PLEA Network

28 April 2025, The Hill: Trump’s disastrous first 100 days. As April ends, so do the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency. We who watch from the sidelines will conduct our obligatory analyses of how he and the country are doing.  The analyses could fill several books, surely. Trump has been very busy following the Project 2025 playbook and Steve Bannon’s advice to “flood the zone” with so many initiatives that the nattering nabobs of negativism have no chance to analyze one questionable act before Trump performs a few more. Trump has done more in three months than any president in memory to gut government, put civil servants out of work, appoint incompetent people to the highest government positions, create economic turmoil, jeopardize America’s alliances, and undermine the rest of the world’s confidence in the U.S. While he pretends to liberate America from government interference in their lives, he uses the actual or fabricated powers of the presidency to modify the behaviors of individuals and institutions far beyond his administration. It’s a strategy designed to cow his critics and extort society’s institutions and governments into compliance with the rigid ideologies of the far right. At some point, Congress and the courts may find the courage to curtail Trump’s excesses. In the meantime, Trump is advancing one especially destructive strategy whose damages will be long-lasting, if not permanent. Read more here