Trump's next hundred days could also be a scary ride
President Donald Trump announces additional tariffs on goods imported to the U.S. on April 2. Credit: Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla
This first 100-plus days of the second Trump administration was produced as a frenzied "shock-and-awe" show, an agenda designed to command worldwide attention and spread anxiety. Shortly after the inauguration, Americans learned that President Donald Trump's grandiose "Day One" campaign promises of a quick and easy end to foreign wars and a drop in grocery prices would go unfulfilled.
One key promise was kept: Crossings and arrests at the southern border have dropped dramatically. Overall, however, as the stock market tumbled and recession fears mounted, Trump’s approval rating plunged.
Nothing is magical about the first 100 days of any incumbency. The habit of proclaiming the period began when President Franklin D. Roosevelt, taking office during the Great Depression, called Congress into a session that lasted 100 days, during which they together enacted sweeping bipartisan legislation to address crises at hand.
So far, the most striking impacts of Trump's first 100-plus days stem from his deliberate tactic of institutional disruption — tariffs that destabilize global trade and consumer confidence, and "efficiency" cuts and indiscriminate layoffs that impede government operations. This has created a palpable uncertainty among Americans who now wonder what to expect from their elected government in the coming days and months.
Self-inflicted wounds of the Trump presidency
Not all of the resistance to President Donald Trump's bulldozer efforts to reshape the federal government in his first three months has come from the federal courts. A good chunk of the pushback has been the administration walking back its own initiatives because it was stung by the outrage or embarrassment they caused. Here are a few of those fumbles.
Social Security: The administration's plan for widespread changes included closing regional offices and laying off personnel. On top of those cutbacks was a requirement for in-person filing of benefits which sparked a panic among retirees and those with disabilities who weren't even able to reach their local office by phone to make the required appointment. News coverage of the protest and complaints to members of Congress got the requirement reversed, although service problems linger at many regional offices.
Nuclear safety: As a result of DOGE's indiscriminate layoffs of federal workers, 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were fired without notice in February. Within 24 hours of concerns being raised about the safety of nuclear waste sites and destabilizing the nation's nuclear programs, the workers were rehired but the agency had difficulty trying to reach employees since their emails had been deleted.
Contagious disease prevention: The rush to cut the federal payroll included workers with special and needed expertise. The Agriculture Department axed 25% of federal laboratory workers tracking the spread of avian flu in 58 facilities. The department quickly backtracked, calling the firings "accidental" at a time when the price of eggs was soaring because so many chickens were destroyed.
DEI: To crack down on any content displayed on federal websites that related to diversity, equity and inclusion, a purge was ordered of words or images celebrating racial equity and social inclusion. The Pentagon's overenthusiastic response resulted in the removal of a photo of Brooklyn Dodgers great Jackie Robinson and the deletion of references to the Enola Gay — the aircraft, named for the pilot's mother, that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II. The Department of Defense quickly restored the materials.
Undocumented: In March, Trump asked the National Archives to give him the original version of the Declaration of Independence to hang as a decoration in the Oval Office. The nation's founding proclamation declaring the 13 colonies would no longer be ruled by a king is displayed in the Rotunda of the National Archives and draws more than a million visitors every year. The fragile and faded hand-lettered parchment document is displayed in low light and housed in a special glass and metal case filled with argon gas to protect it from deterioration. After an outcry, Trump settled for a historic copy.
The principal mystery is how a slew of problems, both inherited and imposed by Trump's administration, will be resolved in Congress and the courts in the next 100, 200, 300 days and more.
TARIFF EXCESSES
Without congressional approval, Trump is using executive orders and directives to impose hundreds of billions of dollars in new import taxes otherwise known as tariffs. Last month, he unveiled an impenetrable chart of different nations' tariff rates that defied economic logic. Trump appropriately withdrew or paused a number of them after a scary stock-market dive that by the S&P measure marked the worst first 100 days for a presidential administration in 50 years.
Trump and aides then predicted that favorable trade deals would obviate the need for many of the tariffs. Trade adviser Peter Navarro claimed it was possible to reach "90 deals in 90 days" — the period for which many tariffs were put off. But last week, only one deal — with India — was even reported "close." In a new sign of a walk-back, Trump announced a softening of tariffs on auto components with credits and other relief.
Economic analysts are predicting that without a policy pivot, container ships to U.S. ports from overseas will soon slow to a crawl and stores will sport many empty shelves. Experts anticipate a recession. Already, first-quarter GDP shrank, and that was before the tariffs began.
Last week, Trump finally acknowledged tariffs could mean fewer and costlier products in the United States — kids might have "2 dolls instead of 30 dolls," he said — while dubiously assuring us China will suffer more in the trade war.
POWER GRAB
Trump also has wielded unilateral executive orders to an unprecedented degree, often to throw shade or extract various concessions from private entities. But his actions to expand executive power have been challenged in hundreds of pending lawsuits. On tariffs, even the GOP wall is cracking. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opposes Trump’s use of supposed "emergency" declarations to impose the import taxes.
Illegal immigration remains his top-shelf priority. A solution for stopping illegal entry into this nation has eluded many a president. Part of Trump and aide-de-camp Stephen Miller's strategy is to try to get as many people as possible to self-deport, even if that ends up meaning they only go into hiding for the time being. The massive deportations Trump promised have yet to materialize — replaced by photo ops to convince the public that something is being done.
Due process controversies have arisen especially from some of the administration’s deportations to El Salvador. The Justice Department has struggled to get approval from federal courts for using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. So while illegal border crossings have plummeted, many matters related to reducing the population of illegal migrants will be settled in the months and years to come.
The waters are made more murky by the administration's tendency to be unforthcoming with solid information and factual explanations for the public and, more importantly, in response to court rulings.
Trump’s commitment to following the Constitution has been doubtful for years, and worries that he will provoke a constitutional challenge by defying the courts remain high. The administration even projected defiance toward a 9-0 order by the Supreme Court to secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the DOJ said in court was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
GUARDRAILS NEEDED
Even as federal courts shape the breadth and depth of Trump's effort to increase the power of the presidency, the impact of Trump's initiatives in the next few months will depend at least as much on the Republican-led House and Senate. In March, both houses approved a temporary spending bill that expires in September. That was one of only a handful of laws that passed in the first 100 days of Trump’s term.
Going forward, the question is how far the majority caucuses at the Capitol will go to coddle their party leader in the Oval Office. The future of massive programs crucial to New York, from Medicaid to Medicare to emergency-management aid and maintenance of Social Security, hangs in the balance. That has potential consequences for next year’s midterm elections when the "out" party typically has the advantage.
If the legislative branch is to begin doing its job, its members must review the changes and disruptions left behind by erratic plutocrat Elon Musk as departing head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which seemed to reveal a stunning lack of understanding about how government operates and a chilling disregard for the way Americans' private information is supposed to be handled.
The cuts DOGE ordered, often without explanation but attached to shaky "savings" claims, should be scrutinized by Congress.
Checks and balances within the bureaucracy also have been disemboweled under Trump. For example: The Government Accountability Office reports that the Office of Management and Budget "has not been responsive" to GAO’s questions about freezing billions of dollars in funding Congress approved, according to Senate testimony last week from U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro.
The next 100 days could also be chaotic for Trump’s cabinet. Last week, it was announced that Mike Waltz would leave as Trump's national security adviser to become U.N. ambassador. But that's unlikely to stop the swirl of controversy around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has lost the respect of those in the Pentagon and is considered too unstable to be the second-highest civilian in command of the military. He needs to be replaced.
Given what we’ve seen so far, the lack of accountability and respect for the constitutional process may be key features, rather than bugs, of this still-young administration. Poll after poll on Trump's chaotic approach to making systemic changes show the majority of Americans feel he has gone too far.
If Trump’s true goal turns out to be destabilizing the government and its workforce in order to shrink it and make it less professional — while ruling by fiat — success may come at the cost of the nation’s economic and political well-being.
It's still early. This administration may yet repair some of its mistakes. Either way, it's better that Congress and the federal courts serve as true guardrails against a president's potentially autocratic ambitions.
MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.
Courts constrain the president's actions
An unprecedented 200-plus federal lawsuits are pending in the effort to block many of President Donald Trump's executive orders and policy upheavals. More than 70 rulings have halted, at least temporarily, some of his planned actions. At least 30 cases involve actions against the Department of Government Efficiency for firing federal workers or gaining access to databases containing vast amounts of Americans' personal information. The administration, which has called for the impeachment of judges who ruled against its efforts to centralize presidential power, has not complied with some court rulings.
Here's a look at some of those cases:
Deportations: In the administration's high-profile crackdown on immigration, a Trump-appointed judge ruled for the first time on Thursday that the 1798 Alien Enemies Act cannot be used as justification to detain or deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang. While the ruling only applies to southern Texas, other rulings challenge the legality of the deportations under the law because no due process hearings took place.
Birthright citizenship: Trump's executive order claiming the Constitution's 14th Amendment does not recognize citizenship for children born in the United States unless one parent is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident has been strongly rebuked by several federal judges. The Justice Department's radical interpretation of the amendment prompted the Supreme Court to expedite appeals in four cases and schedule oral arguments later this month.
Federal grants: Federal judges have blocked several efforts by the administration to freeze trillions of dollars in grants, loans and other federal financial assistance. Also stopped for now are attempts to reduce funding for research at universities and medical centers, eliminate $11 billion in public health funding allocated to states, and claw back $20 billion in clean energy project grants.
Foreign student visas: Thousands of international students, including 11 at Stony Brook University, were abruptly notified last month that their visas were being rescinded because a cross check of the visa holders with other databases showed minor infractions or run-ins with the law, even if the case had been dismissed. After many colleges protested and students got court orders against the State Department's actions, the administration reinstated the visas, acknowledging in court that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was reviewing its "quality control" issues.
Consumer protection: One of the White House's earliest moves was to cripple the Consumer Financial Protection Board by eliminating 90% of its staff. That effort has started a judicial badminton game which halted the firings and created much uncertainty about government regulation of banks and other entities that provide financial services. The CFPB — created by Congress after the subprime loan debacle to supervise banks, operate a complaint database, and enforce fair lending laws over mortgages and other lending — is effectively not functional until the cases are resolved.
