Meant to publish this yesterday, but never quite got around to it:
Has it only been 100 days since the Trump administration once again took power?
Yikes!
It feels like it has been closer to three years, rather than three months and change. In just over three months, Trump somehow managed to get his cult following to forget about his promises to lower the price of gas and groceries on Day One, and to urge that group - not exactly known for their patience or tolerance - to preach patience to the rest of us.
While inaction on actually lowering the price of gas and groceries has been the rule since he took office, the Trump administration certainly has been very busy. In just 100 days, we seem to have waged economic warfare on pretty much the entire planet (I would say almost every country, except that even islands inhabited only by penguins also had tariffs slapped on them).
Also, tensions have mounted between Trump's United States and....well, pretty much a whole bunch of countries. Canadians are justifiably angry because he keeps undermining their status as an independent nation and insisting that they will be the 51st state. Members of the Trump family and administration have visited Greenland, as Trump keeps insisting that he believes the United States will acquire Greenland, one way or the other. He did not rule out using the military to do so, which he also suggested was true of the Panama Canal. King Con Don even suggested that the United States might take over Gaza, with possibly American boots on the grounds. And remember, he threatened that military force might be required in Mexico, as well.
Plus, Trump had a disastrous meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, which was more or less a trap which they sprang on him. It was a disgraceful display, and condemned by people the world over.
Okay, time to take a deep breath. Because already, that's a lot, right?
Of course, there is more.
It turns out that ICE will not focus only on people who are inside the country illegally. They took some people out in the middle of the night, and without due process, deporting them to a de facto concentration camp in El Salvador. The White House then claimed that their hands were tied, and that they would make no effort to get anyone taken mistakenly (allegedly mistakenly), even though it was their mistake. Then Trump doubled down, and in a meeting with El Salvador President Bukele, who once dubbed himself the world's coolest dictator, Trump praised these concentration camps and urged them to build more such facilities, and insinuated that "homegrown" Americans would be the next to be sent.
Getting rid of due process was not the only attack on the Constitution by the Trump administration. He is trying to grab as much power as possible, as they pursue an aggressive and dangerous (and surely unconstitutional) interpretation of the unitary executive theory. Consolidating as much power as he can with the compliance of a very weak, timid Congress, dominated by the Republican (de facto Trump) party, which simply yielded one of it's most powerful responsibilities, the power of the purse strings, to the Trump administration. Clearly, the Trump administration is also making a point of trying to undermine the judicial branch, as well, acting like he and his White House have total immunity from any consequences, whatever the courts have to say about it.
Yup, in just under 100 days, King Con Don has done his best to at least make the United States appear like it has become, at least partially, a dictatorship. And it really does feel like it bears an uncanny likeness to other dictatorships.
But the good news is that recently, there have finally been signs that opposition is starting to show up in large numbers. That Democrats are finally beginning to wake up and realize that they can fight back. That the ACLU and the Supreme Court can stand up to Trump and win, as they did when they forced those buses filled with people heading towards the concentration camps in El Salvador to turn around.
Now, that's what we need to see more of. We knew that Trump and his team would, obviously, make a point of pushing past previous limits and attempt to grab all the power that they can. That they would try to get away with as many abuses of power as they can possibly get away with. But there are signs that, just as predicted, the Trump White House acts like a bully in more ways than one. That includes backing the hell down when there actually is a strong force willing to stand and put up a real fight. Let's hope that the duration of this nightmarish Trump presidency is filled with examples of exactly that.
True, it's going to be a long four years. Hell, the first 100 days felt extremely long. I don't remember any news cycle of such short duration ever feeling like it lasted as long as these 100 days have. But there are signs for hope, and we need not only to cling to these, but feed off of them. Make the most of them. Because let's face it: Trump is not going away anytime soon.
Might as well let him know that neither is American democracy.
Trump's first 100 days: Here's 100 things that have changed (so far) by Susan Page & Zac Anderson of USA TODAY, April 25, 2025:
From the momentous to the less so, there have been plenty of changes across America in Donald Trump's first 100 days in office.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/04/25/trump-100-days-changes-in-america/83042626007/
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