In his first 100 days, President Donald Trump exerted his power in a sweep and scale that has no easy historical comparison.
His actions target the architecture of the New Deal, the Great Society, and the Reagan Republican orthodoxy of free trade and strong international alliances. He has taken direct aim at law, media, public health and culture, attempting to bring all to heel.
Here are some key takeaways from the most consequential start of a term of an American presidency since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Trump has tried to bend the U.S. economy to his will. But one force is unbowed: the financial markets.
The president says his tariffs will eventually be “beautiful.” So far, it’s been an difficult three months with consumer confidence plummeting, stock markets convulsing and investors losing confidence in the credibility of Trump’s policies.
He has imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, including on America’s two largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. Chinese goods are getting taxed at a combined 145%.
He has rewarded the coal and oil sectors by attacking alternative energy, yet his tariffs pushed up the price of the steel and other materials that the energy industry needs to build out production.
Trump promised to take on what he called waste, fraud and abuse in government. He tapped Elon Musk to lead the effort.
Musk turned his plan for a Department of Government Efficiency into one of the most polarizing and consequential pieces of Trump’s first 100 days.
The billionaire entrepreneur approached the task with a tech mogul ethos: break things, then see what you want to fix. Firings were widespread and indiscriminate. Programs were eliminated with limited analysis.
It is unlikely that Musk will accomplish his grand-scale goals. His plans for slashing $1 trillion out of the budget were pared back to $150 billion.
Cracking down on illegal immigration was the anthem of Trump’s campaign, and it is the issue where he has the greatest support.
He has followed through by implementing some of the hardest-line immigration policies in the nation’s history, even as the promised mass deportations have yet to materialize.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants with limited due process, then used it to send hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a mega-prison in El Salvador in defiance of a court order.
The administration pledged to end birthright citizenship for people who were born in the U.S., while proposing “gold cards” that would allow foreigners to buy American citizenship for $5 million.
Illegal border crossings dropped precipitously.
Trump entered office pledging to bring “retribution” for his supporters.
He made good on that on his first day and virtually every week since, taking aim at the prosecutors who investigated him and the law firms that employed them. He went after former officials who criticized him or correctly asserted that he had lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. And he targeted elite universities whose policies irked him.
The Justice Department fired the prosecutors who investigated him as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s team and demanded the names of FBI agents who participated in investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump has rejected the post-World War II order. Trump also pledged a swift end to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, so far to little effect.
His actions have led allies in Europe, along with Canada, Japan and South Korea, to question their reliance on the U.S.
Editors, Associated Press
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