NAt the beginning of a century ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched his first 100 days of vegetables, inaugurating the New Deal, a burst of laws aimed at reducing the ravages of the Great Depression. In just over three months, the FDR initiatives – the “bloodless revolution”, as his interior secretary, Harold Ickes called him, had not only tackled the current crisis, but also transformed the federal government, increasing its role in American life. The FDR justified the preparation of the government because of its conviction that it had “a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship”.
Since then, the first 100 days of a highly regarded president have been considered to reflect his style and substance, a measure of his efficiency and a warning sign of what is to come. There were other first transformational days after the FDR, but none is at a distance as consecutive in the future of America as those of President Donald Trump since January 20, 2025. His so-called “mouth speed“Has an amazing range of large-scale acts and policies that have the potential to have repercussions for decades, perhaps exceeding the first months of the FDR New Deal.
Of course, this is the second time for the first 100 days of Trump. But Trump went up in the eminently more prepared oval office. He had loyalist aligned to understand its Wing Wing staff and take posts from cabinet; Ambitious plans around its “America First” program of the hard line “America First”, very informed by the 2025 project of the Heritage Foundation; And a vertigo “flood the area»Strategy around its implementation.
In addition, he came with more political capital and more power, perhaps exceeding any president of American history. Magi Momentum and a small democratic hand helped to open the way for a republican majority in the two chambers of the congress, with a loyalty to win on a prerequisite among the members of the GOP. Add to that a greater reluctance of those in the public and private sectors to meet Trump, to be wary of putting himself
Finally, there was the verdict of the Supreme Court in the Landmark 2024 case Trump c. The United Stateswhich has expanded presidential immunity.
All this increased to a perfect storm that embraces Trump. The Blizzard of Trump's actions has sometimes been blinding, which makes it difficult to identify the most important developments. But, at first glance, these are the big dishes to take away from the first 100 days of Trump and what he takes for the balance of his administration.
Government dismantling
Elon Musk, armed with the Carte Blanche de Trump, has eviscerated the federal government through the Ministry of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), demonizing civil servants, pointing without foundation corruptionAnd digging agencies, which have been purged civil servants perceived as unfair or completely eliminated. If the New Deal of FDR was an alphabet soup of the creation of agencies and political innovation to consolidate the Republic, Doge is its antithesis, a systematic loss of agencies, policies and programs of the last century which were woven in the social fabric of American life and the international community – of the Department of Education, CDC and FEM to USAID, Nrcand the Peace.
Economic chaos and uncertainty
Trump recognized the presidency due to the perception that it would be stronger on the economy, which had been retained by inflation. But Trump has upset the international economy by imposing or threatening to impose unprecedented prices that will harm consumers and allies. The stock market has drawn volatility because international markets are realities.
Attacks against equity
Trump's anti-transgender announcement, “Kamala Harris is for them, Trump is for you”, was among the most effective in his campaign. In a provocative reaction to Dei, Trump declared “Our country will no longer be awake.” He has since taken an ax at DEI and prohibited their use by federal entrepreneurs. His sudden dismissal of the former president of the heads of joint staff, CQ Brown, for his support expressed to diversity in the American armed forces, reported a broader attack on the values based on actions which represented the next phase of the long American quest for racial and gender justice.
The end of the liberal international post-war period
Historians suggest that Trump has given up the moral position of America as a leader of the free world, erase the post-second world war alliance which is located for 80 years, the United States as the main supporter of democracy, civil freedom, human rights and free markets. The United States is now considered by many as a rogue nation. Soft Power America has accumulated more than four generations around the world has evaporated. The cuts offered by last week to the State Department have further strengthened this tour, reducing the ability of America to diplomatically engage and to create a larger vacuum in international leadership.
Trump and vice-president JD Vance Chilling Oval Offal Ambush of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in March were a sign that the United States moved its position on the principle of national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Trump aligned himself with nations led by dictators once considered by the United States as parias – Vladimir Putin of Russia, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.
Hemispherical domination
Trump broke the immediate American neighbors and the largest trade partners, Canada and Mexico. Even before entering into office, he threatened to annex Canada as a 51st state and rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Since then, he clearly explained his intentions to withdraw the Greenland from the Danes and to recover the Panama Canal. These actions mark the first time that the United States has expressed expansionist ambitions since the acquisition of the Virgin Islands of Denmark during the First World War.
Immigration repression
The invocation by the Trump Administration of the Extraterrestrial Enemies Act of 1798 to accelerate deportations was presented in response to what it called an “invasion” of Venezuelan nationals who have been linked to the activity of the gangs. The deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia – a legal American resident of El Salvadoran – drawn a vivid constitutional exam. Although the administration later recognized its dismissal as an “administrative error”, it refused to facilitate its return from the Salvadoral prison where it remains imprisoned. The impasse that resulted from the courts raised wider concerns concerning the excessive scope of the executive of Trump and the potential erosion of the protections of the regular procedure for American residents or, potentially, of citizens.
A voluntary blindness towards climate change
In accordance with the promotion of Trump's “drilling drilling borehole” of the development of fossil fuels and the resistance to clean energy, the administrator of the EPA Lee Zeldin A declared that the agency will lead “a dagger directly to the heart of the religion of climate change”, announcing plans to find environmental protections.
Loyalty Premium Governance
Trump intensified his efforts to reshape the government in his image, the purge of those responsible considered the unfair and politicized roles of the public service and national security. The trend was reflected in particular in her recent meeting with right -wing activist Laura Loomer, who was followed by the dismissal of six senior officials of the National Security Council which she deemed not engaged on the agenda of Trump.
These are seismic changes – and this is only the beginning. If Trump's second term is a marathon, we are only in Mile two with 24 others to come. We have not yet seen the downstream effects of these changes or those in sight. But their consequences are necessarily as monumental as the changes themselves.
Trump has made his name as a manufacturer, a newspaper in the world of dog dogs in New York. But what defined him as a president, both in his first mandate and his months in his second is his penchant for destruction. In his intrigue to “make America again large”, Trump, as his first first days shows, is zealously, often with revenge, challenged conventional standards, bent the authoritarian muscles and has taken a bullet in detraction to our government, the economy and our relations with our allies.
The question is what Trump will build instead of the wreckage? What does this mean for the next generations of Americans and their well-being? What does this mean for the future of democracy in the United States and abroad? And where will its greatness be?
