INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Within a few hours of extraordinary political shape-shifting, President Donald Trump abandoned stances that were at the bedrock of his establishment-bashing campaign.
NATO, he said, is "no longer obsolete."
He backed down a threat to brand China a currency manipulator.
In another reversal, Trump praised Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, whom he had previously pledged to replace when her term expires, and once accused of holding interest rates low as a political boost for former President Barack Obama.
It was not clear whether Trump's sudden policy flips were the product of a new outlook and worldview. But previous presidents have often remarked that the world looks a lot different from the Oval Office than from a campaign rally.
But Trump's political gymnastics didn't stop there.
Days after his administration had seemed to accept an ultra-realist approach that would allow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to remain in control of his shattered nation, Trump decried him as a "butcher" over chemical weapons attacks on civilians -- fueling speculation he now advocates regime change.
