quarter profits of $9.6 billion, down 14 percent. That works out to $4.47 per share, also down sharply.And Buffett’s net worth as of Saturday was $168.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s real-time rich list.”I have no intention — zero — of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away eventually,” Buffett told shareholders, who responded with a standing ovation.”The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine.””So that’s the news hook for the day,” Buffett quipped.Abel, a long-time core figure of Berkshire, joined the group in the energy division in 1992 and has been on the board of directors since 2018.”Greg Abel and the rest of the team has huge shoes to fill, and they have immense amounts of cash to put to work if they so desire,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.”This is truly the end of an era,” he added.- Trade ‘should not be a weapon’ -Buffett earlier used the stage to declare that “trade should not be a weapon,” in remarks clearly targeting US President Donald Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs against countries around the world.”There is no question that trade can be an act of war,” he said, without mentioning Trump by name.Those comments came as analysts in the United States and abroad have expressed growing concern that tariffs could seriously slow global growth.Two months ago, Buffett told a CBS interviewer that tariffs “are a tax on goods” — and not a relatively painless revenue-raiser, as Trump has suggested — adding, “I mean, the Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay ’em!”On Saturday Buffett urged Washington to continue trading with the rest of the world, saying, “We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best.”Achieving prosperity is not a zero-sum game, with one country’s successes meaning another’s losses, he said. Both can prosper.”I do think that the more prosperous the rest of the world becomes, it won’t be at our expense. The more prosperous we’ll become, and the safer we’ll feel,” Buffett said.He added that it can be dangerous for one country to offend the rest of the world while claiming superiority.”It’s a big mistake, in my view, when you have seven and a half billion people that don’t like you very well, and you got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they’ve done,” Buffett told shareholders.Compared to that dynamic, he said, the financial markets’ recent gyrations are “really nothing.”

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Saturday that she had rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump to send American troops to Mexico to help combat drug trafficking.”I told him, ‘No, President Trump, our territory is inviolable, our sovereignty is inviolable, our sovereignty is not for sale,'” she said at a public event, referring to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal that described a tense exchange between the leaders.During the recent call, Sheinbaum said, Trump had asked how he could help fight organized crime and suggested sending troops.She said she declined, telling him that “we will never accept the presence of the United States Army in our territory.”Sheinbaum said she offered to collaborate, including through greater information-sharing.Trump himself said in an interview last week with conservative outlet The Blaze that he had offered to help Mexico fight the drug cartels, but that he had been turned down.Without providing details, Trump told his interviewer: “You could say at some point maybe something’s gonna have to happen. It can’t go on the way it is.”In her appearance Saturday, Sheinbaum said she had urged Trump to stop the cross-border arms trafficking that has contributed to a wave of violence lasting nearly two decades, claiming more than 450,000 lives in Mexico.Trump, on his part, has complained repeatedly about cross-border drug smuggling and has pressured Mexico to crack down on criminal cartels.Trump angered Mexicans in early March when he said America’s southern neighbor was “dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control… posing a grave threat to (US) national security.” Trump has also long complained — and uses as an argument for imposing tariffs on the country — that Mexico has not done enough to stop the trafficking of migrants and drugs, particularly fentanyl, into the United States.Those topics have been part of an ongoing diplomatic dance between the countries over the trade tariffs.Mexico, as the largest US trade partner and the second-largest economy in Latin America, is considered one of the most vulnerable to the US president’s expansive import duties.

Admired for his investing prowess and a taste for the simple things in life rather than luxury, billionaire Warren Buffett has won public affection even as he amassed a fortune for the ages — riches that the “Oracle of Omaha” has pledged to give away.Buffett studiously rejected exotic financial vehicles, as well as the brass-knuckle tactics of corporate raiders, adopting instead a buy-and-hold strategy of long-term investments.His legacy: Berkshire Hathaway, the Nebraska-based conglomerate whose diverse holdings range from Duracell batteries to insurer Geico to paint brands to diamonds.The company also holds carefully selected equity stakes in US corporate giants such as Coca-Cola and Chevron.Now, at age 94, he is ready to step away from the company he built, announcing on Saturday that he plans to step down at year’s end and will recommend that his chosen successor Greg Abel take his place as Berkshire CEO.According to Forbes magazine’s real-time rich list, as of Saturday, his net worth is $168.2 billion — the fifth biggest fortune in the world.Buffett has nevertheless avoided the trappings of the oft-maligned “one percent,” eschewing big-ticket art collecting or fancy mansions around the world.He still lives in the same house in a quiet neighborhood of Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. His gastronomic tastes are decidedly humble, including McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets at least three times a week, potato chips for snacks, ice cream for dessert and an average of five cans of Coca-Cola per day.His hobbies include bridge and playing the ukulele.”I don’t need fancy clothes,” Buffett told CBS in 2013. “I don’t need fancy food.”Yet he did acknowledge in 2006 that he owned a private jet, saying the splurge made his life easier.- Philanthropy -That same year, Buffett announced that he would donate 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes. Joined by his friend and bridge partner Bill Gates, Buffett subsequently persuaded other billionaires to pledge to also donate at least half their wealth away.Such campaigns have made Buffett a beloved figure within US society, helping to draw small investors to Berkshire’s annual meeting each spring in Omaha, a gathering that has been dubbed a sort of “Woodstock for capitalists.”The investor has often used his platform to comment on economic policy, or to express pique on a wealth of topics, from the questionable value of bitcoin to US President Donald Trump’s trade policies.Buffett has been open in the past about supporting the Democratic Party, while also frequently expressing the view that his taxes should have been higher, given his wealth.- Early business instincts -Born on August 30, 1930 in Omaha as the second of three children, Buffett discovered an early taste for business after reading the book “One Thousand Ways to Make $1,000” as a young boy.Buffett’s childhood was not easy. He has described going through a shoplifting phase and being forced to navigate around his abusive mother Leila, who used to berate his sister Doris as “stupid.”He had planned to abandon his studies, but that idea was vetoed by his father, a businessman and politician who served in Congress. He attended the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate before transferring to the University of Nebraska, where he graduated with a business degree.He later received a Master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in New York in 1951.Buffett worked on Wall Street in the 1950s, establishing the Buffett Partnership, which merged in 1965 with Berkshire Hathaway, then a textile firm. An avid reader of the financial press and beyond, Buffett gravitated toward investments that he believed were undervalued, holding them until they paid off.He transformed Berkshire into a far-flung conglomerate known for investments in nuts-and-bolts sectors such as energy, banking, air travel and food. Holdings also include Citigroup, Kroger, Apple and American Express.  – Active in his 90s -Donning classic gray suits, glasses and colored ties, the white-haired Buffett has remained a vibrant player on the US business scene into his 90s.He long ran Berkshire with his longtime vice chairman Charlie Munger, six years his senior. Then in 2021, as Buffett turned 90, Berkshire officially designated Abel as his successor — a plan that appears now to be set into motion.Buffett married his first wife Susan in 1952. They had three children. Though they lived apart for decades, they remained married until her death in 2004. He subsequently married his long-time partner Astrid Menks in 2006.

Influential billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday he would retire from leading his Berkshire Hathaway business group by the end of the year and that he would recommend his chosen successor Greg Abel to take over.Buffett’s success, coupled with his ability to explain his thinking in clear soundbites, has made him highly influential in the business and financial communities, earning him the nickname “The Oracle of Omaha.”Several years ago, Buffett had already indicated that the 62-year-old Abel would be his pick for successor in an interview with CNBC.”The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett, 94, told an annual shareholder meeting in Omaha.Buffett added that he believed the board of directors would be “unanimously in favor of” his recommendation.”I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases, but the final word would be what Greg said in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be,” he added.Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a medium-sized textile company when he bought it in the 1960s into a giant conglomerate, now valued at more than $1 trillion and with liquid assets of $300 billion.The company on Saturday reported first-quarter profits of $9.6 billion, down 14 percent. That works out to $4.47 per share, also down sharply.Buffett’s net worth as of Saturday is $168.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s real-time rich list.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Saturday that she had rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump to send American troops to Mexico to help combat drug trafficking.”I told him, ‘No, President Trump, our territory is inviolable, our sovereignty is inviolable, our sovereignty is not for sale,'” she said at a public event, referring to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal.The report, she said, was “true… but not as described.”During a call, Sheinbaum said, Trump had asked how he could help fight organized crime and suggested sending US troops.She said she declined, telling him that “we will never accept the presence of the United States Army in our territory.”Sheinbaum said she did offer to collaborate, including through greater information-sharing.At the same time, the Mexican leader said she had urged Trump to stop the cross-border arms trafficking that has contributed to a wave of violence lasting nearly two decades, claiming more than 450,000 lives in Mexico.She said Trump issued an order Friday “to ensure that everything necessary is in place to prevent weapons from entering our country from the United States.”The US president has complained repeatedly about cross-border drug smuggling and has pressured Mexico to crack down on criminal cartels.Trump angered Mexicans in early March when he said America’s southern neighbor was “dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control… posing a grave threat to (US) national security.” The two countries, meantime, have been in an ongoing diplomatic dance over trade tariffs imposed by Trump.Mexico, as the largest US trade partner and the second-largest economy in Latin America, is considered one of the most vulnerable countries to the US president’s expansive round of import duties.

Harvard students weave through tree-lined streets and redbrick campus buildings, but beneath the veneer of daily life fear has taken root: the most prestigious university in the United States is bracing for an “assault” by President Donald Trump.Since returning to the White House, Trump has targeted prestigious universities, alleging anti-Semitism and liberal bias — with Harvard a primary quarry. He has launched what one academic called a “blitzkrieg” of measures — arresting overseas students and researchers, slashing federal funding, and seeking to end Harvard’s tax-exempt status. “It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Friday. Unlike other universities that have bowed in recent days, Harvard defied Trump — suing his administration and mounting a fightback praised by students, faculty and commentators. “This is not about scalping (Harvard). This is about blitzkrieg and bringing out the biggest guns that you have,” said Sheila Jasanoff, a Harvard Kennedy School professor, her bookcases overflowing with books and articles. “There’s been essentially no check to the appetite of this administration.” First-year student Feodora Douplitzky-Lunati said “there’s a lot more wariness” among foreign students who fear they could be caught in immigration raids like those at Tufts and Columbia. Signs have advised international students not to discuss visa status, said Douplitzky-Lunati, who plans to study Slavic studies and economics.Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova has been detained since February, after her visa was revoked returning from France. Students involved in pro-Palestinian protests following the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel and the Gaza conflict have been arrested and slated for deportation at other campuses. Trump’s team imposed an April 30 deadline for universities to hand over international student data or risk losing a key certification to sponsor international students — affecting 27 percent of Harvard’s student body. In an email seen by AFP, Harvard said it complied, but encouraged students to focus on their studies.”I’m very concerned for my peers, and I hope most of my friends are as well,” said fourth-year US student Alice Goyer, sitting in a park near campus as students sipped coffee serenaded by a guitarist. “(We’re) at the forefront of a political battle… And I think the international students especially have been caught in the crossfire — they’re kind of being used as bargaining tools,” she said, accusing Trump of using an “authoritarian” playbook. Students described growing anxiety. Many foreign students face the dilemma of leaving for summer break and risking being denied re-entry to the United States. – ‘People are scared’ -Alongside visa measures, Trump has targeted Harvard’s finances. He put $9 billion in federal funding under review, ultimately freezing $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts in an opening salvo. Harvard imposed a hiring freeze, some researchers received stop-work orders, and its Chan School of Public Health was particularly exposed to the cuts.”The administration have been much more aggressive than anyone anticipated. There’s going to be chaos. The staff will get smaller,” said one casualty of the cuts who suggested US HIV and tuberculosis cases would increase as a result.In remarks to alumni shared with AFP, Harvard President Alan Garber said Wednesday the university’s endowment cannot legally offset shortfalls caused by Trump. “It is an assault on higher education. We must join not only with the rest of the academic community, but with civil society,” he said according to an alum on the call.Another said Garber described the situation as a long, existential battle, and appealed for alumni donations. While Goyer said she was “very proud right now to be a Harvard student” because of its defiance, she acknowledged Harvard had yielded on some points. Harvard has said it would rename its diversity, equity and inclusion department — which had drawn Trump’s ire — and defund graduation events held by affinity groups for Black, Latino, LGBTQ and other minority students. “I think it’s related to the Trump demands,” Goyer said. “It’s still kind of bowing down to Trump.” Leo Gerden, an economics and government student from Sweden, has defied the risks and become a visible international protester against Trump’s policies. “People are scared, and I understand them,” the 22-year-old said, citing the arrest by immigration officers of Rumeysa Ozturk at nearby Tufts, who wrote a pro-Palestinian op-ed. “Trump’s strategy right now is to (make) an example out of a few people — like Rumeysa — to scare everyone else into silence.”My hope is that by the end of this we’re gonna see protests just as big as during the Vietnam War.”

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of gaining city status for his SpaceX spaceport in the southern US state of Texas could become a reality on Saturday, with voters set to green light Starbase as a new municipality.There’s little doubt over the outcome of the ballot that will likely name a senior SpaceX representative as mayor of the new settlement.Most of the 283 eligible voters are SpaceX employees working at the site on Boca Chica Bay bordering Mexico, or have connections to the company whose billionaire chief has long eyed a human mission to Mars.Most ballots have already been cast ahead of the 7:00 pm (0100 GMT) deadline on Saturday.Musk himself is registered to vote, Cameron County Election Coordinator Remi Garza told AFP, but the South African-born embattled 53-year-old had yet to cast his ballot when the early voting period closed on April 29.Nearly 500 people live around the base in Cameron County, on land mostly owned by SpaceX or its employees, official documents show. The change would allow Starbase to control building and permitting and avoid other regulatory hurdles, while collecting taxes and writing local law. The vote comes at a difficult time for Musk, who is expected to reduce his role as the unofficial head of US President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” to instead focus more on his troubled car company, Tesla.The vote on Saturday includes a mayoral election, but Bobby Peden, vice president of testing and launch at SpaceX, according to LinkedIn, is the only candidate on the ballot for this position.The Texas base launched in 2019 and is a key testing site for the company’s rocket launches.Not everyone is upbeat about the prospect of a SpaceX town.Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, voiced concerns over the environmental impact, warning of “more environmental destruction.””They would attempt more illegal dumping, they would build up their dangerous rocket operations and cause more seismic activity, cause our homes to shake, and that they would destroy more of the wildlife habitat in the region,” she told AFP.- Environmental concerns -It was Musk himself who proposed the name Starbase in a social media post during a visit to the site four years ago.Then, last December, general manager of SpaceX Kathryn Lueders appealed to local authorities to grant the site city status.Lueders argued in her letter that SpaceX already maintained infrastructure there like roads, education services and medical care.Lueders promised the creation of the new city would not undermine SpaceX efforts to mitigate the base’s environmental impact.SpaceX did not respond to an AFP request for comment.The hub overlooks the Gulf of Mexico — renamed the Gulf of America by Trump — and there is controversy over access to Boca Chica Beach.A Texas House State Affairs committee rejected a bill this week by Republican lawmakers that would have given coastal cities with spaceports control over beach access.Hinojosa, the activist, said SpaceX has limited access to Boca Chica Beach for many years and told AFP she worried the vote could cut access entirely to a beach “our families have been going to for generations.”The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, descendants of an Indigenous tribe in the area, has also complained.In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency and Texas authorities found that SpaceX was responsible for repeated spills and releasing pollutants into Texas waterways.In response to reports that its rockets had caused damage to wild bird nests, Musk quipped on social media: “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week.”

President Donald Trump spent his first 100 days issuing a blitz of executive orders to deliver rapidly on campaign pledges, drastically downsize the government and reshape America’s role on the global stage.But the job gets trickier now for the self-styled dealmaker-in-chief, who must corral fractious Republicans on Capitol Hill to anchor his domestic policies in legislation that can cement a lasting legacy.”Trump’s first 100 days were remarkable for their pace and impact. Now comes the hard part,” Stephen Dover, chief market strategist and head of the Franklin Templeton Institute, said in a memo to investors.”The next 100 days will shift the focus to the challenges of passing legislation while simultaneously addressing deficit reduction. Congress must act, which requires building legislative coalitions.”In a dizzying first three months, Trump wielded executive power like no other modern president, signing more than 140 orders on immigration, culture war issues and slashing the federal bureaucracy.But the unilateral authority of the Oval Office has its limits and much of the reform Trump wants to enact — particularly anything involving spending public money — requires laws to be passed by Congress.Trump’s political capital will be put to the test as he aims to shepherd his sprawling agenda on tax, border security and energy production through the House and Senate. Complicating Trump’s task is his receding popularity, with the polls flashing warning signs amid economic uncertainty and misgivings over his handling of immigration and international trade.- Brinkmanship -Executive orders signed without the involvement of Congress can be undone by any president.They are also vulnerable to legal and constitutional challenges, as Trump has discovered in dozens of rulings that blocked his policies early in his presidency.A more lasting impact, say analysts, will require the kind of political brinkmanship and consensus-building that haven’t been necessary so far.The author of “The Art of the Deal” doesn’t have a great record of getting contentious legislation through his divided party.In his 2017-21 term, he passed the Abraham Accords, fostering peace between Israel and several of its neighbors, and celebrated a trade deal with Canada that has since been obliterated by his tariffs.But he failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare — a key priority — and, despite much fanfare over summits in Singapore and Hanoi, was unable to ink any kind of deal with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.When it comes to uniting around a common cause, his lawmakers in Congress haven’t fared much better, getting just five bills into law in Trump’s first 100 days, the lowest number in generations.Republicans set a deadline of July 4 to pass the president’s agenda — led by an extension of his 2017 tax cuts and fulfilling a campaign pledge to eliminate levies on tips, overtime and Social Security payments.  – ‘A lot trickier’ -The slim Republican majorities in both chambers will require almost perfect unity.But conservatives won’t back the tax cuts — which have an estimated price tag of around $5 trillion over 10 years — without deep reductions in spending.Moderates with tough reelection fights in next year’s midterms say they won’t support the likely evisceration of the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income families that this would entail. Political consultant and former Senate aide Andrew Koneschusky, a key player in negotiations over the 2017 tax cuts, expects Trump’s next 100 days to be “a lot trickier.””When it comes to tax bills, the ultimate adult in the room is math. You can’t break the laws of mathematics, no matter how much politicians might want to,” he told AFP.”It’s going to be extremely tricky for the numbers to add up in a way that satisfies everyone in the Republican caucus.”Meanwhile Trump is up against the clock.The battle for the House majority in 2026 will likely come down to a few swing districts and the president could easily see his ability to shepherd legislation through Congress curtailed. Trump is relying on an arcane Senate procedure called “reconciliation” that means, given certain conditions are satisfied, he won’t need Democratic support to pass his priorities — which is just as well. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has called Trump’s agenda “unconscionable” and “un-American,” vowing to do everything Democrats can to “bury it in the ground, never to rise again.”