On 30 April 2025, President Donald Trump will complete the first hundred days of his second administration. The initial hundred days of any new administration typically include a short honeymoon period, accompanied by the introduction of legislation to enable the launch of its flagship policies. Across the Atlantic, however, something unprecedented is taking place as President Trump, in his current expansionist and mercantilist phase and with seemingly little time to spare, sets out to implement his ‘America First’ policy with great vigour. Despite his energetic return to power, several of his early promises have not been kept, just as Trump continues to rule by diktat, signing a succession of 139 executive orders as of 24 April 2025, to push through his wide-ranging and earth-shattering agenda.
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ reciprocal tariffs on imports, intended as a bargaining tool to leverage favourable trade deals and to extract political concessions, have initiated a widening global trade war, in which further retaliatory tariffs are being imposed on American exports by its trading partners. The underlying calculations being somewhat flawed, it seems unlikely that any import tariffs will generate sufficient federal revenues to fund Trump’s desire to substantially cut personal and corporate income tax, nor will America’s burgeoning trade deficit be reduced to an acceptable level in the near future. Complex and interlocked global supply chains mean that the costs of manufacturing goods on American soil will inevitably rise, worsening inflation in the process. Trump’s particular focus on an escalating trade war with China, the sole manufacturing superpower in the world, seems a particularly self-destructive move. Plunging share prices, including the ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech stocks, and bond market sell-offs are reflecting declining business, investor, and consumer confidence in response to inconsistent and rapidly shifting tariff policies. Government bond yields have been rising, leading investors to dump US government debt, to the detriment of the government’s creditworthiness and also increasing its borrowing costs. The dollar is meanwhile losing value, just as the demand for gold and other precious metals increases. The IMF has lowered its prediction for economic growth in the US.
As a part of massive cuts in government spending, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Elon Musk has been kept busy creating a leaner and meaner federal bureaucracy, with mass layoffs of workers and agency officials, as it sets out to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the system. It is reassuring, however, to note that Trump has pledged not to cut Social Security payments and healthcare benefits for older citizens and certain other recipients of federal aid. Instead, his aversion to overseas aid means that “waste and abuse” in the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will be trimmed down. Cuts and freezes to foreign aid contracts and aid programmes will inevitably reduce American soft power, to the advantage of China’s growing global influence as it continues to invest in infrastructure projects in the developing world. Overall, DOGE’s achievements appear disproportionate to the disruption that is being caused and the damage that is being inflicted.
“Divisive” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programmes in federal agencies, institutes of higher education (universities, colleges), public schools, publicly trading corporations, professional associations, and philanthropic foundations are being dismantled, sometimes in the face of legal challenges. DEI practices in both public and private sectors are equally under attack. Federal funding for public schools with DEI programmes is particularly under threat.
Immigration control is most important to MAGA supporters as well as many other Americans. Trump has not disappointed in his zeal to undertake the “largest mass deportation in history” of undocumented immigrants and “foreign criminals” (terrorists, cartel members, gang members), many allegedly brought in during ex-President Joe Biden’s time in power, by resorting to the Alien Enemies Act 1798. Federal Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE agents) and private contractors are being kept busy, as they collaborate with local law enforcement agencies to fulfil the administration’s goal of removing one million people annually. ICE agents are identifying, arresting, detaining, and removing “aliens who are subject to removal or are unlawfully present in the U.S,” with the backing of this year’s Laken Riley Act. The obliging regime in El Salvador has been paid to accept deported criminals, who are thereupon consigned to the notorious CECOT supermax prison. Some Central American nations (Costa Rica, Panama) are also accepting foreign deportees as an interim measure. Overzealous deportations have included some legal residents of the US, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland who has no criminal convictions. Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not cooperate with the federal government to enforce immigration law are being defunded. Trump even seeks to revoke automatic birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.
The expansionist ambitions of President Trump include the re-annexation of the Panama Canal Zone, a critical chokepoint for global maritime trade; the annexation of Greenland; the incorporation of Canada as America’s 51st state; and the permanent relocation of two million residents of the Gaza Strip to neighbouring Muslim countries and American redevelopment of the area as a tourism hub. As part of a simultaneous America First renaming strategy, the Gulf of Mexico will henceforth be known as the Gulf of America, Denali in Alaska will revert to its original name of Mount McKinley, and Fort Liberty will once again become Fort Bragg.
Trump has many scores to settle with the higher educational establishment. Federal financial support has been frozen for several elite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, MIT, Pennsylvania, and Brown, compromising the hiring of academic staff and starving research programmes of funds. These actions have been prompted by accusations of anti-Semitism on university campuses. College and universities accreditation processes are under scrutiny, as are admission processes.
Trump is set on revenge as he targets and intimidates a motley crowd of political opponents, non-compliant former Trump 1.0 administration officials, legal firms, members of the judiciary (prosecutors, judges), military officers, FBI agents, media organisations, public broadcasters (NPR, PBS), and others who have challenged and criticised him in the past. Security clearances for some key offenders have been stripped, and probes into their affairs and conduct have been initiated.
Trump’s attempts to settle international disputes along the lines of business deals have faltered. Effective diplomacy needs to consider, and seek a compromise between, historical truths, cultural norms, religious affiliations, regional balances/imbalances of power, geopolitical contexts, and many other issues. Peace-making is a most laudable goal, but expertise in property dealmaking in New York City does not necessarily equip negotiators with the right skills for international conflict resolution. It is, therefore, unsurprising that the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Hamas conflict have not been settled within 24 hours as originally promised, but have instead provided Trump with the opportunity to blame ex-Presidents Obama and Biden for the current stalemate in proceedings.
Trump is busy resetting the world order. The US is backing away from its security role in Europe and from its support for NATO, for which it is the leading contributor, claiming that Europe can no longer expect to benefit as a free-rider on American protection. America is prioritising its own borders and its involvement in Asia instead. The closure of 13 US embassies and 14 consulates by the State Department will shrink America’s diplomatic footprint as it rationalises its overseas presence.
Trump also has a bone to pick with many international organisations. He thus announced America’s withdrawal from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in January 2025, originally signed for in July 2020 but reversed by Biden in 2021. This decision was the result of the “organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic… and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.” As the WHO’s largest donor, America’s withdrawal will adversely impact the organisation’s welfare and its many global programmes.
As a climate change denier, Trump’s withdrawal from the “unfair, one-sided” Paris Climate Change Accord of 2015, and the reiteration of his support for fracking, offshore drilling for oil and gas, and coal mining should come as no surprise. In his support, he claims that “China pollutes with impunity” to reinforce his actions.
Donald Trump retains the unqualified supported of his many followers, as well as the majority of Republican lawmakers in Congress, who have come to understand that any short-term pain will be more than adequately be compensated for by worthwhile long-term gains. ‘Trump 2028’ is even being flouted as a possibility, despite Constitutional barriers to a third Presidential term. The next hundred days promise to be equally eventful, if not even more, although any outcomes cannot be reliably predicted. All that can be stated with any conviction is that the first hundred days of Trump 2.0 have not measured up to the first hundred days of his illustrious predecessor-Franklin Delano Roosevelt-in 1933.
Ashis Banerjee