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In November, I wrote a piece that tried to put people’s nerves at ease after Donald Trump won the 2024 Presidential election. I was clinging to the hope that our three branches of government would somehow remain on equal footing. Looking back on that piece, I realize how naive I was.
Jonah Marshall
Staff Opinions Writer
The term “First 100 days” originated when FDR came into office in 1933 and signed 76 bills into law and started 15 major programs. Ever since then, a President’s first 100 days has been a major talking point every time a new President begins a new term in office. Let’s break down what Trump has done in different types of categories.
In terms of bills signed, Trump has only signed 5 bills into law since January 20, 2025. Instead, he has heavily relied on Executive Orders to try to change the things he personally does not like such as paper straws and low-flow showers.
As of April 24, Trump has signed 139 Executive Orders which are not laws that have passed through both houses of Congress, nor do they have the same weight as a law. They can however, be challenged in courts of law, and several have been blocked by judges appointed by both Democrat and Republican Presidents, some even by Donald Trump himself. *A possible glimmer of hope is that any President who is elected into office next can undo Trump’s executive orders.*
His EO’s have tried to end birthright citizenship, created the Department of Government Efficiency which has been anything but and which needs, but never received, Congressional approval. He pardoned all 1,500 January 6, 2021 participants who were found guilty of various crimes, even those who were convicted for the most serious offense, Seditious Conspiracy. He is trying to arrest and charge the members of the House of Representatives who served on the January 6 Select Committee with bogus crimes simply because they brought to light Trump’s failed coup attempt on that fateful day.
He has allowed Elon Musk to threaten government workers, lock them out of their offices and government e-mail accounts, and slash the federal workforce with little knowledge of the importance of the work the employees do to protect the American public. For instance, DOGE fired government employees who were working on managing bird flu (which is driving up egg prices) and nuclear technicians who are the watchdogs over our nuclear arsenal, only to have to scramble to re-hire them.
The US government has flown hundreds of men to a brutal prison (CECOT) in El Salvador, invoking the 1789 Aliens Enemies Act (AEA) and an “emergency” as their basis despite a judge ordering that these individuals needed to be afforded due process, while government officials blatantly ignored and mocked the order. Roughly 75 percent of the people deported to this prison do not have criminal records according to CBS’ 60 Minutes, and many were rounded up based on their tattoos. Now another federal judge has blocked Trump’s use of the AEA because gang members are not an invading force sponsored by another country or government.
Trump has declared economic war on the rest of the world by invoking tariffs on nearly every country across the globe, including two small Islands that are home to only penguins, and no humans or actual trade with the US. Trump thinks threatening our allies is the way to a good economy. Economists, though, are predicting there is a 60 percent chance that the economy will dip into a recession in the next six months based on Trump’s on-again/off-again tariff threats.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are refusing to use their power given them in the Constitution to check the President with few willing to go on the record to detail how scared they are of being primaried in their next election or called a name.
Trump’s Cabinet is a collection of the least qualified, but most loyal individuals to Trump, many having zero experience with the actual responsibilities of what the Department business is, but in the interest of time, I will leave that critique for another article. Most were named, it seems, because Trump saw them as 1) a TV celebrity (and he loves to use “central casting” as a qualifier for hiring people) and 2) could offer financial contributions to his Political Action Committee (PAC) or his personal wallet. We are already seeing the fallout of the lack of experience with RFK, Jr.’s handling of a Measles outbreak, and Pete Hegseth’s scandals using Signal to discuss classified information.
It is doubtful that any in the Trump 2.0 administration will learn from the mistakes made thus far. If past is prologue, they will simply double down on the daily lies, and continue to flood the zone with disinformation to distract the American people while they quietly dismantle our Republic.
