Trump’s first 100 days illustrate his strengths – Latest News
Any dialogue of the opening days of Donald Trump’s presidency should begin at the important thing date — final Nov. 5, when he rose from the political useless to grab his second time period within the White House.
His comeback victory was decisive as he swept all seven battleground states on the way in which to piling up 312 electoral votes, successful the favored vote and main the GOP to control of Congress.
But first he needed to survive two assassination makes an attempt, with one in Pennsylvania a miraculous close to miss, and overcome an onslaught of Democratic prosecutions and civil fits designed to defeat and imprison him.
All these instances, the first ever introduced towards a former president, have been obligatory, Americans have been assured by Dems and their media mouthpieces, to guard democracy.
The Big Lie — that the weaponization of the courts was something different than a partisan energy play — looks like ages in the past.
But recognizing the dogged dedication Trump needed to outlive the persecution and are available out on prime is essential to understanding his conduct since he took the oath on Jan. 20.
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He believes God spared him to save lots of America, and so his sense of mission is infused with urgency. He savors revenge — who wouldn’t? — however finally got here to get massive issues achieved.
He’s in a hurry and generally, as with tariffs, to a fault.
Record of achievement
Still, the avalanche of orders, actions and proposals reveals his greatest and most important accomplishment — Trump is frequently increasing the outer limits of what a president can hope to attain.
His consolation with the facility and status of the workplace permits him to unmask typical knowledge as a paper tiger.
Tell him that one thing can’t be achieved, and he takes that as a problem. That is his defining distinction.
President Trump’s 142 govt orders is probably the most of any president of their first 100 days. Donna Grace/NY Post Design
His e-book “The Art of the Deal” was a memoir about his days as a brash real estate developer, however his political autobiography ought to be referred to as “The Art of the Impossible.”
Exhibit A is that he managed to do the very factor each political events and the supposed media specialists insisted couldn’t be achieved.
Trump closed the southern border. Correction: He sealed it.
Recall that former President Joe Biden stated final yr he had achieved all he may to scale back unlawful immigration at the same time as Homeland Security was reporting practically 3 million unlawful crossers. To do more, Biden claimed, would require new laws.
As Trump informed me in a telephone interview Monday, “You didn’t need new legislation, all you needed was a strong f–king president.”
The details bear him out: In March, the numbers of unlawful border crossers encountered declined by 95% over March of final yr.
“We had to seal the border,” he stated. “If we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have a country. People were coming here from all over the world, literally from everywhere. It had to stop.”
‘Rogue judges’
His associated promise — to hold out mass deportations, beginning with felony migrants, has encountered resistance from leftist activists, some of whom put on judicial robes.
“Rogue judges,” he referred to as them Monday, whereas expressing confidence that “I believe it’s going to work out at the appeals levels.”
Despite the resistance, border czar Tom Homan stated Monday that 139,000 felony illegals have been deported. It’s an spectacular down fee.
The president additionally has the braveness to tackle the explosion of antisemitism at America’s prime faculties and universities, and is attempting to empty the ideological swamps that present more indoctrination than training.
His weapon is money — the college system feeds on billions of federal {dollars} for analysis and different makes use of, and he goals to withhold it in the event that they don’t form up. He began with Columbia University, and has focused as many as 60 colleges, together with Harvard and Penn.
Again, the comparability with Biden is instructive. The addled former president stated subsequent to nothing and did even much less during the Jew-hatred explosion after Israel responded to Hamas’ Oct. 7 butchery with an invasion of Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a sword after utilizing it to cut the cake as first girl Melania Trump smiles during the Commander-in-Chief Ball on Trump’s inauguration day in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. AP
Trump vowed to behave, and has.
Another promise made, promise stored entails recruiting Elon Musk and his DOGE Musketeers to cut waste and fraud from the federal price range. With outlays of practically $7 trillion, $2 trillion of which is borrowed, pay grime is in every single place.
The solely shock is that Dems and the media object, as if the world as we all know it is going to finish if America spends a single penny much less.
It’s a case that demonstrates Trump’s genius for exposing the idiocy of his opponents.
Other areas the place he has damaged sharply with the previous contain the dreaded tradition wars. It’s been a leftist playground — till now.
He issued an govt order that ended the federal government DEI packages that usually morphed into racial discrimination and is placing strain on faculties and companies to do the identical.
Another govt order requires federal companies to acknowledge two sexes and stop selling “gender ideology” of the kind that permits organic males to take part in ladies’s sports activities. States that resist will lose federal funds.
Can’t be intimidated
Even amongst most Republicans, these topics have been thought to be political “no go zones” as a result of activists would raise holy hell. Trump wasn’t intimidated, and the ensuing outrage was far more muted than predicted.
Similarly, his order dismantling the Department of Education has been on the GOP want record since Jimmy Carter created it.
Most of these and different adjustments have been delivered quickly after Trump took workplace, making the first 70 days or so a document of motion that rivals FDR’s fast begin, which set the usual by which all subsequent presidents have been measured.
But then got here April 2. Trump referred to as it “Liberation Day” to indicate the beginning of America being free of what he views as extraordinarily unfair commerce practices involving international locations around the globe.
The effort has not run its course, so the president might but achieve making new agreements that spark investments and hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs at home whereas opening more overseas markets to American services.
In the meantime, “Liberation Day” has come to imply the beginning of one thing fairly totally different from what he meant.
US Senators (*100*) Sanders and Elizabeth Warren attend a assembly on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 4, 2025. AFP by way of Getty Images
His actions nearly single-handedly modified the view of his administration amongst many Americans, who began giving him poor marks on the financial system simply months after it was a large benefit within the election.
So a lot in order that a full evaluation of his first 100 days is best achieved by dividing them into two distinct ones.
There is the wildly profitable pre-tariff period, and the rocky, dispiriting post-tariff period.
Stock markets offer a measure of the distinction. Wall Street was on a joyride, with the most important indexes right here and in a lot of the world reaching new highs in February, solely to plunge in April.
Forecasters instantly warned that a long standoff would crush international commerce, resulting in each a recession and inflation, a double whammy that might destroy Trump’s presidency.
As hundreds of thousands of Americans noticed their financial savings and retirement funds shrink, the president’s ballot numbers dropped. Reports of White House infighting and company leaders pleading with the president to change course added to the sensation of peril.
Clawing back losses
Although markets stabilized and clawed back a lot of their losses after the president started making carve-outs for sure industries and he and aides spoke optimistically about fast offers, no deal has materialized, creating a lingering feeling of uncertainty.
Yet the president stays assured within the strategy. He stated Monday “there can’t be big inflation with the price of oil staying low” and that “the tariffs are going to work out very well.”
He added his common declare that the money being collected at ports of entry will probably be used to help fund tax cuts and pay down some of the nation’s debt.
His can-do optimism is infectious, however as somebody as soon as stated, “Hope makes a great breakfast but a poor dinner.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, accompanied by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, speaks during a assembly with Benjamin Netanyahu within the Oval Office on February 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. Getty Images
The sooner he settles the most important commerce offers and on favorable phrases, the earlier he can reap a windfall of political and financial positive factors.
Two different overseas coverage issues additionally fall into the unfinished class: Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Candidate Trump promised to settle each rapidly, however his envoy, Steve Witkoff, has wavered on the phrases, which signifies that the president has not settled on a backside line for both.
That’s not stunning, given the complexity, however the impasse is a reminder of why Harry Truman famously stored a signal on his Oval Office desk that stated, “The buck stops here.”
Godspeed, Mr. President.
America and the world need you to succeed.
