The first 100 days of any president’s term have been a signal to the US public about their intentions over time. Starting with FDR and his 99 Executive Orders (EOs) in his first 100 days and passing 77 bills through Congress, presidents since then have been stacked up against him. Trump, coming in at 139 EOs so far and 5 bills passed, is certainly ranking up with the most change caused. Here are some of the most prominent actions of Donald J. Trump in his first 100 days and some statistics from different news organizations.
Immigration
The issue of immigration was one of the headliners of Trump’s campaign message. He asserts that the flow of immigrants across borders, especially the Southern border, contributes to violent crime and drug trafficking. In the first week of his term the average daily migrants crossing into the US halves, and 100 days in that trend has remained consistent. Trump has also focused on deporting immigrants. Many of those deported are accused of being in gangs, and many are sent to prisons in El Salvador.
Federal judges have attempted to stop the deportations, but controversy arose after planes carrying deportees were not turned around after a judge ruled that they should stay in the US. Another major issue has been the deportation of a Maryland man named Ábrego García, who had been granted allowance to stay in the US. The Trump administration deported him claiming that he was a member of an El Salvadorian gang, but later admitted that it was an error. He is currently in a Salvadoran prison known for its poor conditions. The White House maintains that they will not return him to the United States, even though they recognize that he should not have been deported.
Relationship with Russia
Another key element of Trump’s policies has been his policies with Russia, most recently in his deal with Ukraine on April 30th, 2025. Shortly after he took office, Trump met with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky. This meeting escalated with Vice President JD Vance and Trump insulting Zelensky. In addition, along with business ties to Valdimir Putin, President Trump has seemed to blame the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Ukrainian people, supporting Putin’s views. This shift in perspective has alarmed many of the United States’ allies, who have been crucial in supporting Ukraine. The U.S and Russia have historically been wary of each other, a fact that has been reflected in government policy for decades. Trump’s alignment with Putin has been a dramatic departure from this, and frightens many who view Putin as a dictator.
Tariffs
Although Trump had initially said that he would pass legislation to increase tariffs, he has since passed executive orders to do the same thing. These reciprocal tariffs were intended to balance the economy and decrease the federal deficit. These tariffs have created tensions with all countries around the globe, but they have ramped up a potential trade war with China. Because most of the cheap goods that Americans buy are from China, this will have implications. There are now fears for this upcoming Christmas. Furthermore, in a poll by PBS around 49% of Americans reported changing their spending habits in response to these tariffs: either buying more to stock up or buying less to prepare for the price hits.
Elon Musk and DOGE
Elon Musk is the richest man in the world, and was a large donor to the Trump campaign. For this, he was given the temporary position of “special government employee” and the ability to gut countless government agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made headlines in the early days of Trump’s term by abruptly ending government contracts and ordering employees at federal agencies to prove why they should not be fired. Musk and his team of mostly young men were given almost complete access to federal databases and accounts. As of February 28, DOGE claimed to have saved the government 55 billion dollars. However, The New York Times reported that this number is not accurate. Many canceled contracts had been counted multiple times, and at least a few had been canceled under the Biden administration. These accounts are based on the only public information published on the DOGE website, which also includes typos changing values from millions to billions of dollars, and math based on money that was not actually used. Even after Elon Musk stepped down from running DOGE, the effect that it made on the population in the first 100 days can not be overstated.
Federal Workers Laid Off
An element of DOGE’s efforts has been to lay off federal workers. Given the location of our school, many people connected to and in our own community have been impacted by these mass firings. 10% of the National Institute of Health were fired, 15% of the Department of Veteran affairs were fired, over 50% of the Department of Education was fired, and 84% of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Community Planning and Development. The entire program of the Agency for International Development has been dissolved completely (USAID). Together, according to CNN, this means that 121,000 jobs will have been cut. All of these former federal workers now are forced to find new jobs, and uncertainty runs rampant among other federal agencies for fear that they too may be cut. However, even though this wreaks havoc for families, these deparments’s functions are now severely limited. For instance, in the Department of Veteran Affairs, over 70,000 workers have been laid off. One of the department’s main functions was to aid Veterans to receive training to integrate into civilian life. With these layoffs, that function is severely limited. Additionally, due to the complete dismantling of USAID, the US no longer has resources being used to support foreign interests. This not only hurts those in countries that rely on this support, but also threatens the ability of the US to maintain diplomatic control in these countries. Without the presence of the US, that gives more space for other countries to step in and take the place that the US previously held.
New DEI Policies
As The Voice reported in our last issue, the Trump administration has also made huge cuts to DEI. Trump’s recent executive orders have limited the ability of public school teachers to teach about gender and critical race theory. Other executive orders have taken out DEI programs from government departments and agencies, and a recent scrubbing of the Department of Defense’s website has even led to articles about the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the atomic bomb in WW2) being removed from their archives. This also applies to government contractor agencies which also are required to not have DEI policies. This not only has set the national mood surrounding DEI policies but has also empowered smaller, local level initiatives against.
Pete Hegseth issues
One of the biggest scandals of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration was the sharing of potentially classified plans over a non-secure chat platform. The leak occurred when a journalist was added to the chat by accident. Hegseth, who is the new secretary of defense, along with other senior government officials were discussing strike plans on Houthis in Yemen. Many officials were concerned about the security of such platforms, as Signal is not an encrypted government platform. The details of the strikes were sensitive, according to the journalist who was added, and could have put Americans in danger if they were hacked. After the ensuing media storm, the administration defended Mr. Hegseth and he retained his position. A few weeks later, another chat was leaked, this one including Hegseth’s wife and brother. Again, sensitive details about strikes in Yemen were shared. He also has come under scrutiny after two F-18 fighter jets have fallen off aircraft carriers in the span of eight days. Mr. Hegseth has twice extended the deployment of this carrier after it left last September, a fact which some have argued is to blame for the incidents, as the crew is exhausted.
Inflation//economy GDP of the US
Despite his campaign promise that the price of eggs would come down on the first day of his administration, more than 100 days in that is still not the case. However even with the tariffs there have been some good economic indicators. For instance, gasoline prices are less than they were during the Biden administration, and the prices for consumer goods are increasing, but at a lower rate than they have since 2021, according to NBC. The inflation rate has even gone down. Nonetheless, housing prices have also increased significantly. With all of these things considered, there is not much consensus from economists surrounding the future of the US’s economy. Some economists are optimistic about this, signalling that these tariffs might actually be working, others warn that businesses may not want to increase prices too quickly, but once supplies run out, they will be forced to do so. Additionally, some economists point to Americans bulk buying in preparation for the tariffs to take effect for the decreasing rate of inflation. The unemployment rate has remained steady around 4.2%, and has not increased significantly after Trump took office.
Public Health
Furthermore, the Trump Administration’s public health decisions, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have also come under scrutiny. RFK is a vocal doubter of vaccine effectiveness, and has faced criticism over his handling of the measles outbreak in Texas. After some of the first recorded cases of measles in many years, RFK ordered a search for alternative cures. According to AP news, he also has claimed that “the vaccines were ‘not safety tested.’” Mr. Kennedy has also advised that the bird flu, a disease that originated in poultry flocks and has been found in humans, be left to spread unchecked. Factcheck.org asserts that this decision could lead to increased infections and the deaths of thousands of poultry. Alongside his national health advice, RFK also has made some questionable personal health claims. He is on record saying that a “worm that got into[his] brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” and he recently posted photos of himself and his grandchildren swimming in a D.C area creek that is contaminated with sewage. It has been prohibited to swim in this creek for 50 years, as it has extremely high amounts of E. Coli and other bacteria. Infectious diseases are not the only controversial subject that RFK has touched on in the first 100 days. AP News states: “ He has cited rising autism rates as evidence of an epidemic of a ‘preventable disease’ caused by some sort of environmental exposure and has promised ‘some of the answers by September.’” Not only is this blatantly false, it could cause harm to individuals with Autism by feeding the public misinformation.
