Trump has pushed the boundaries of the presidency to slash the federal workforce, withhold aid funds, curb illegal immigration and punish independent institutions.
The speed and scope with which President Donald Trump has tried to remake the relationship between the government and the citizenry in the first 100 days of his second term have been nothing short of breathtaking. That’s true for his fans and his critics alike.
When Trump travels to politically legendary Macomb County, Michigan, on Tuesday to mark the milestone, he will be able to point to his novel interpretations of the powers of the presidency to slash the federal workforce, withhold funds for foreign and domestic aid, stem the flow of illegal immigration through the U.S. border with Mexico, boost cryptocurrency and strangle trade, punish independent institutions — universities, law firms and media outlets among them — for failing to support his views and effectively outlaw diversity initiatives within the federal government and entities it supports.
Trump and his allies have relentlessly attacked federal judges who have rendered decisions slowing or stopping some of those policies — and, in one high-profile immigration case, did not comply with a district court judge’s order to halt deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
In times of war and economic crisis, past presidents, from Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt, have tested the constitutional limits of their office in the name of protecting the nation from both foreign and domestic enemies and from the perils of financial ruin. None have tried to exercise so much power, across such a broad range of issues and with such disregard for Congress and the courts, as Trump has in a time of relative peace and economic stability in the United States.
Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, said Trump has separated himself from predecessors by ignoring Congress and with his zeal for tearing down institutions, inside and outside the government, rather than building them up.
“It’s been 100 days without a major bill. So it’s the opposite of FDR, who was focused on as much legislation as you can,” Zelizer said. “A lot of this has really been much more of a destructive mindset. … It’s hard to think of a president so uninterested in using the time for a legislative achievement.”
Trump’s use of those powers to reward allies and penalize adversaries — real and perceived — defies modern comparison and harks back to President Andrew Jackson’s spoils system. His heavy flirtation with serving more than two full terms, which critics say is an effort to lay the groundwork to remain in office indefinitely, is without precedent since the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit was ratified in 1951.
One of the chief advocates for Trump’s seeking a third term, “War Room” podcaster and former White House official Steve Bannon, said the opening of Trump’s second term has redirected the country in a good way.
“The Trump Project is a revolutionary project,” Bannon said in a text-message exchange. “He has accomplished more in 100 days to return America to her former greatness than any leader since [President Ronald] Reagan.”
Macomb County, a cluster of Detroit suburbs where Trump will tout the actions of his first 100 days Tuesday, was the heart of the white, working-class “Reagan Democrat” contingent in 1980 and 1984. Trump won it in each of his three elections.
But while there is little question that Trump stormed back into Washington proclaiming his election as a mandate to expand presidential authorities over nearly every aspect of American life, his failure so far to address the most pressing issue of last fall’s campaign — the economic crunch felt by hundreds of millions of people — is dragging down public approval of his presidency.
An NBC News Stay Tuned poll, powered by SurveyMonkey, found that 55% of adults disapprove of his handling of his job, while 45% approve. The Pew Research Center, which has long tracked presidential survey numbers, found that approval for Trump stands at 40%, down from 47% two months ago. Those are just two examples of the many surveys that show a decline in his popularity — a decline fueled by rejection of his economic policies.
Forty-nine percent of Americans say Trump has made the American economy weaker, compared with former President Joe Biden, while only 37% say he has bolstered the economy, according to Pew. Confidence in Trump’s ability to make good decisions about the economy has dropped among Republicans, from 92% to 80%, in recent months.
White House officials say Trump has delivered on two signature campaign promises: securing the southern border and curbing inflation. The number of illegal border crossings has plummeted, according to government data, with about 84,000 recorded this year through the end of March. Over the same period last year, the figure was more than 555,000. The rate of inflation has come down in recent months, too, but it remains higher than most economists would like, at 2.4% year over year.
Coupled with Trump’s imposition of tariffs on goods from other countries — and the damage they have inflicted on U.S. markets and confidence in the dollar — many Americans find that Trump’s overall approach to the economy has imperiled their personal finances. So, even as inflation has slowed — Trump promised to end it on “day one” of his term — he has stoked, rather than stemmed, fears of investors and consumers. That raises questions about his competence as a steward of the economy.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, said it is important for Democrats to focus on that aspect of Trump’s second term amid a flurry of executive actions.
“The foundational thing that we should be focused on is how he’s wrecked this economy,” Newsom said in an interview last week. “That is the issue that should animate us, because it’s the issue that got him elected. … And he’s completely betrayed folks.”
Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce and domestic aid programs “amount to an attack on working Americans,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y. Goldman, a former prosecutor who was counsel to House Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment, said that “the true danger lies in his methodical attack on the rule of law — and specifically that he has from day one started assaulting every form of accountability in our democracy.”
In moving so quickly, Trump has been forced to admit some mistakes — many of them committed by the new Department of Government Efficiency, which is fronted by billionaire Elon Musk, in its efforts to close down whole parts of the federal government and fire hundreds of thousands of government workers.
In one high-profile case, the administration sacked nuclear safety workers and then scrambled to rehire them. Trump has backtracked on tariff threats — in the face of uncertainty in the stock and bond markets — and reversed himself by saying he no longer wants to fire Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell.
Echoing a response her boss gave to The Atlantic about the possible accidental deportation of American citizens, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said errors will happen.
“As the president has said himself, nothing is ever going to be perfect in this world,” Leavitt said.
She reiterated the White House view that Trump has delivered on immigration and inflation — while acknowledging that there is more work to do on the economy and blaming Biden’s agenda for that.
“It takes time to unwind the effects of those devastating policies,” Leavitt said. “The full might of the Trump economic boom will not be felt until [pending] tax cuts are signed into law.”
Trump’s next 100 days will be focused on three “deal” buckets, she said: trade deals, peace deals and a budget deal. On trade and peace, agreements have been more elusive than Trump promised as a candidate. He vowed that Russia and Ukraine would have a pact in place by the time he took office. And his tariffs have not yet brought about a blockbuster trade deal with a major partner.
In terms of the budget, Republicans in Congress have been working for months on a “reconciliation” bill that would slash taxes and domestic aid while boosting defense spending and adding to the national debt.
Trying to affect the outcome of that legislation — to kill it or reshape it — is part of the reason two progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have been traveling across the country, often to Republican-held congressional districts, to hold rallies, according to longtime Sanders adviser Faiz Shakir.
“You’re in a place where this reconciliation of cutting Medicaid and giving tax cuts to the rich is potentially a win for Democrats — if you could laser focus on it, mobilize people around the country on it, you really could have an effect,” Shakir said.
It makes sense to fight Trump on the substance now, he added, because of the possibility that Republicans will get cold feet when they contemplate the potential electoral consequences of public disapproval of their plans.
“You hold these events and you mobilize the public when the governing choices could be altered” to effect that change or have credibility in drawing contrasts with Republicans in next year’s midterm elections, he said. “You don’t skip that first part and then come to the last part and say vote for change. I don’t think that works.”
___________
NBC NEWS
