The first hundred days of a presidency have historically marked the point at which it is reasonable to assess a new administration. But over this brief period, Donald Trump has signed 139 executive orders, just twenty-three less than Joe Biden did over four years. The dizzying pace of his political actions, which have targeted every branch of government from education to defense, is without precedent in the lifetimes of most Americans. It is difficult to imagine how the American state, let alone the international order, will look after four years of Trump’s authoritarian use of executive power.
We asked friends and contributors to take stock of Trump’s presidency at this very early stage. Focusing on economics, foreign policy, labor, and party politics, these reflections each take the temperature of Trump’s second term in office and ask whether the MAGA movement is gaining momentum or crashing into a series of roadblocks.
In both his first and second terms, Donald Trump was swept into office partially on the back of an antiwar critique. In his first term, Americans were sick of a global “war on terror” that George W. Bush had initiated, and which Barack Obama had institutionalized; in his second term, Americans were tired of sending weapons and money to foreign countries instead of spending more on problems at home. Yet during both of his terms, Trump, predictably, has proven unwilling to actually attack the sinews of empire themselves. Indeed, in early April, Trump announced that his administration would request a defense budget of $1…
Auteur: Editors
