Trump completes 100 days of revenge and consummated threats

One of the catchphrases of the Trump administration, which is crossing the symbolic threshold of its first 100 days in office, is: “Promises made, promises kept.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt uttered it for the umpteenth time on Tuesday, with the aggressive self-sufficiency with which she usually treats the media outlets that are critical of the president. “This has truly been the most historic start of a presidency in American history,” she added, further proof that Leavitt, like her boss, has a conflicted relationship with the truth, as well as being in a rush to get ahead of events. One thing is certain, though: 15 weeks after his return to power for a second term, the Republican leader has undertaken almost all the projects he promised he would tackle during his campaign to remake the American experiment with a more authoritarian flair — leading to chaos and trauma, often disastrous results, and perhaps irreversible changes.

But above all, he has made good on his threats. He promised he would ride to the Oval Office on the back of revenge and said he would cross every name off his enemies list. And so he is doing, with a viciousness and swiftness that has taken by surprise even the most pessimistic among those who listened to his interminable rallies until the very end, and among those who read Project 2025 as a realistic novel and not a dystopia. During his campaigning, Trump sought to distance himself from this ultra-conservative program so as not to scare off the undecided and moderate voters. These are the voters who gave him a victory that he views as an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” (in reality, despite the resounding victory in the electoral vote, it wasn’t that great in the popular vote) to push forward with his demolition program. This mandate will be put to the test in next year’s midterm elections.

Encouraged by this supposed legitimacy to carry out his threats, Trump, whose approval ratings are at historic lows, has taken aim at migrants, whom his administration believes to fit under only one category: “illegal and criminal,” and deserving of only one fate: deportation. It doesn’t matter whether they are children, U.S. citizens, or terminally ill, or whether they were deported through an administrative error, like Kilmar Abrego García, to a prison in El Salvador without any legal protection.

The president has also unleashed a trade war filled with unfulfilled threats and tariff reversals that appears to be pushing the global economy into a recession in the name of America First. He has upended the post-1945 world order and shattered faith in soft power and the rules of decorum, shaking up old allies in peace (Europe) and war (Ukraine), pushing Washington’s foreign policy into the orbit of its great rival (Russia), and dusting off expansionist ambitions from another century in Greenland, Canada, and Panama, while leaving vast zones of influence open for China, the enemy power.

Trump has clashed with judges, who already face the threat of jail, and has subjected American democracy to a stress test that it may or may not withstand. He has targeted law firms with whom he had outstanding scores to settle; he has zeroed in on universities under the pretext of fighting antisemitism and as part of a long-standing anti-intellectual current of American conservatism. He has taken it out on students who showed sympathy for the Palestinian cause, while dreaming of turning the Gaza Strip into the Riviera of the Middle East; he has threatened museums that had reworked their narratives to reflect the country’s systemic racism. Trump has lashed out against foreign aid; against federal workers to whom he has applied Elon Musk’s chainsaw of cuts; against media outlets not aligned with his ideas; and against trans people, whose very right to exist he denies.

The list is long and hopelessly incomplete, and it has sent a chill through the United States (or at least, through non-MAGA America) reminiscent of the famous quote by the German pastor Martin Niemöller that began: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist...” Among scientists and federal workers who have not yet been purged, visa holders, residents fearful of losing their status, and anxious tourists waiting in immigration lines, the question is spreading: “Will I be next, and will it be too late?”

If anything unites all these “disruptions,” which is how Trumpian newspeak hides the abuse of power, it is that the president has launched them by decree, expanding the executive power of the institution he represents, encouraged by a decision by the Supreme Court, whose conservative supermajority granted the U.S. president partial immunity from his actions while in office. That ruling served to clear the way for a convicted felon to return to the White House. Today, it serves as justification for the brutal strategy of someone who learned from the mistakes of his first term: stretching the seams of the system—including the Constitution, with initiatives such as ending birthright citizenship protected by the Fourteenth Amendment—to see how many of these profound transformations the Supreme Court will later approve.

The fixation on the first 100 days as a yardstick for a president’s success is traced back to Franklin Roosevelt in American politics. Trump likes to compare his own 100-day mark with this Democratic predecessor, whose reformist drive was unprecedented. There are many differences between the two, beyond the obvious: if the former made history as the man who expanded the reach of government to pull the country out of the Great Depression, the latter has spent much of his early energy demolishing it.

A third run?

Perhaps the most significant distinction is that Roosevelt, who was exceptionally re-elected three times (and here Trump, who is flirting with the idea of breaking the rules and running again, also likes to look in that mirror), counted on the support of Congress for many of his reforms, while Trump has ignored Capitol Hill, despite his party controlling both chambers.

The evident irrelevance of Congress (intensified by a Democratic Party that is in the minority, disoriented and leaderless) is one of the changes that Trump has wrought in the American system and that critics fear will be irreversible, even if he were to change course in the 1,361 days remaining in his term, forced by the markets or by stubborn reality. There are serious doubts that if a more moderate president succeeds him, he would be able to restore the shattered parts of the administration or renew commitments such as development aid. The readjustments on the international stage resulting from this new United States are, for their part, driven by the need to seek new alliances in light of the volatility of the old ones, and that could also be a flight forward with no way back.

The 100-day mark is usually an excuse to take stock and determine whether the benefit of the doubt voters gave the new president has expired. Trump arrives at this rite of passage amid polls that speak of apprehension about his handling of the economy and the border, which he has closed de facto, something a majority wanted, but apparently not at the cost of imposing a regime of terror that has taken its toll on tourism.

In his case, the 100-day mark also serves as an opportunity to rub one’s eyes again after a few weeks full of unusual events, including the sight of a four-year-old child, the son of Elon Musk — an advisor who seems on his way out — in the Oval Office; the White House transformed into a Tesla dealership; hundreds of deportees depicted in a film video produced by President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador; or the leaders of the world’s leading power humiliating an ally, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in front of the entire world.

Therefore, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to place too many bets on what will happen in the next 100 days, although more court battles to halt the presidential agenda are possible. Furthermore, the Supreme Court will end its term during that period, with pending issues for Trump that could be momentous.

His administration has already announced more trade and peace agreements and tax cuts. “More American greatness is coming,” according to Leavitt, who in addition to her eagerness to anticipate events, has proven herself a faithful follower of the three rules that lawyer Roy Cohn once gave a young Trump. Especially the third: “Always claim victory and never admit defeat.” It’s not clear that this time it will be enough for Trump to save face, although one never knows with the great contemporary magician of the political sleight of hand.

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