New York: A few months into Donald Trump's first year as President it was reported that a faction of administration officials known as the "axis of adults" was working to tame his unorthodox instincts.

The key figures were Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Secretary John Kelly - and their aim was to mould Trump into a conventional Republican president.

Well, as conventional as possible given the raw material they were working with.

Their mission involved stopping Trump from pursuing two of the policies that made him such an unusual Republican candidate in 2016: an aversion to free trade and a less interventionist approach to overseas military engagements.