What Have We Learned in The First Hundred Days?
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Much ado has been made of the first one hundred days of Donald Trump’s second term. What exactly have we learned, if anything, and what can we extrapolate from these first few months of the Trump administration?
First, we see Trump is much more active writing Executive Orders, governing by executive fiat rather than going through Congress and the legislative process than he was during his first administration. His bombast; his trademark narcissism and hyperbole are still on full display for all the world to see. Trump to his credit, has kept his word regarding securing the US border, his passionate crusade against undocumented immigrants has not slackened.
Trump promised to end the war in Eastern Europe and bring about a peaceful resolution between Russia and Ukraine. Thus far this has not happened. Both parties are agreeing to have negotiations but it was Putin who asked Turkey ’s President Erdogan to host Ukraine and Russian representatives in Istanbul for peace talks. Meanwhile Trump takes credit for pressing Ukraine and Russia to actually sit down and hold serious talks.
Unfortunately, it appears Germany, France and the UK want hostilities to continue as they continuously demonize Putin and Russia despite the fact Zelensky has broken ceasefires set up by Russia. Trump recently signed an agreement with Ukraine to access Ukrainian rare earth minerals and he has resumed sending weapons to Ukraine which seems counterproductive to peace!
Regarding the genocide in Gaza, Trump claimed he would resolve this situation as soon as he was inaugurated. That has not happened. In fact it appears Trump has signed off on the ethnic cleansing by saying the US would step in, develop the region and turn it into a Riviera like environment on the Mediterranean. Yes, he actually said that with a straight face. His administrations is also persecuting anti-genocide foreign students and defunding US universities who allow protests against Israeli massacre in Gaza!
Israel agreed to a ceasefire but it was soon broken yet Trump said nor did anything to Netanyahu. The US is still supplying Israel with arms and money to continue starving and bombing innocent men women and children, in the name of “defense”. Is it defense to bomb hospitals, water treatment facilities or prevent food and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza? These are war crimes by even the most vague and lenient definitions of the term.
During the presidential campaign Trump said he was for peace that he wanted to stop the wars, however; he has been bellicose and threatening towards both the Houthis and Iran. Trump increased the bombing of the Houthis who support the Palestinians by targeting cargo ships in the Red Sea flying the Israeli flag or are bound for Israel. In retaliation the Houthis have fired on Israel and several US jets. Are the open support of genocide and threatening nations the actions of a man who supposedly want peace?
Trump evidently didn’t learn any lessons from his first term when he started trade wars with Canada. Mexico, the EU and China which blew up in his face. This time he has doubled down and instituted tariffs without input from Congress; universal tariffs not just on China but numerous nations! When the immediate blowback was felt in the stock market and financial circles to the loss of trillions of dollars, Trump backed off. He put a hold on some of the tariffs but he subsequently doubled down instituting tripled digit tariffs on China and double digit tariffs on a host of other nations.
Trump says his actions are bringing world leaders to the negotiating table looking for deals. What he is really doing is sowing seeds of uncertainty, angst and bewilderment among rivals and allies alike. Trump now has been forced to backtrack and delay imposing the tariffs for three months while he negotiates “deals” with world leaders. But his action aresn’t in a vacuum, there are consequences and repercussions.
Instead of making him look strong, his actions are making him look wishy-washy and inept. What we are seeing are slowdowns in shipping, fewer cargo ships and containers coming from China which will impact the inventories and bottom line of US businesses for weeks and months to come.
The US has a huge trade imbalance with China. Americans are addicted to cheap Chinese goods and labor, while China has no similar “Jones” for American made products. Plus, the Chinese leadership has demonstrated they can go elsewhere for the foodstuffs and goods they need. China did it during Trump’s first term, they learned a pivotal lesson and they will do it again this time!
On the domestic front we have seen Trump use lawfare to go after those who tormented him just like they did to him. He is using imperial fiat to get things done. DOGE is not a department created by Congress and has no authority to do anything other than make recommendations. Yet Elon Musk, the chair is firing people and shutting down whole governmental agencies! It remains to be seen how this will play out in the long term in the courts.
The supreme irony is, thus far DOGE has used extremely selective auditing. For example, DOGE has not investigated the humungous waste, fraud and abuse of the Trump era stimulus money, the Biden COVID supplemental fund programs or Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest as a government contractor! These are just a few examples!
We are witnessing billionaires who gave Trump huge campaign contributions holding sway over his polices. Yet somehow the media, Trump’s MAGA groupies and acolytes don’t seem to mind whatsoever. They continuously go for his bombast and okey-doke. I could mention the blunders and infighting among his cabinet members and his fights with the lower judiciary; but hey, we’re just in the first four months of his new administration. I’m sure we’ll see more in the days and months ahead.
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