100 Days of Disaster

The Train Wreck is Just Getting Rolling

With the 100th day of the Trump presidency here, it’s the perfect time to step back and survey the wreckage. And when I look across the landscape, I see failure after failure. One phrase from his first inaugural speech keeps coming to mind — “American carnage.”

In just his first 100 days, Trump has issued more than 130 executive orders, throwing the economy, higher education, the legal system, and much of the federal government into chaos. He pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. And most damaging of all, he declared a trade war with China — and pretty much the rest of the world — sending us hurtling toward a severe recession.

A new CNN poll found Trump’s approval rating at 41 percent — the lowest for any newly inaugurated president since 1953. According to an AP/NORC poll, 39 percent of Americans say he’s been a “terrible” president. Add the 13 percent who rate him as merely “poor,” and you’ve got a very dissatisfied majority. And you don’t need to be a pollster to figure out why: it’s the economy.

Trump’s disastrous economic policy centers on the massive tariffs he slapped on countries that supply the low-priced goods American families depend on. Big retailers are warning of rising prices and empty shelves. A huge selloff in the stock market has already wiped trillions of dollars from Americans’ retirement accounts. Consumers — the backbone of the economy — are pulling back their spending. Meanwhile, American exporters — farmers, oil companies, aircraft manufacturers — are getting hammered by retaliatory tariffs.

And while Trump was busy engineering an economic meltdown, he unleashed Elon Musk to finish off the federal government. Musk, the world’s richest man, was handed the keys to the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with orders to fire workers, gut funding, and shut down programs. Staffed largely by wide-eyed Musk fanboys, DOGE has slashed the Veterans Administration, Social Security, the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and dozens of other agencies that millions of Americans rely on.

The pain is already being felt: tax refunds delayed, Social Security helplines going unanswered, veterans’ benefits held up, even sections of our National Parks closed for lack of rangers. And it’s just getting started.

Even more absurdly, for all the destruction DOGE has caused, it’s failing on its own terms. The original goal was to cut $2 trillion from the budget. Now? Musk recently admitted they might save around 8 percent of that — about $150 billion — and that’s before accounting for the $135 billion DOGE itself is costing taxpayers in lost productivity, payouts, and other expenses.

Musk himself is already halfway out the door, preparing to return to his business empire. But not before putting on a show — reportedly getting into a screaming match in the Oval Office with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, trading f-bombs and personal insults until aides had to physically separate them.

Musk’s meltdown is just the latest reminder: Trump’s appointments have been one disaster after another. Exhibit A: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, now at the center of two separate scandals involving classified meetings held over an unsecured app. Then there’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who managed to spark nationwide outrage by insulting people with autism. Across the administration, Trump’s hand-picked loyalists are embarrassing themselves and undermining public trust at every turn.

And while Trump and his lackeys are screwing things up at home, they’re failing overseas too. From Beijing to Brussels, U.S. tariffs have pushed other countries closer together — and farther from us. Our NATO allies are quietly preparing for life without American leadership. Foreign militaries are exploring alternatives to American-made weapons. Heads of state are questioning their strategic ties to Washington.

But among all Trump’s foreign policy disasters, his slow betrayal of Ukraine may do the most lasting damage. Ukraine’s brave defense against Russia — made possible largely by U.S. and Western aid — symbolized the free world standing against tyranny. Trump's move to suspend that aid and tilt toward Moscow sent an unmistakable message: America’s days as a defender of democracy are over. So much for the "city on a hill."

And finally — to bring the 100-day review full circle — we have to talk about Trump’s failures even on his own political turf. He came into office promising happiness and prosperity. For a moment, he even hit 52 percent approval. Now? According to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, he’s at 42 percent. A staggering 59 percent of Americans describe his time in office so far as “scary.” Majorities disapprove of his handling of trade, immigration, Ukraine, and the basic functioning of government.

A failure at home. A failure abroad. A failure in the polls.
If there’s one thing Trump has proven in his first 100 days, it’s that he’s consistently bad at this job.
Too bad for the rest of us.

P.S. When The Economist published its cover marking Trump’s 100 days, it featured a wounded American eagle under the caption: “Only 1,361 days to go.”
Mark your calendars.