Breaking down Trump’s first 100 days in office
Image: AP
Tomorrow marks 100 days since President Trump assumed office for his second term—a traditional early milestone for measuring progress in each presidency.
Catch up quick
To date, President Trump has enacted 127 executive orders aimed at reshaping wide swaths of the federal government. They include enhanced immigration enforcement and significant reductions to the government’s ~2.3 million-person workforce—carried out with the help of DOGE, a new initiative led by Elon Musk. Among other things, Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords and the WHO, and renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.
Over the following weeks, Trump began focusing on two main areas of his international agenda: 1) enhanced tariffs on US trading partners, and 2) ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
- In early February, Trump first announced sweeping tariffs on most goods from Mexico, Canada, and China. He also later unveiled “reciprocal” tariffs on all US trade partners. After a series of delays, both tariff plans took effect in early April—and were promptly delayed again for another 90 days.
- Trump has met several times with Ukraine and Russian leaders about ending their war, including a contentious White House meeting featuring Ukrainian President Zelensky and VP JD Vance. The latest US-proposed peace deal was rejected by Ukraine, though both sides have expressed openness to a deal in recent days.
Trump’s agenda has faced significant legal pushback. Since January 20, federal and state judges have issued at least 122 rulings that have at least temporarily paused some of the Trump admin’s initiatives, per the NY Times. These include blocking Trump’s efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship, fire some federal employees, and freeze up to $3 trillion in federal funding, as well as ordering the Trump admin to facilitate the release of a Maryland man whom Trump officials wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
What do the polls say? Trump recorded the second-lowest average approval rating for any post-World War II president over his first quarter (45%), above only Trump’s own approval rating from his first term (41%), according to Gallup. The data, which is echoed by other recent polls, shows Trump performing relatively well in some areas, like immigration, but poorer in other topics like economic leadership.
đź“Š Flash poll: Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the job President Trump has done over his first 100 days in office?
See a 360° view of what pundits are saying →
Sprinkles from the Left
- Some commentators argue that Trump has moved with haste and brute force in his first 100 days—but instead of building up the US, Trump is tearing it apart, with his words and deeds making the country weaker, poorer, and less stable.
- Others contend that Trump’s first 100 days will be judged an epic failure by any reasonable measure—more specifically, failures across legislation, economic policy, foreign policy, public opinion, and following the Constitution.
- “Trump’s first 100 days: Chaos, mass firings, tariffs, and brute force” –Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board
- “Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure” –Dana Millbank, Washington Post
- “100 Days. That’s All It Took to Sever America From the World.” –Ben Rhodes, NY Times
Sprinkles from the Right
- Some commentators argue that Trump’s admin has an opportunity with his 100-day anniversary to seize back control of the narrative from the media, after spending most of the past month on their back foot due to a series of mostly self-inflicted mistakes.
- Others contend that people might want to hold on to their early assessments for at least six months, because Trump is something wholly new and wholly unique in US political history.
- “Trump’s 100-Day Opportunity” –Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal
- “About that 100 days thing” –Hugh Hewitt, Fox News
- “Reviewing Trump’s first 100 days” –David N. Bossie, Washington Times
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