Takeaways from Trump’s first 100 days

In his first 100 days, President Donald Trump exerted his power in a sweep and scale that has no easy historical comparison. 

His actions target the architecture of the New Deal, the Great Society, and the Reagan Republican orthodoxy of free trade and strong international alliances. He has taken direct aim at law, media, public health and culture. 

Here are some key takeaways from the most consequential start of a term of an American presidency since Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

Economy 

Trump has tried to super charge the American economy. But one force has been slow to respond: the financial markets. 

The president says his tariffs will eventually be “beautiful.” So far, it’s been a difficult three months with consumer confidence down, stock markets swinging up and down and investors wondering when Trump’s policies will begin to show sustained progress. 

He has imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, including on America’s two largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. Chinese goods are getting taxed at a combined 145%. 

He has rewarded the coal and oil sectors by attacking alternative energy, yet his tariffs pushed up the price of the steel and other materials that the energy industry needs to build out production. 

DOGE 

Trump promised to take on waste, fraud and abuse in government. He tapped Elon Musk to lead the effort. 

Musk turned his plan for a Department of Government Efficiency into one of the most polarizing and consequential pieces of Trump’s first 100 days. 

The billionaire entrepreneur approached the task with a tech mogul ethos: stir things up, then see what happens. Firings were widespread. Programs were eliminated. 

Musk has grand-scale goals. His plans for slashing $1 trillion out of the budget were pared back to $150 billion, still that is billions of dollars in savings for U.S. taxpayers. 

Immigration 

Cracking down on illegal immigration was the anthem of Trump’s campaign, and it is the issue where he has the greatest support. 

He has followed through by implementing some of the hardest-line immigration policies in the nation’s history. 

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants with limited due process, then used it to send hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a mega-prison in El Salvador. 

The administration pledged to end birthright citizenship for people who were born in the U.S., while proposing “gold cards” that would allow foreigners to buy American citizenship for $5 million. 

Illegal border crossings dropped precipitously. 

Retribution 

Trump entered office pledging to bring “retribution” for his supporters. 

He made good on that on his first day and virtually every week since, taking aim at the prosecutors and the law firms that employed them who investigated him and his supporters. And he targeted elite universities whose policies had been linked to charges of antisemitism and discrimination. 

Trump ordered the suspension of the security clearances of the more than four dozen former intelligence officials. 

The Justice Department fired the prosecutors who investigated him as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s team and demanded the names of FBI agents who participated in investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

Courts, judges and the rule of law 

Trump has consistently said he would follow an order from federal judges. 

His executive orders reshaping the federal government are facing more than 150 lawsuits on issues from fired federal workers and immigration to transgender rights.  

Judges have ruled against the administration dozens of times, blocking parts of his agenda for now. The administration and numerous independent legal experts have argued that individual judges should not be able to issue nationwide injunctions. 

Diplomacy and international relations 

Trump has moved to reshape the post-World War II order. 

He has rejected long-standing alliances and hinted at scaling back the U.S. troop presence in Europe. Longtime allies such as Germany and France have suggested they no longer can depend on Washington. 

Trump also pledged a swift end to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, which began under the previous administration. The effort continues. 

He has effectively shuttered the United States Agency for International Development, which critics argue has shamelessly spent taxpayer dollars on woke initiatives across the world. 

At the same time, he has repeatedly called for the U.S. to annex Greenland, which is a Danish territory, to retake control of the Panama Canal and to make Canada the 51st U.S. state. 

Congress 

The White House is receiving strong cooperation from Congress. 

Trump is slashing government agencies, deporting and investigating illegal immigrants. 

The president is doing all of this with the help of Congress. 

The president has issued almost 10 times as many executive orders as the first five presidents combined. DOGE is slashing programs, jobs and entire agencies, including the Department of Education, and the Speaker of the House is a strong supporter of his policies. 

Military 

Fulfilling a promise to clean house, the administration has removed a number of top military leadership. 

But there has been pushback. Defense chief, Pete Hegseth, says much of the controversy surrounding him is part of the pushback. 

He was a key participant in the Signal chat set up by national security adviser Mike Waltz, sending details of sensitive military operations over the nonsecure channel. Hegseth also used a second Signal chat. 

Trump issued an executive order to remove transgender service members, which has been stalled by the courts. Hegseth ordered the military to eliminate any “woke” programming, books or imagery. 

Public health 

At the Department of Health and Human Services, 10,000 jobs are gone. Billions of tax-payer dollars in research sent to scientists and universities was shut off. Public meetings to discuss flu shots and other vaccines have been canceled. Trump promised during his presidential campaign to make government transparent and run efficient. 

The elimination of thousands of jobs across the nation’s public health agencies, including at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health will save taxpayers $1.8 billion. 

Energy and environment 

Trump has reversed Biden’s focus on slowing climate change to pursue U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. 

He created a National Energy Dominance Council and directed it to move quickly to drive up U.S. energy production, particularly fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, and remove regulatory barriers. 

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has announced a series of actions to roll back regulations, including a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action against so-called climate change. 

While Trump’s administration has blocked renewable energy sources such as offshore wind, he has tried to boost “beautiful” coal. 

Arts and culture 

Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others in the cultural community. He has declared that institutions ranging from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the National Endowment for the Humanities have become fronts for a “woke” agenda that threatens to undermine what he calls “our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” 

Media 

The new administration has aggressively waged combat against what it sees as “fake news” reports. It has fought against CBS News and The Associated Press in court and sought to dismantle the government-run Voice of America.