Takeaways from Trump's first 100 days: Steamrolling government and
strong-arming allies
[April 28, 2025]
By The Associated Press
In his first 100 days, President Donald Trump exerted his power in a
sweep and scale that has no easy historical comparison.
His actions target the architecture of the New Deal, the Great Society,
and the Reagan Republican orthodoxy of free trade and strong
international alliances. He has taken direct aim at law, media, public
health and culture, attempting to bring all to heel.
Here are some key takeaways from the most consequential start of a term
of an American presidency since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Economy
Trump has tried to bend the U.S. economy to his will. But one force is
unbowed: the financial markets.
The president says his tariffs will eventually be “beautiful.” So far,
it’s been an difficult three months with consumer confidence plummeting,
stock markets convulsing and investors losing confidence in the
credibility of Trump’s policies.
He has imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, including on
America’s two largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. Chinese goods
are getting taxed at a combined 145%.
He has rewarded the coal and oil sectors by attacking alternative
energy, yet his tariffs pushed up the price of the steel and other
materials that the energy industry needs to build out production.
— By Josh Boak
DOGE
Trump promised to take on what he called waste, fraud and abuse in
government. He tapped Elon Musk to lead the effort.
Musk turned his plan for a Department of Government Efficiency into one
of the most polarizing and consequential pieces of Trump’s first 100
days.
The billionaire entrepreneur approached the task with a tech mogul
ethos: break things, then see what you want to fix. Firings were
widespread and indiscriminate. Programs were eliminated with limited
analysis.
It is unlikely that Musk will accomplish his grand-scale goals. His
plans for slashing $1 trillion out of the budget were pared back to $150
billion.
— By Chris Megerian
Immigration
Cracking down on illegal immigration was the anthem of Trump’s campaign,
and it is the issue where he has the greatest support.
He has followed through by implementing some of the hardest-line
immigration policies in the nation’s history, even as the promised mass
deportations have yet to materialize.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants with
limited due process, then used it to send hundreds of alleged Venezuelan
gang members to a mega-prison in El Salvador in defiance of a court
order.
The administration pledged to end birthright citizenship for people who
were born in the U.S., while proposing “gold cards” that would allow
foreigners to buy American citizenship for $5 million.
Illegal border crossings dropped precipitously.
—By Will Weissert
Retribution
Trump entered office pledging to bring “retribution” for his supporters.
He made good on that on his first day and virtually every week since,
taking aim at the prosecutors who investigated him and the law firms
that employed them. He went after former officials who criticized him or
correctly asserted that he had lost the 2020 presidential election to
Democrat Joe Biden. And he targeted elite universities whose policies
irked him.
Trump ordered the suspension of the security clearances of the more than
four dozen former intelligence officials.
The Justice Department fired the prosecutors who investigated him as
part of special counsel Jack Smith’s team and demanded the names of FBI
agents who participated in investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at
the U.S. Capitol.
Executive orders targeted some of the country’s elite law firms, in some
cases because they employ or once employed prosecutors who investigated
Trump.
— By Eric Tucker
Courts, judges and the rule of law
Trump has consistently said he would follow an order from federal
judges. But that has not stopped talk of a possible constitutional
crisis over defying the courts.
His executive orders reshaping the federal government are facing more
than 150 lawsuits on issues from fired federal workers and immigration
to transgender rights.
Judges have ruled against the administration dozens of times, blocking
parts of his agenda for now. The administration has argued that
individual judges should not be able to issue nationwide injunctions.
Trump issued an extraordinary call for the impeachment of a federal
judge who ruled against him the case of Venezuelan immigrants accused of
being gang members. That prompted a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John
Roberts.
— By Lindsay Whitehurst
Diplomacy and international relations
Trump has rejected the post-World War II order that has formed the basis
for global stability and security.
He has rejected long-standing alliances and hinted at scaling back the
U.S. troop presence in Europe. Longtime allies such as Germany and
France have suggested they no longer can depend on Washington.
Trump also pledged a swift end to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, so far
to little effect.
His actions have led allies in Europe, along with Canada, Japan and
South Korea, to question their reliance on the U.S.
The president has upended other multilateral organizations. And he has
effectively shuttered the United States Agency for International
Development, long seen as an example of an effective tool to provide
humanitarian aid.
At the same time, he has repeatedly called for the U.S. to annex
Greenland, which is a Danish territory, to retake control of the Panama
Canal and to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.
— By Matthew Lee
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President Donald Trump holds a signed an executive order during an
event in the East Room of the White House, April 8, 2025, in
Washington, as from left Environmental Protection Agency director
Lee Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary
Chris Wright watch. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Congress
Congress is proving to be almost no match for this White House.
Trump is testing, challenging and even bullying the Congress in
unparalleled ways -– slashing government agencies, deporting legal
immigrants, investigating perceived enemies and churning the economy
-- and all but daring lawmakers to object.
But Trump has shown he does not necessarily want or need Congress to
accomplish his goals.
The president has issued almost 10 times as many executive orders as
the first five presidents combined, bypassing Congress. DOGE is
slashing programs, jobs and entire agencies, including the
Department of Education, that by law receive funding under the
purview of Congress.
— By Lisa Mascaro
Military
For the past three months the Pentagon has been rocked by the
removals of top military leadership, including its only female
four-star officers, its Joint Chiefs chairman — a Black general —
and its top military lawyers.
The defense chief, Pete Hegseth, has been floundering in
controversy.
He was a key participant in the Signal chat set up by national
security adviser Mike Waltz, sending details of sensitive military
operations over the nonsecure channel. Hegseth also used a second
Signal chat to send similar information to a group that included his
wife and brother. That was followed by the purge of his top staff.
Trump issued an executive order to remove transgender service
members, which has been stalled by the courts. Hegseth ordered the
military to eliminate any programming, books or imagery that
celebrates diversity.
Social media posts that celebrated military women or cultural
diversity are gone.
— By Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor
Public health
At the Department of Health and Human Services, 10,000 jobs are
gone. Billions of dollars in research sent to scientists and
universities was shut off. Public meetings to discuss flu shots and
other vaccines have been canceled.
Fluoride in drinking water may be the next to go, according to
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy’s resistance to launching a vaccination campaign as a
growing measles outbreak has worsened, so far infecting hundreds and
leaving two young children dead, has elicited concerns from doctors,
public health experts and lawmakers.
Those worries deepened after he eliminated thousands of jobs across
the nation’s public health agencies, including at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and
the National Institutes of Health. The move, department officials
projected, will save taxpayers $1.8 billion.
— By Amanda Seitz
Energy and environment
Trump has reversed Biden’s focus on slowing climate change to pursue
what the Republican calls U.S. “energy dominance” in the global
market.
He created a National Energy Dominance Council, and directed it to
move quickly to drive up already record-high U.S. energy production,
particularly fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, and remove
regulatory barriers.
Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, and
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has
announced a series of actions to roll back landmark regulations,
including a scientific finding that has long been the central basis
for U.S. action against climate change.
While Trump’s administration has blocked renewable energy sources
such as offshore wind, he has tried to boost what he calls
“beautiful” coal.
— By Matthew Daly
Arts and culture
Dana Gioia, a poet and former chair of the National Endowment for
the Arts, liked to say that a key to maintaining support for the NEA
and other federal organizations was ensuring they backed projects in
as many congressional districts as possible.
It was a bipartisan formula that lasted for some 60 years, through
Democratic and Republican administrations, until Trump’s second
term.
Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and
cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that artists,
libraries, museums, theaters and others in the cultural community
had long counted on. Acting without congressional authorization, he
has declared that institutions ranging from the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts to the National Endowment for the
Humanities have become fronts for a “woke” agenda that threatens to
undermine what he calls “our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and
Culture.”
—By Hillel Italie
Media
Many journalists figured a second Trump term would be a challenge
for their industry. Few recognized how much.
The new administration has aggressively, even innovatively, waged
combat against the press since taking office. It has fought against
CBS News and The Associated Press in court, sought to dismantle the
government-run Voice of America and sent the Federal Communications
Commission after perceived media rivals.
“The Trump administration is on a campaign to do everything it can
to diminish and obstruct journalism in the United States,” said Bill
Grueskin, a Columbia University journalism professor.
The future of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and
similar services that for generations have delivered unbiased news
to countries where it is in short supply is being haggled over in
court.
— By David Bauder
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