Donald Trump completes this Tuesday, 29, 100 days as president of the US. It has been the most overwhelming drag since the 1930s, when Franklin D. Roosevelt has established the tradition of imposing a political agenda in the first three months of office to leave a mark.
If Roosevelt fought large depression with regulation and increased state role in the economy, through laws passed in Congress, Trump tries to dismantle this legacy at the base of the decree. “We are forging a new political majority that is destroying and replacing Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition, which dominated American politics for almost 100 years,” Trump said in a meeting with Republican governors in February.
There have been more than 140 decrees signed since January, four times more than compared to the first term, when Trump issued 33 decrees, and more than FDR, the record holder with 99.
These decrees involve the president’s four priorities in the second term: foreign trade, immigration, state reduction, and combat to what he calls “Woke ideology” (as Republicans refers pejoratively to diversity initiatives).
For Lucas de Souza Martins, historian of Temple University, in Philadelphia, Trump’s second term breaks with various traditions of American politics. “It turns institutions into something that serves a party instead of a state,” he said.
Although US presidents increasingly appealed to this tool, due to the legislative impasse caused by polarization, the decrees would have a limited scope and would serve only for the Federal Government organization, according to the Constitution.
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Trump’s decrees have been targeted by more than 150 lawsuits that contest their legality. Many have been partially or completely blocked because they are not in accordance with the Constitution. One of the most notorious is the decree that extinguishes the right of citizenship by birth in the US.
Shock of powers
The resistance of the courts detonated a war between the president and the judiciary. Trump says he has a blank check to implement his agenda and does not allow to be contested by judges. In at least one opportunity, government lawyers failed to comply with a federal judge, when he did not act to repact Kilmer Garcia, deported by mistake for an El Salvador prison.
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Aggressive rhetoric caused a rare reprimand from the Supreme Court. In March, the President of the Court, conservative John Roberts, published a statement criticizing the impeachment of judges, defended by Trump, who decided against the government.
Last week, the FBI arrested a first instance judge accusing her of helping an illegal immigrant to escape deportation. The measure has increased concern among experts about the shock of powers in the US.
With a lean majority in Congress, Trump has been able to pass few laws. The only most important so far has been the project that allows the arrest of illegal immigrants suspected of theft. In the same 100 days, Roosevelt approved 16 laws, many designed to get the country out of the great depression. But Roosevelt had a larger political capital than Trump’s. Elected with 57% of the votes, there was a majority of almost two thirds in the Senate and the House.
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Trump’s strength in the campaign, the economy was one of its focuses in the first 100 days, especially with the imposition of tariffs to almost every country in the world, including allies such as Mexico, Canada and Europe. “Many countries have been looking for other customers to escape the US because of tariffs. This is the case of European Union and China, which seeks alliances with Japan and South Korea,” says Natália Fingermann, ESPM’s professor of international relations.
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Elected with the promise of making the purchasing power of Americans increase, he has inherited a 3% inflation that has a good chance of increasing when tariffs are passed on to consumers. The March annualized inflation rate was 2.4%.
Deportations
In immigration, Trump decreed emergency on the border and authorized the use of military personnel to combat illegal. The entrances, which reached 250,000 people a month in the Biden government, were already low when Trump took office. Since then, they have fallen from 8,300 to 7,100 monthly crossings.
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Trump’s focus seems to be the deportations. According to Newsweek magazine, more than 37,000 people were deported in the first month of office, below the average of previous governments. Since then, the White House has stopped publicizing the numbers.
According to the NGO Migration Policy, it is estimated that by the end of the year Trump will deport 500,000 people, half of the goal promised by the White House. To facilitate the process, the President forged an alliance with Salvadorenian President Nayib Bukele to send immigrants to maximum security arrests in Central America.
“This migratory policy ends up removing qualified personnel. In the long run, this will cause a very serious problem, as the US will no longer be the place where large brains want to be and debate,” said Natália.
Another focus of Trump, the spending cut was in charge of Tesla owner Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Upon taking office, Musk promised to save $ 1 trillion with layoffs. He obtained access to sensitive data from millions of Americans, with a wanton in government agencies. The economy, however, fell short of the desired. According to official data, $ 150 billion were saved, but only $ 32 billion proven.
Trump reaches 100 days with the worst assessment of a president in the modern era, losing only to himself in his first term. Even in areas where he was strong, his numbers are falling. According to Ipsos survey, Trump is approved by 39% of the population and disapproved by 55%. For 61%, its economy management is bad and for 58% of independents, it does not do a good job.
