142 decrees, 1 law and 9.6 trillion dollars evaporated: these were the first 100 days of Trump

100 to dawn

In the first hundred days of his second presidency, Donald Trump rages like a whirlwind through the American institutions. He leaves a trail of destruction in the federal government, migrant communities, at universities, in scientific research and historiography. In development aid and alliances, media and legal profession, climate and diversity policy. He will shake the rule of law and the economy. American media have almost unanimously labeled ‘the most groundbreaking’ in recent months since the initial period of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency in 1933. In an interview with The Atlantic This week Trump says about the difference between his first term, eight years ago, and now: « The first time I had two things to do: the country and survival » – hindered by his own party and staff. « The second time I control the country and the world. »

But what has the 47th president really managed in the last hundred days?

142 decrees

It started behind a wooden desk in a sports hall in Washington. Welcomed by 20,000 supporters, he drew the first of the first of his characteristic Sharpie felt markers in the meantime 142 Presidential decrees. This Executive orders were all prepared by an entourage of loyal employees in Trumps years of political exile. Project 2025The blueprint set up by a conservative think tank where he distanced himself in the campaign is now largely performed. (Including a 24 pages long strategy for the abolition of paper straws.)

The decrees must portray Trump as a strong leader who controls the country and the world. They fulfill the dreams of supporters and bow their targets fear. But the content of many decrees is beyond his power as president. He cannot change the Constitution or take over the power of the congress. Not every state bends to its will. The decrees are largely wishing. Trump wants to determine the policy without having the resources for it. He forces change, but his will is not a law.

210 lawsuits

How controversial and legally shaky is much of Trump’s policy, according to the Hundreds of lawsuits who have already been tightened against him. Especially because of the dismantling of the federal government and the expansion policy. By democratically guided states, action groups and affected individuals. In 123 Judges – at least temporarily – have crossed his plans. The president usually arranges for this, challenging the decision. With a crucial exception to the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, an immigrant without residence papers that was deported to El Salvador in spite of a court ruling and was locked up there in a notorious prison. The Trump government does not take visible steps to get it back, such as The Supreme Court did order.

In the meantime, the FBI and public prosecutors – who are in the US under the direct command of the Justice Minister and Chief Allegedly Pam Bondi – are being used brutally to perform Trumps agenda. Civil rights lose priority. Journalists are allowed to no longer protect sources. Anti-corruption cases die a silent (or in the case of mayor Eric Adams: noisy) death.

An official from the Ministry of Justice says he has been fired because she refused to return his weapon permit to actor and Trump supporter Mel Gibson. Last week the FBI arrested A judge in Wisconsin After she had helped a migrant to slip out the court without being picked up by the immigration police. Judges are not only physically threatened and bombarded with (hopeless) deposition procedures, but are now also directly targeted by the executive power.

3 Extended children

This weekend, three children born in the US – and therefore American citizens – came into the news that were deported to Honduras with their illegally immigrated mothers. The mothers got, according to their lawyersnot the chance to place the children with American family. Including a four -year cancer patient that needs acute care.

Despite all the attention for and spectacle around, arrests of migrants, it does not want to go so smoothly with their expansion. On Monday, ‘Border-Tsaar’ created Tom Homan that so far 139,000 migrants have been deported. According to the official statistics Are there ‘only’ 57,000 – fewer evictions than among Trumps predecessor Joe Biden last year.

What Trump is lightning fast: deterrence. In March, border guards had just over 7,000 people who made an attempt to cross the American southern border. In December 2023 they were almost 250,000 people. For example, his own success Trump hinders the promise of one million evictions in his first year: there are much less relatively easy to turn off newcomers.

9.6 trillion dollar evaporates

Cheaper groceries. Pay less at the pump. An end to inflation. Less taxes. Back to the Trumpian economy from before the Coronapandemie, which many Americans are nostalgic about. In addition to migration, economic promises were the reason for doubting voters to prefer Trump to Kamala Harris. The fact that he said he wanted to introduce import duties at the same time was not seen as very relevant. Most citizens had not noticed much of it in his first term. And the farmers who members under the trade struggle with China were compensated for the damage at the time.

How different it was when Trump immediately argued this time with Canada and Mexico and then unleashed a global trade war on the basis of inimitable calculations. Almost ten trillion dollars evaporated on stock exchanges, not only from rich tech investors, but also from pension pots from ordinary Americans. The dollar plummeted.

When the American creditworthiness also staggered, Trump postponed all the taxes, apart from those on Chinese products, although he also came up with all kinds of exceptions. The bleeding was set, but warnings for a recession remain and consumer confidence has not been recovered. Moreover, there are still enough people in the White House who think the taxes think a good idea.

40 percentage

Trumps popularity is decreasing rapidly. According to research institute Pew 40 percent of voters still support him, polls The New York Times, The Washington Post And Fox News show similar percentages. The import duties, his style of rule and the risk of a confrontation with the judiciary scares voters who do not support him unconditionally. Trump himself can no longer be judged, despite his flirting with an unconstitutional third -term – about which he has in the interview with The Atlantic Suddenly said, « That is not something I am planning to do now. »

The previous president who was so bad after a hundred days – Trump, eight years ago – put his party members in the House of Representatives a lot of pain in the interim congress elections. Voters are critical about what Trump does and about how he does it.

58,486 dismissed officials

According to many, Trump goes too fast, too fast and too far with his rule-by-decree and with the unexplained Elon Musk as a government drug. According to research of The New York Times Lost almost 60,000 officials their jobs so far, although a large part of it is still being paid and/or may be back to work on the order of the judge. Around 76,000 civil servants were outlined – a total of around 3 million federal officials, spread throughout the country.

Ministries are still being dismantled, government tasks are deleted. The motto: first demolish and only when things go wrong, recover. This not only makes civil servants anxious and uncertain, but also citizens who depend on their services or on government support. The Department of Public Efficiency (DOGE) made up by Trump and Musk has not yet achieved a fraction of the announced cuts. Musk seems to leave Washington again soon.

0 peace chords

Americans, according to the opinion investigations, are limited about Trumps foreign policy. His threat to dismantle the NATO alliance is buried under a flood of decrees, decisions and media appearances, according to the motto of his old adviser Steve Bannon: ‘Flooding the zone with shit. ‘

Rhetoric towards Canada, Greenland and Panama is hardly heard. The abolition of development aid, when he took office, feels an eternity ago. Nevertheless, in his campaign, Trump made important promises in terms of peace in the world that he has not yet known to make it possible. He would immediately terminate wars and not continue to mix in international conflicts.

After a ceasefire in Gaza, closed just before his inauguration, Israel continues undisturbed the bombing and starving the Palestinians. Peace in Ukraine did not achieve Trump in the promised ‘first day’, nor on day one. The first Republicans sputter about how Trump gets tensioned for Putin’s cart in negotiations in which the US government puts pressure on Zensky to agree with unacceptable annexations. The decision, against Trumps isolationist promise, to act harder against the Houthis in Yemen caused – so far only real – political scandalwhen it turned out that the presidential top advisers had their secret discussions in an unsecured Signal app group, for which a journalist had also been accidentally invited.

1 law

The fact that Trump tries to rule by decree is not only because he wants to demolish as much of the status quo as quickly as possible, but also because the congress does not help him. Despite the boundless obedience of most Republicans to their leader, virtually nothing happens in the house and in the Senate. In addition to the emergency features to continue to finance the government, the congress has adopted one significant law in the past hundred days: the Riley Act cloth. This forces the Minister of Interior Security to fix illegal immigrants for relatively minor offenses and no longer to release pending process.

24 days golf

Every day there is news about Trump. He draws his decrees, meets foreign leaders, appears at a sporting event or finds a different way to be in the picture. Biden was sometimes invisible for weeks. But Trump largely leaves the work to others. Almost one quarter of the days He could be found on the golf course that he is back in power.

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