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A fun little breakdown of Trump's first 100 days as Commander-in-Chief

May. 2, 2017
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Saturday, April 29th marked Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office as President of the United States of America. An incoming Commander-in-Chief’s first 100 days in office mark an important period in their administration. The first 100 days serve as their grand introduction and initial statement to their country, making it known what we can expect from them for the next 4 years.

The reification of the first 100 days as a metric for the quality of a president’s time in office can be traced back to the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During President Roosevelt's first 100 days, he pushed for federal job programs and signed numerous bills that provided relief for individuals who were facing unemployment. That tradition holds strong to this day: in his first 100 days, President Obama not only laid the groundwork to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq during a time of crisis but managed to get Congress to approve a $787 billion stimulus package to boost the economy. In honor of Trump’s first 100 days in office, it seems only fitting but to look back on his accomplishments (if we can call them that).

The Global Gag Rule:


via: Reuters

On January 23rd, just two days after the largest female protest in history, Trump reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, better known as the Global Gag Rule. The Global Gag Rule bans non-government organizations that offer abortion services from receiving any U.S. foreign aid whatsoever; Trump’s executive order went a step further, extending the rule to apply to all health funding programs, not just NGOs--thus negatively affecting the lives and safety of millions of individuals. 

Trump vs. Mexico:


via: NY Times

As we can all painfully recall, one of Trump's key campaign promises was to make Mexico build a “big beautiful wall” to stop the “bad hombres” from entering the United States. Unfortunately, Mexico did not sign off on this memo, and on January 26th, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced that he will be cancelling his meeting with Trump, claiming that Mexico had no intention of ever paying for the wall. Yikes.

Travel Ban:


via: Reuters

On January 27, exactly one week after Trump’s inauguration, Trump signed the now-infamous executive order that effectively banned citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the U.S. for the next 90 days. The order also stated that all refugees would be barred from entering the U.S. for the next 120 days. For the second weekend in a row--following the anti-Trump rallies that erupted across the country throughout Trump’s inaugural weekend--mass protesters swarmed the airports all over the United States, taking a stand against the Muslim ban and lending their support to those that were being unconstitutionally detained at the airport. The ban was soon halted by Seattle judge James Robart, and Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was swiftly “relieved of her duties” after publicly announcing that she would not support the ban. 

Trump decided to give the ban another go on March 15--only for a federal judge in Hawaii to block the revised executive order hours before was planned to take effect. 

Nice try, though…

Trump and Russia

On February 13th, Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned after surfacing allegations about Flynn’s interaction with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak led the Justice Department to believe that Flynn had potentially compromised the White House.

On March 2nd, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he would recuse himself from  any investigations involving Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign after failing to disclose pre-election meetings with the Russian ambassador. 

On March 19th, it was announced that the House Intelligence Committee was diligently investigating Trump’s administration and their interactions with Russia.  

Transgender Bathroom Protection


via: YouTube

 On February 22nd, in part of Trump’s ongoing campaign to overturn every policy Obama put in place ever, Trump’s administration revoked the landmark guidance which the Obama administration had issued to public schools to defend transgender rights. The original executive order required schools to allow transgender students to use whichever restroom corresponds to the gender with which they identify. 

Trumpcare Fail


via: Reuters

On March 7th, Trump and his minions launched their first full-court rally to unveil their new healthcare plan. By March 24th, the GOP had pulled the healthcare bill from the House floor, thereby rejecting Trump's proposal. The week of April 23rd, House Republicans began murmuring about the possibility of a new healthcare bill. On April 27, however, they once again withdrew their plans to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Sad!

Global Warming’s Not a Thing, Right?

On March 28th Trump signed an executive order to limit the federal government's involvement of climate regulations, claiming that it's more important to create jobs for Americans than spend resources on combating climate change. 

My Body, Trump’s Choice

On March 30th, Vice President Pence cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass a bill allowing states to withhold federal funds from health care clinics that provide abortions. This bill was primarily aimed at Planned Parenthood, who had previously denied Trump’s request that they stop providing abortion services. 

Trump and his New Toys

 On April 7th, the U.S. launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria, killing over 100 people over what was believed to be a chemical weapons attack, contradicting Trump’s initial foreign-policy goal of keeping America out of foreign conflict.  

Did We Just Go to War with North Korea?


via: Buzzfeed

Trump has been openly putting pressure on China to persuade North Korea to abandon their nuclear program, threatening to unleash the wrath of U.S. military might on North Korea if they decline our demands. Kim Jong-un, North Korea's supreme leader, who is known for his anti-American outlook, is not taking Trump's threats lightly.  

According to CNN, Trump recently taunted Kim during a press conference: "I'm not so sure he's so strong like he says he is, I'm not so sure at all." On April 18th North Korea's Vice-Foreign Minister, Han Song-ryol told the BBC that they will continue to perform their missile testing as they please, and any interference from the U.S. would result in “all-out war.”  

Well, Trump, 100 down, 1361 days to go--if you can last that long! Despite his own opinion of himself, recent polling by FiveThirtyEight suggests that Trump's approval rating is at 42 percent, making him the least popular president in modern history. 

Although Trump has kept himself busy vigorously tweeting, bashing the media, presenting “alternative facts,” and waving his executive pen with reckless abandonment, much has not actually moved forward within the new administration. Trump’s healthcare bill has met with agonizing defeat, his infamous wall lacks funding, he has not passed through any major legislation, and his frightening travel ban is being indefinitely held up in court--not to mention that the majority of positions in his executive branch remain unfilled. 

Although Trump claims to be moving forward with a new tax reform any day now, it remains to be seen if he actually understands what that entails. 

In--what else?--a recent tweet, President Trump said:  “I don’t think that there is a presidential period of time in the first 100 days where anyone has done nearly what we’ve been able to do.”

Uhhhh… fake news?