Cycle of disbelief and déjà vu to continue in Trump’s next 100 days
It’s still mostly the best of times for Donald Trump as his second administration reaches the 100-day mark. Since returning to the White House on 20 January, the president has mostly delivered on the slash-and-burn agenda that he laid out on the campaign trail. The US’s southern border has been closed, contentious DEI and “gender ideology” policies are being dismantled and billions – if not trillions – of dollars in governmental waste is slated to be accounted for. So what happens next? Most likely it’ll be more of the same, albeit with even more intention, precision and bombast.
Hundreds of thousands of protestors formed a viable and vocal resistance at the end of Trump’s first term. This time around, despite a late-hour protest surge this month, that resistance has been largely silent. Even amid the upheaval of Trump’s tariffs and sliding approval numbers, his mandate remains rock solid. This means more pressure on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to concede territory and a more direct attitude towards Israel’s neighbours and enemies, even if we may yet see a new nuclear deal between the US and Iran, and a framework that would bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords with Israel. The Gaza crisis, meanwhile, will not be settled by midsummer. But Gazans themselves might be resettled in meaningful numbers if Trump enacts his plan to transfer Palestinians – at least those who desire to leave – out of the embattled enclave.
Back in the US, Trump’s mass deportation strategy – though at times craven if not cruel – has managed to skirt the limits of legality and is likely to continue and probably widen its net. Just this week the president issued yet another immigration-related executive order, this time targeting the so-called “sanctuary cities” that have attempted to resist federal efforts to arrest undocumented migrants. Such increasingly punitive actions are almost certain to continue and intensify. Again, it’s all about an undeterred sense of mandate. One thing that is assured to continue unabated for the next 100 days and beyond is the murky business deals between the Trump family and the private sector. Perhaps the great symbol of all this is Trump’s crypto operation, World Liberty Financial, which has secured more than $550m in sales since the election season. Like Donald Trump himself, no one appears able – or perhaps willing – to slow it down.
Kaufman is an editor and columnist at ‘The New York Post’. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.
