The nation's accelerated transformation: 100 days of Trump's rule

In the three months since he was sworn in, the 47th president has used his powers in a way that is comparable to very few of his predecessors.

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Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

29.04.2025. 17:51h

Anthony Zurcher and Tom Giogigan

BBC News, Washington

During last year's presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly reiterated his intention to introduce dramatic changes as soon as he returned to the White House.

But few expected it to happen at such breakneck speed.

In the three months since he was sworn in, the 47th president has used his powers in a way that can be compared to very few of his predecessors.

In stacks of bound documents signed with the presidential pen and political posts written in large letters on social media, his blizzard of executive orders has reached every corner of American life.

For his supporters, the "shock and awe" approach was a tangible demonstration of a president ready to act, a president who delivers on promises and implements long-awaited reforms.

But his critics fear he is doing irreparable damage to the country and overstepping his authority by crippling important government functions and perhaps permanently transforming the role of the president in the process.

Here are six milestones from the first 100 days.

A social media post sparks a constitutional firestorm

For a change, it wasn't Trump's social media post that sparked widespread public discontent.

Three weeks into his new term, at 10:13 a.m. on a Sunday morning, Vice President J.D. Vance wrote nine words that signaled the strategy that has since characterized the second term of the Trump administration.

"Judges are not allowed to check the legitimate power of the executive branch," he announced on X.

In the media frenzy that followed, legal experts raced to dispute the claim, pointing to a 220-year-old principle that lies at the heart of American democracy.

The courts have the authority to review and overturn any government action - laws, regulations, and executive orders - that they believe violates the U.S. Constitution.

Vance's words were a gauntlet thrown in the face of the judiciary and, more broadly, the system of three equally important branches of government devised by America's founders.

But Trump and his team remain adamant about expanding the executive branch's reach into two other areas - Congress and the courts.

The White House has moved aggressively to wrest control of spending from Congress by unilaterally cutting funding for programs and entire agencies.

This erosion of his power has been met largely with silence on Capitol Hill, where Trump's Republicans hold slim majorities in both houses.

The courts have offered greater resistance, blocking more than 100 court decisions so far that have declared the president's orders unconstitutional, according to a New York Times count.

Some of the biggest clashes have been over Trump's crackdown on immigration.

In March, more than 200 Venezuelans were declared a danger to the United States and deported to El Salvador, many of them under broad martial law powers and without the usual process of presenting evidence in court.

A Republican-appointed judge on a federal appeals court said he was shocked by the White House's actions.

"Now the branches have come too close to irrevocably grind against each other in a conflict that promises to diminish the power of both," wrote Justice J. Harvey Wilkinson.

Trump and White House officials have said they will abide by court rulings, although the president has taken aim at many of the judges who issue them, and the administration has at times been too slow to fully implement those court rulings.

It all comes down to a unique testing of a constitutional system that has functioned for centuries under a certain amount of goodwill.

And while Trump was at the center of this initiative, one of his main agents of chaos was a man who was not born in the US, but who built a business empire there.

GOVERNMENT CUTS: Swinging a chainsaw, all in the black

Elon Musk, dressed head to toe in black and wearing sunglasses, stood center stage and enjoyed courting the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The richest man in the world, who wants to cut billions of dollars in federal government spending, said he has a special surprise in store.

Argentine President Javier Milley, known for cutting the budget in his country, then took the stage and handed him a shiny gold chainsaw.

"This is a chainsaw for bureaucracy," Musk exclaimed.

"CHAIN SAW!".

It was a dramatic illustration not only of Musk's enthusiasm for his assignment at the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), but also of the near-rock star status the South African-born tech entrepreneur has since acquired among Trump's followers.

Since that appearance, Musk has deployed operatives throughout the federal government, pushing for access to sensitive government databases and identifying programs that would be shut down.

While he has not come close to finding the trillions of dollars that were allegedly wasted as he once promised, his cuts have drastically reduced dozens of agencies and departments, effectively shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and attempting to eliminate the Department of Education.

While promises to eliminate "waste, malfeasance, and abuse" in government and cut the growing federal deficit usually have a certain appeal with the public, Musk's use of the metaphorical chainsaw has led to clashes with senior government officials and ignited anger among a section of the American public.

Some Trump supporters may approve of the administration's aggressive budget cuts, but other voters have lambasted Republican lawmakers at local town hall events.

Critics have expressed concerns that the cuts will negatively impact popular government programs such as the Social Security retirement plan, veterans' benefits and health insurance coverage for the poor and elderly.

Their concerns may not be entirely unfounded, given that these programs account for the vast majority of federal spending.

If these programs are not restored, the sweeping tax cuts that Trump has promised will further increase the size of the US government's debt and jeopardize perhaps his biggest campaign promise - economic prosperity.

ECONOMY: 'I had to think fast because billions were disappearing before my eyes'

When stock trader Richard McDonald saw Trump holding up charts in the White House Rose Garden, showing a list of countries hit by US tariffs, he knew he would have to act quickly.

"I jumped to my feet, because I wasn't expecting a chart board - I was expecting an announcement," he says.

McDonald had expected tariffs of 10 to 20 percent, but he says "nobody expected these huge numbers."

He rushed to figure out which companies might be hit hardest. And then he started selling.

"Billions were being wiped off stock prices every second, so the rule was 'the fastest finger wins'."

He is one of many traders who were at the forefront of global markets as stock prices plummeted everywhere after Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement.

The S&P 500 index of the largest companies in America was particularly hard hit, and although the White House has since changed its mind about some of the highest tariffs, they have not fully recovered since then.

Watch the video: How the richest man in the world became a Trump associate

The economy was the biggest concern for American voters in the November election, and Trump rode a wave of deep dissatisfaction with Biden's handling of inflation and rode it to victory.

His promise to lower prices, ease government regulations, and boost domestic industry was a proactive business message that was warmly welcomed on Wall Street and by many working Americans.

But as Trump tried to fulfill his promise of new tariffs, the economic cost of doing so, at least in the short term, became painfully obvious.

The stock market is sinking, interest rates, including for home mortgages, are soaring, and consumer confidence is declining.

Unemployment is also on the rise, partly due to the growing number of federal employees who have been forced out of their jobs.

The Federal Reserve, along with economic experts, warn that Trump's plan will reduce economic growth and likely lead to a recession.

Although the president's approval ratings for his handling of the economy have dropped, many of his supporters still support him.

And in former industrial areas devastated by manufacturing job losses, the government hopes tariffs could help them recover on the world stage.

"Trump has given us back our respect," says trucker Ben Maurer from Pennsylvania, speaking about the tariffs imposed on China.

"We are still a force to be reckoned with."

Economic concerns have contributed to Trump's overall decline in the polls, but there is one key area where he continues to hold up well in the public eye - immigration.

IMMIGRATION: Spotted in a photo - 'My son, in chains in prison'

"That's him! That's him! I recognize his face," says Mirelis Casic Lopez, pointing to a photo of people chained to the floor of one of the world's most notorious prisons.

She recognized her son in the photograph, taken from above, in a sea of shaved heads of men in white T-shirts sitting in long, orderly rows.

At home in Maracay, Venezuela, Ms. Casic was shown the photo by a BBC reporter, which had first been shared online by El Salvadoran authorities.

When she last contacted her son, he was in America and facing deportation to Venezuela, but now he was 2.300 kilometers away from her, one of 238 men sent by American authorities to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.

The Trump administration says they are gang members. Aragua Train, a powerful multinational criminal operation, but Kasik insists that her son is innocent.

A tough stance on immigration was a cornerstone of Trump's reelection campaign, and the president has used his broad powers to fulfill that promise.

Illegal border crossings began to decline toward the end of the Biden administration, but are now at their lowest monthly cumulative level in more than four years.

Most of the American public still supports tough immigration penalties, but this has frightened the international student community, which has found itself caught between two fires in this aggressive initiative.

Some, including permanent residents, have been detained and face deportation for their role in pro-Palestinian protests on campuses.

They rejected accusations that they support Hamas.

Civil rights lawyers warn that some migrants are being deported without due process, picking innocents among the "murderers and robbers" that Trump claims are taking the brunt of the blow.

While there has not yet been the level of mass deportations that some had hoped for and others feared, newly empowered immigration agents have begun taking action across America in businesses, homes and churches.

They were also active at universities, which have become a prominent target of President Trump in several other ways.

WAR AGAINST INSTITUTIONS: Confronting the academic, media and corporate worlds

Harvard University President Alan Garber decided on April 21 to enter into direct conflict with the White House.

In a letter to the university community, he announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration's move to freeze billions of dollars in federal grants.

It was, he said, an illegal attempt to "impose unassailable and improper control" over Harvard's operations.

The White House said it had to take the action because Harvard had done nothing about anti-Semitism on campus, a problem that Garber said the university was taking steps to address.

But the Ivy League college's move was the most prominent example of resistance to Trump's use of presidential authority to attack American higher education, a long-standing goal renewed by pro-Palestinian protests that swept campuses in 2024.

The president and his officials have, meanwhile, seized or threatened to block billions of dollars in federal funds to reshape elite institutions like Harvard, which the president and many of his supporters claim imposes a liberal ideology on students and researchers.

Earlier this month, Columbia University in New York City agreed to a number of demands from the White House, including changes to its protest policies, campus security practices and a department of Middle Eastern studies.

Similar dynamics took place in the corporate and media world.

Trump has used the postponement of federal contracts as a way to pressure law firms to recruit and represent more conservatives.

Some firms responded by offering the Trump administration millions of dollars in free legal services, while two firms filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the presidential administration's penalties.

A defamation lawsuit filed by Trump against ABC News led to the company making a $15 million contribution to the Trump Presidential Foundation.

CBS is also in talks to settle another lawsuit over an interview with Kamala Harris as its parent company Paramount seeks federal approval to acquire Skydance Media.

The Associated Press, on the other hand, has resisted pressure from the administration to accept Trump's name change to "American Gulf" despite White House efforts to prevent the news agency from reporting on the president.

During his campaign tour, Trump warned about the unfettered powers of the federal government.

Now that he is in power, he is using those same powers in a way that no modern president has ever attempted.

Nowhere, however, have the consequences of his efforts been more visible than within the federal government agencies and ministries that he now controls.

DIVERSITY PROJECTS: A step back on race and identity

The White House press conference began with a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the plane crash over the Potomac River.

Within seconds of the end of that pause, however, Trump went on the attack.

The Federal Aviation Administration's diversity and inclusion initiative is partly to blame for the tragedy, the president claimed, because it hires people with severe intellectual disabilities as air traffic controllers.

He provided no evidence for this.

It was a stunning moment illustrative of the attack his administration has launched against the inclusivity programs that have proliferated in recent history across the American government and corporate world.

Trump has ordered the federal government to end diversity and equity (DEI) programs and to investigate private companies and academic institutions believed to be engaging in "illegal DEI."

His directive accelerated moves among leading global companies such as Meta and Goldman to reduce or completely eliminate these programs.

First introduced in the 1960s in light of the victories of the civil rights movement, early forms of DEI were an attempt to increase opportunities for black Americans.

Later, they expanded to include women, LGBT rights, and other racial groups.

These attempts intensified, and were embraced by most of corporate America, after the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

But according to its critics, DEI placed politics and race above talent, creating division and is no longer needed in modern America.

Although Trump's directive appears to have the support of a narrow majority of voters, some of the unexpected consequences have people worried.

Arlington National Cemetery has removed all mention of the history of black men and women in military service from its website.

And the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, was initially marked for removal from Pentagon documents because it mentioned the word "gay."

Donald Trump's first hundred days represented an unprecedented demonstration of unilateral power, unlike any modern American president.

It will take future presidents, if they choose, years, if not decades, to undo his attempts to dismantle the federal government's vast contingents.

In some other cases, however, Trump's efforts so far could prove less lasting.

Without the support of new legislation passed by Congress, many of his broad reforms could easily be undone by a future president.

To what extent this turbulent beginning will lead to lasting change remains a big open question.

Later this year, the narrow Republican majority in Congress will attempt to secure legislative support for Trump's agenda, but their success is far from guaranteed.

And in next year's midterm congressional elections, those majorities could be replaced by hostile Democrats determined to investigate the administration and rein in its power.

Meanwhile, more court battles are brewing, and while the US Supreme Court leans conservative, its decisions so far in a number of key cases could ultimately be directed against Trump's efforts.

The first 100 days of Trump's second term were a dramatic display of political strength, but the next 1.361 will be the true indicator of whether he can leave behind a more lasting legacy.

Additional reporting by Mitch Labiak, Nicole Kolster, Gustavo Ochando Alex and Madeline Halpert.

Watch the video: What Trump plans to do in the Gaza Strip

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