Let’s be clear: The primary reason Donald Trump gets an “F” for his first 100 days in office is because in our system of education—at least while there still is a system of education—there is no lower grade to give. If there were, he would deserve it.
That is not to contradict the White House’s assertion that it has been a record-breaking first 100 days. Indeed, it is inarguable that no administration has done more damage, more quickly, to the U.S. economy, to the rule of law, to America’s standing in the world and to important institutions at home and abroad than Trump’s second tenure has.
What is more, it is fair to say that few administrations (if any) have had fewer constructive achievements to show at the equivalent point in time than this one.
Look at Trump’s campaign promises. Ending the war in Ukraine in 24 hours? No. Revitalizing the economy? No. Beating inflation? No. Restoring America’s standing in the world? No. No. Making sure we no longer have an addled old man in the White House? No.
In fact, in each of these areas—and many more still—Trump has made matters worse.
The U.S. has switched sides in Ukraine, becoming a propaganda arm and errand boy for the Kremlin. We are no closer to a lasting end to that war than we ever were; rather, we have strengthened the aggressor and made the world more dangerous. Trump’s erratic trade policies and huge tariffs have brought the world to the brink of recession, trashed financial markets and weakened us by every conceivable metric.
Our standing in the world hasn’t been lower since America emerged as a global power. Trust in the U.S., a great source of our strength, is broken. Our role as an example and a champion of democracy is broken. The international system—not to mention numerous international alliances—we helped build is broken.
Our system of justice is, if not quite broken yet, breaking. Even as the Trump is barely keeping up with President Biden’s pace of deportations (and remains far behind the statistics seen during the Obama years), his administration has, through its contempt for the law, the courts and the rights of Americans and visitors to our country, attacked fundamental freedoms from the right to due process to freedom of expression.
Trump is eliminating vital government services, the jobs of tens of thousands, the economic vitality of communities and critical means of support for tens of millions of the most vulnerable Americans. He is gutting the American education system at every level. He has rejected science and taken steps that will put every American at risk of suffering and diseases, setting back our leadership in science and technology by ending vital funding, advocating anti-science positions on climate and healthcare, and alienating millions of brilliant minds that would once have brought their talent and brains to the U.S. and now will not.
And he has done all this while passing zero—zero—major pieces of legislation despite his party controlling both houses of Congress. The executive orders by which Trump has instead chosen to govern have often been illegal, regularly promoted vile ideas founded in bigotry and ignorance, and are now, as they should be, bogged down in the courts.
The senior appointees to his administration have ranged from embarrassing to national security risks. Chaos and dysfunction across the government are now the rule. Efforts to cut spending will, it is already clear, actually only end up increasing costs—costs that will then be compounded adding to our massive deficits when the administration finally advances through the Congress its primary legislative objective: tax cuts for the rich and powerful that will add perhaps as much as 10 trillion dollars in red ink to our books over the decade ahead (many many times the “savings” produced by eliminating often vital government functions).
But, as all of us know now, none of the above represents the worst of this administration. That is manifest in the efforts to strip away our rights and turn these United States into a police state, with the very future of our democracy in grave doubt.
Since this country was founded, we have never faced such a threat from without or within—and there is every reason to expect that the past 100 days or so are just prologue to much worse to come. So, sadly, perhaps the failing grade Trump has earned, certainly not his first, may actually end up being a high water mark for this administration over the next three years and nine months.
The post Opinion: The Worst First 100 Days of Any Administration in History appeared first on The Daily Beast.
