Trump, once unstoppable, hits snag after snag ahead of major US address

Journalists raise their hands to ask questions to US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC. [Mandel Ngan, AFP]

For a year, Donald Trump has governed the United States with little standing in his way.

Now, as the president prepares for his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he's weighed down with Supreme Court reversals on tariffs, souring public opinion on his immigration crackdown and mounting economic concerns.

Trump is unlikely to back down in his speech, a primetime American political institution where the president is invited by Congress to present his accomplishments and lay out his agenda.

But his boasts will have less sting on Democrats and world leaders who have up to this point, been bulldozed by his agenda.

On Friday, the Supreme Court delivered a sharp rebuke of his use of tariffs, which he slapped on countries often arbitrarily via a simple order on social media in an effort to gain leverage over diplomatic matters sometimes wholly unrelated to trade.

The same day, the government data showed the US economy expanded at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the October to December period -- significantly below the 2.5 percent pace that analysts had forecasted for the quarter.

Polls, meanwhile, show growing dissatisfaction with the cost of living as well as Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Cost of living concerns

Trump's strategy so far on inflation has been to cede no ground.

"I've won affordability," Trump said during a speech in the southeastern state of Georgia on Thursday.

But "you cannot out-message the economy. People know what they are spending," Todd Belt, a political science professor at George Washington University, told AFP.

American voters have proven extremely sensitive to economic issues, which in part sunk Trump's predecessor Joe Biden but now threaten Republicans.

As midterms approach in November, the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be up for grabs.

Trump has already warned that if Democrats take control, they could try to impeach him.