The payoff has been somewhere between pitiful and nonexistent, unless your idea of presidential success involves seeing others suffer.
Trump’s first 100 days: Record number of executive orders, few new laws
Comparing President Donald Trump’s legislative actions during the first 100 days of his term to those of past presidents. (Scripps News)
Scripps News
The calamitous nature of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office shouldn’t surprise anyone who was paying attention before the election.
He has done things he said he would do, many of them cruel, many of them damaging to both the U.S. economy and to America’s reputation on the global stage. He allowed an unelected billionaire to run roughshod over the federal government, slashing valuable agencies and smugly ruining the lives of an army of federal workers who had devoted themselves to research or to global aid or to helping their fellow Americans.
He put a vaccine-denying loon in charge of America’s health as a measles outbreak has spread across the Southwest. His wildly unqualified Defense secretary spared little time getting embroiled in multiple scandals, including texting sensitive U.S. war plans to his wife over a commercial messaging app.
Every day has brought a crass comment or cruel act, some development that would have ended any other president or Cabinet member, things large and small that have made America worse.
Republicans wanted Trump – they own the fallout of his first 100 days
And an important thing to remember is that all of this is what Republicans wanted when they cast their presidential ballots for a convicted felon. As surprised as you might feel by the speed and horror of it all, nothing should be surprising.
The payoff has been somewhere between pitiful and nonexistent, unless your idea of presidential success involves seeing others suffer. The markets have been down and distraught since Trump launched a wholly unnecessary trade war. Our allies have lost faith in us, understandably. International tourism to the United States is plummeting, and the research firm Tourism Economics estimates the drop could cost U.S. businesses $64 billion in travel spending in just 2025.
Responding to the tourism drop, Trump said in the Oval Office on April 23: “It’s not a big deal.”
He should tell that to the business owners who will feel this bruising financial hit over the summer.
‘It’s hard to see the United States ever recovering its power and prestige’
Grocery prices are not down, as Trump promised.
The war in Ukraine is not over, as Trump promised. In fact, he seems ready to hand the country to Russia as he continues to bow to President Vladimir Putin and other dictators while assailing our long-standing allies around the globe.
His actions in this short time have led political scientists like M. Steven Fish of the University of California, Berkeley, to say: “It’s hard to see the United States ever recovering its power and prestige. The power and prestige and influence that it has enjoyed over the last 80 years have all been squandered by Trump.”
Trump administration already embroiled in a slew of lawsuits
While immigration was a winning issue during the campaign, Trump’s recent deportations – sweeping up alleged gang members and even U.S. citizen children with zero due process and shipping them to other countries – have proved too un-American for many.
The president is now underwater in most polls when people are asked about his immigration policies, and federal judges across the country have been slamming the administration for its reckless actions.
The Trump administration has been sued relentlessly for executive orders and polices that dramatically overstep legal boundaries. Judges have been ruling right and left in these cases. The New York Times reported, “As of April 28, at least 123 of those rulings have at least temporarily paused some of the administration’s initiatives.”
For example, on April 24, a federal judge in New Hampshire stopped the U.S. Department of Education from denying federal funding to public schools that have diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
These absurd culture-war moves by Trump and Co. revolve around cruelty and callousness – attacking transgender people, warring with universities and decrying diversity initiatives. But the myriad lawsuits that stem from the administration’s policies are costing taxpayers money.
Somehow, it has only been 100 days. The damage Trump has done is vast.
Technically, we’re still one day away from the 100th day of this administration, April 30. But Trump’s 100-day approval rating already is the lowest of any president in 80 years. And the willingness of Trump and his coterie of toadies to ignore laws in order to implement a draconian right-wing worldview isn’t likely to let up, regardless of how hard public opinion comes crashing down around them.
America has simply never seen this level of lawless behavior from a president, much less during the earliest days of a presidency.
Americans aren’t optimistic about their finances
So Americans are hurting economically – just check your retirement plan, if you’re fortunate enough to have one – and the impact of Trump’s ludicrous tariffs has yet to be fully felt. The number of freight ships from China to the United States has dropped dramatically.
CNBC recently reported: “Already, a decline in manufacturing orders from China, and a plummet in Chinese freight vessel bookings and sailings to the U.S., are edging the national supply chain closer to a tipping point.”
A recent Gallup survey showed that 53% of Americans believe their personal financial situation is getting worse, noting: “Americans’ six-month outlooks for economic growth and the stock market have turned from positive to negative, while their forecasts for inflation, interest rates and the job market have dimmed.”
Brutally slashing foreign aid will cost America in the long run
But beyond our borders, the Trump administration has positioned America to be seen as heartless and isolationist, cutting foreign aid in ways that have literally killed people.
One of the first agencies that Elon Musk, Trump’s right-hand billionaire, went after was the U.S. Agency for International Development, a key soft-power tool to promote democracy and help people around the world. The agency accounted for less than 1% of the federal budget.
Musk effectively shuttered it, and the outcome has been disastrous.
For example, USAID oversaw PEPFAR, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which was launched by President George W. Bush in 2003 to fight the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
‘1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid’
Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has been tracking the estimated number of deaths since the Trump administration’s cuts and funding halts interrupted or stopped PEPFAR’s work. Since Jan. 24, Nichols estimates, more than 41,000 adults and nearly 4,400 children have died.
A New York Times opinion column by Nicholas Kristof said in March: “An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment.”
He noted that the cost “of first-line H.I.V. medications to keep a person alive is less than 12 cents a day.”
The International Rescue Committee had 40% of its programs affected by Trump’s aid cuts. David Miliband, the group’s CEO, told CBS News that “international aid is 0.2% of the U.S. economy, not 25% of federal spending. It’s a strategic investment, it’s a moral investment, and it’s an impactful investment.
“If you’ve got people in need, and you can help them and you don’t, it’s a sin. But also, when you don’t help people in need, instability follows. We know that as much as night follows day.”
If you’re surprised by the chaos and cruelty, you weren’t paying attention
I’ll note this one more time: Nothing Trump has done – not the cruel things, not the illegal things, not the immoral things – should come as any surprise. He said he would do these things. And Republicans wanted him in office.
The damage that has come from his first 100 days will take years upon years to repair. And unless Americans of good conscience from all parts of the political spectrum stand up, protest and denounce the things this president is doing and the way he is doing them, the next 100 days will be every bit as bad.
As will every 100 days thereafter.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
