What Have We Learned in The First One Hundred Days?
What Have We
Learned in The First Hundred Days?
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Much ado has been
made of the first one hundred days of Donald Trump’s second term. What exactly have
we learned, if anything, and what can we extrapolate from these first few
months of the Trump administration?
First, we see
Trump is much more active writing Executive Orders, governing by executive fiat
rather than going through Congress and the legislative process than he was
during his first administration. His bombast; his trademark narcissism and hyperbole
are still on full display for all the world to see. Trump to his credit, has
kept his word regarding securing the US border, his passionate crusade against undocumented
immigrants has not slackened.
Trump promised to
end the war in Eastern Europe and bring about a peaceful resolution between
Russia and Ukraine. Thus far this has not happened. Both parties are agreeing
to have negotiations but it was Putin who asked Turkey ’s President Erdogan to
host Ukraine and Russian representatives in Istanbul for peace talks. Meanwhile
Trump takes credit for pressing Ukraine and Russia to actually sit down and
hold serious talks.
Unfortunately, it appears Germany, France and the UK want hostilities
to continue as they continuously demonize Putin and Russia despite the fact
Zelensky has broken ceasefires set up by Russia. Trump recently signed an
agreement with Ukraine to access Ukrainian rare earth minerals and he has
resumed sending weapons to Ukraine which seems counterproductive to peace!
Regarding the
genocide in Gaza, Trump claimed he would resolve this situation as soon as he
was inaugurated. That has not happened. In fact it appears Trump has signed off
on the ethnic cleansing by saying the US would step in, develop the region and
turn it into a Riviera like environment on the Mediterranean. Yes, he actually
said that with a straight face. His administrations is also persecuting
anti-genocide foreign students and defunding US universities who allow protests
against Israeli massacre in Gaza!
Israel agreed to a ceasefire
but it was soon broken yet Trump said nor did anything to Netanyahu. The US is
still supplying Israel with arms and money to continue starving and bombing innocent
men women and children, in the name of “defense”. Is it defense to bomb
hospitals, water treatment facilities or prevent food and humanitarian aid from
entering Gaza? These are war crimes by even the most vague and lenient
definitions of the term.
During the
presidential campaign Trump said he was for peace that he wanted to stop the
wars, however; he has been bellicose and threatening towards both the Houthis
and Iran. Trump increased the bombing of the Houthis who support the
Palestinians by targeting cargo ships in the Red Sea flying the Israeli flag or
are bound for Israel. In retaliation the Houthis have fired on Israel and
several US jets. Are the open support of genocide and threatening nations the
actions of a man who supposedly want peace?
Trump evidently
didn’t learn any lessons from his first term when he started trade wars with
Canada. Mexico, the EU and China which blew up in his face. This time he has
doubled down and instituted tariffs without input from Congress; universal
tariffs not just on China but numerous nations! When the immediate blowback was
felt in the stock market and financial circles to the loss of trillions of
dollars, Trump backed off. He put a hold on some of the tariffs but he
subsequently doubled down instituting tripled digit tariffs on China and double
digit tariffs on a host of other nations.
Trump says his actions are bringing world leaders to the
negotiating table looking for deals. What he is really doing is sowing seeds of
uncertainty, angst and bewilderment among rivals and allies alike. Trump now
has been forced to backtrack and delay imposing the tariffs for three months
while he negotiates “deals” with world leaders. But his action aresn’t in a vacuum,
there are consequences and repercussions.
Instead of making
him look strong, his actions are making him look wishy-washy and inept. What we
are seeing are slowdowns in shipping, fewer cargo ships and containers coming
from China which will impact the inventories and bottom line of US businesses
for weeks and months to come.
The US has a huge trade imbalance with China. Americans are
addicted to cheap Chinese goods and labor, while China has no similar “Jones”
for American made products. Plus, the Chinese leadership has demonstrated they
can go elsewhere for the foodstuffs and goods they need. China did it during Trump’s
first term, they learned a pivotal lesson and they will do it again this time!
On the domestic
front we have seen Trump use lawfare to go after those who tormented him just like
they did to him. He is using imperial fiat to get things done. DOGE is not a
department created by Congress and has no authority to do anything other than make
recommendations. Yet Elon Musk, the chair is firing people and shutting down
whole governmental agencies! It remains to be seen how this will play out in
the long term in the courts.
The supreme irony is, thus far DOGE has used extremely selective
auditing. For example, DOGE has not investigated the humungous waste, fraud
and abuse of the Trump era stimulus money, the Biden COVID supplemental fund
programs or Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest as a government contractor! These
are just a few examples!
We are witnessing
billionaires who gave Trump huge campaign contributions holding sway over his polices.
Yet somehow the media, Trump’s MAGA groupies and acolytes don’t seem to mind
whatsoever. They continuously go for his bombast and okey-doke. I could mention
the blunders and infighting among his cabinet members and his fights with the lower
judiciary; but hey, we’re just in the first four months of his new administration.
I’m sure we’ll see more in the days and
months ahead.
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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 7:17 PM
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