The First One Hundred Days
Recently there have been indications that resistance is slowly building
On April 30 Donald Trump will have reached the hundredth day of his second term in office, a span of time considered a benchmark for measuring the early performance of a president. The first one hundred days took on symbolic significance during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term in 1933.
When Roosevelt entered office the country was in the throes of the Great Depression: the stock market had plunged by 85 percent since 1929 and nearly one-fourth of the workforce was unemployed. FDR immediately summoned Congress into a three-month special session during which he was able to secure the passage of 15 major bills designed to restore confidence and provide jobs.
Not since Roosevelt has a new president made so many moves so fast as has Donald Trump over the last three months. Through his unprecedented, and often unconstitutional, use of executive power Trump has slashed the federal workforce, attempted to dismantle federal agencies and departments, banned diversity programs, deported legal residents without due process of law, threatened free inquiry in colleges and universities, impugned members of the judicial branch and prompted longstanding U.S. allies to consider how to navigate a new global reality.
These actions and others have convinced many that our country is being put on a new path toward authoritarianism. For them the first one hundred days has been a time of demoralization and fear.
That is just what was intended. The point of the torrent of shocking and rapid moves has been to “flood the zone,” confuse and confound everybody and get control of as much as possible before people have a chance to recover.
Autocrats are bullies, they gain power by intimidating others. They test citizens to see which principles and values they are willing to give up. They depend on people yielding power without being asked. Trump’s first one hundred days can be described as a constant probing for what people are willing to surrender in advance –– what historian Timothy Snyder calls “anticipatory obedience.”
But when they meet resistance, autocrats often back off. Recently there have been indications that resistance to these tactics is slowly building.
After it became known that ICE buses, carrying 28 migrants whom the Trump administration sought to deport, were on their way to the airport at the same time an emergency federal court hearing was underway, the busses were turned around.
When his “Liberation Day” tariffs against U.S. trading partners led to an aggressive bond market sell-off, Trump retreated the next day announcing a 90-day pause.
After the administration presented a list of demands to Harvard and threatened the loss of $9 billion in research funding, the school refused to comply and was backed by over 170 other colleges and universities.
After a wave of concern and criticism, the Department of Health and Human Services abandoned its plans to cut funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, a groundbreaking research project focused on preventing disease in women.
On April 19, thousands of protesters rallied in cities across the U.S. to voice their opposition to Trump’s policies on deportations, government firings and wars in Gaza and Ukraine. It marked the second day of nationwide demonstrations since he took office.
The administration is beginning to get pushback. The American people are deciding that they don't like what they see.
There is hope. But the outcome is not foreordained and much needs to be done. It is time to stay informed, keep working and join together.