A liberal friend, an anti-Trumper is telling me what chaos the first 100 days are.
I say I don't agree. So, they say, what's he done that's good?
I start to answer, but am interrupted every minute. The animus, the hate, is strong.
So, I'll say it here. With my score in [square brackets].
A summary of the summary is that Trump has moved at lightening speed with his program, that he set out in his campaign, that he's moved at historically rapid speed, but that the pushback has also been at historic levels, and with historic levels of Lawfare.
TRUMP Administration [a solid B]
Controlling the Southern Border. [A+]
From 10,000 a day illegally coming through the border illegally under Biden-Harris, from all over the world, not just Mexico, because they'd heard "Biden has opened the border". And in they came, unvetted, unchecked. Trump measures brought that down to low single figures. 98.4% drop. That's a huge achievement, to his campaign promises. To an issue the public cared about by 80% to 20%.
It also gave immediate lie to the Kamala Harris line that "we can't do anything about the border, because it needs legislation and Trump doesn't support legislation". No, and no. Trump did it by Executive Order.
Deporting illegal immigrants [B]
Trump and his Border Czar Tom Homan have pushed hard on this. Main issue? Pushback from Dems and Dem-appointed courts, with unprecedented numbers of injunctions. Seems to be "Lawfare 2.0".
Tariffs [Too early to tell]
"Tariffs be bad" say the People Who Know. Including me, with my Bachelor of Economics. The other side says "If tariffs are so bad, why do all the countries we're tariffing using them so widely?".
It's shock tactics. To push for a reordering of global norms. Had the approach have been the traditional one, of "consultations" and "meetings", we know nothing would have happened.
Still, too early, as I said here. Give it some time. Like three months or more.
Economy [Too early to tell]
Same as with tariffs. Though worth noting: Stock market, which took a hit, is back to same level of September. No longer a "chaotic rout", iow.
DOGE [B]
DOGE is all about getting rid of government waste, fraud and abuse. To reduce the budget deficit and the scary level of debt.
Government waste, fraud and abuse is rampant. But has HUGGGGGe push back by the system and people on the streets, who kind of positioned themselves as for all the corruption. Shocking that the pushback includes violence against the head of DOGE, Elon Musk and his Tesla, by vandalism of Teslas, charging stations and showrooms. Not a one of the Dem leaders came out against this.
DEI [A]
Getting rid of DEI is all about getting rid of racism. Which is what it is, no matter what the Left says.
Trump gets an"A" for the effort. But a "B" only because pushback is defanging the move, a bit unfair, perhapsDeleted this for government and universities. A policy that is clearly racist by preferring certain races over others in employment and entry to school.
Good and very popular moves to say that there are just two sexes, Male and Female, and that no males -- who believe they are women -- are allowed to participate in female sports. This is popular with 80% of the voters.
Gaza [A]
Strong, unequivocal support for Israel to pursue the genocidal, jew-hating terrorist outfit of Hamas and Hezbollah. Replaces the dilatory, fickle support from the Biden government.
I'm on-board for that. And not at all for the pro-Hamas, "Free Palestine", "from the River to the Sea" crowd.
Russia-Ukraine [D]
A failure to get movement on this big promise of "I'll fix this in one day".
At the very least the administration has brought the focus to: "if not peace, then what's the plan?". To which silence has been the stern response.
Europe [B]
Unelected leader of the EU, Ursula von der Leyen has been hurt by Trump's hurty words. And threatened to go with Norway, Vietnam, Iceland (!), instead of the one country that has saved Europe in two world wars and established the post-war infrastructure for global prosperity.
Veep JD Vance was right to criticise Europe for abandoning some cherished values of the west, in is speech at Munich. Even if European bureaucrats had hissy fits.
Australia [D]
A "D" because there's nothing much "wrong" that Australia's done to the U.S.. While we've supported the U.S. in every war. Should have been more careful.
If it does turn out that the Labor Party wins on this coming Saturday, a big factor would have been Trump. Malpractice by him, that makes no sense.
Canada [D]
No need to be quite so trolling about the cold state to the north. They are very hurty about hurty words after all. For conservatives, this was Trump doing electoral malpractice. Or political malpractice. Why did he do it? We'll likely never know.
If Trump hadn't happened, it would have been a major Conservative win. By 20+ points. But, you know, crazy took over. Shame.
Greenland [B]
Before Trump, who thought about Greenland? Apart from me, who went there on a ski trip across the Island. But just look at it. Clear that it's a security issue, which China all sniffing all around the arctic. By pushing Greenland to front of mind, he's got Greenland protector Denmark to spend nearly $ 2 billion more on defence and to allow the United States a greater presence.
Panama [B+]
Pushing China out of the canal -- which was built and funded by the U.S. - - is right. That's movement.
DEMOCRATS [an "E" not for "effort"but for blind "resistance"]
Violence. Injunctions. "Resistance“ (a war term). "Hands Off". Lawfare 2.0. Sitting on the steps of Congress (Jeffries, Booker, today). Pointless 25-hour filibusters (Booker last week).
All the Dems have done is to be reflexive. If Trump says it, they say the opposite. If Trump wants it, they don't. It's got to a crazy level where if the Trump administration wants to move on violent gangs, the Dems now love violent gangs.
The saying goes now, "The Dems are on the wrong side of every 80/20 issue". If 80% of the country support something -- like no males in female sports --the Dems are all in to take the 20% side.
That's where they are as I write this. With much angst and upset even within the Democratic Party about this. Not yet resolved.