Editorial | Chaos marks first 100 days of Trump back in the White House
The US president started a global tariff war and created crisis and unease at home with series of hard-hitting executive orders
The United States is marking the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency – a symbolic window seen as setting the tone of his administration.
Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 has a president unleashed such a torrent of executive orders in that time. There the comparison ends. Roosevelt launched reforms to lift America out of the Great Depression.
Trump inherited a strong economy. But executive actions that upend the world order and transform America have resulted in some of the lowest 100-day approval ratings in living memory.
Majorities polled choose words like “chaotic”, “scary” and “overreach” of executive power to describe some of Trump’s actions, even those that kept campaign promises. In his first 100 days, Trump signed at least 141 executive orders.
His global tariff war tops a list that has caused crises and unease in America and consternation abroad, such as attacks on judges and universities, mass sackings of the federal workforce, dismantling of foreign aid, withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The list goes on. Apart from delivering on promises to supporters, there is no area in which he can claim victory, including high-profile peacemaking efforts in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In fact, he paused the global tariffs for 90 days, except for China, and has backtracked on their severity.