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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has claimed he has had the “most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country” — even as polls show Americans are disenchanted with the economic and political tumult he has caused.
At a rally marking his first 100 days in office, Trump said he missed the campaign trail and launched into a speech with many attacks on those he sees as his enemies.
He called Joe Biden “sleepy,” the media “fake,” judges who oppose him “communist,” Democratic opponents the “radical left,” and said friendly countries have “abused us more so than foe on trade”.
Trump promised to conclude deals on trade but provided little in the way of details.
To chants of “USA! USA!”, he showed a video of migrants in handcuffs and shackles being taken from a plane, transported by bus and filmed on their knees as their heads were shaved, illustrating his controversial deportation policy.
According to a poll conducted by Ipsos, only 39% of Americans currently approve of him and how he s conducting the presidency. 64% said he is “going too far” by trying to expand presidential powers.
Gallup, another polling company which has examined sentiments about US presidents at the 100-day mark for years, put Trump’s approval rating at 44%. By the Gallup poll, he’s the only American president after World War Two to have an approval rating lower than 50% at this time in his term (except for… himself, during his first term, when he was at 41% 100 days in).
Trump’s low rating is driven by the exceptionally high degree of polarisation in public opinion of him. The Gallup poll puts his approval among Republicans at 90% but just 4% among Democrats. Presidents of previous decades tended not to see such a dramatic margin of difference.
Trump told reporters he was on track to accomplish all of his second-term goals.
“I think either we’ve done everything, or it’s in the process of being done,” Trump said before heading to his rally.
In the grand entrance hallway of the White House, Trump has removed a portrait of Barack Obama, the United States’ first Black president, to make way for a painting of himself surviving an assassination attempt.
He has used threats of cutting off government access and contracts to pressure law firms whose partners once were involved in cases against him, and he has frozen billions of dollars in funding for universities — hotbeds of criticism against the administration.
The Democratic Party is trying to emphasise the economic anxieties caused by Trump, although it has also struggled in polling.
“Trump is to blame for the fact that life is more expensive, it’s harder to retire, and a ‘Trump recession’ is at our doorstep,” the Democratic National Committee said, calling the 100 days a “colossal failure.”
Even with Congress narrowly in Republican hands, Trump has tested the limits of presidential power by signing more than 140 executive orders, many of which have faced court scrutiny.
He has sought to end birthright citizenship — which is guaranteed by the US Constitution — and Musk has summarily axed billions of dollars appropriated by Congress.
Asked in an ABC interview broadcast yesterday about Americans who are concerned he is seizing too much power, Trump said: “I would hate them to think that. I’m doing one thing: I’m making America great again.”
Additional reporting by Lauren Boland
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