100 Days: Trump climbs the learning curve

Donald Trump is new to this. But not as new as he was nearly 100 days ago.

Inexperience and novelty have been defining characteristics of President Trump's first three months in office, both for better and for worse. He has made rookie mistakes and proven malleable, even credulous to bad arguments. But, to good effect, his flexibility has dragged him away from some bad ideas, and there are signs that his could be a sharply pragmatic administration.

"Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated," Trump declared, more than a little absurdly, in late February, as the House prepared to take up the ill-fated American Health Care Act. The president was stating what everyone apparently except he had long understood. Trump then pushed his party to rush the bill through Congress. He issued a transparent and counterproductive bluff, telling reluctant Republicans that this bill was his final offer.

Only someone unacquainted with policymaking would think repealing and replacing Obamacare would be simple, just as only a president who had never followed the post-Tea Party GOP would think he could strong-arm the House Freedom Caucus, which called his bluff and doomed his first go-round.

The inexperience of Trump and his White House has popped up again and again in these first 100 days. "After listening for 10 minutes," Trump said of his North Korea conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, "I realized it's not so easy."