Donald Trump’s first 100 days have been the most chaotic and consequential in modern political memory. He has wielded the presidency like a king, seeking to bend America (and, far less successfully, the world) to his will. The result has been about what you’d expect from the first convicted felon and twice-impeached insurrectionist to return to the White House: a reckless campaign of overreach and lawlessness that has strained the federal judiciary, the Constitution, and American democracy itself.
Trump has emerged with few legislative accomplishments — the fewest in a president’s first 100 days, in fact, since the 1950s. They include a short-term spending bill and a law named for murder victim Laken Riley that strips immigrants of due-process rights — both enabled by Democrats. But as he’s taken a hatchet to the government, empowering Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s largest political benefactor, to decimate the federal bureaucracy, eliminating entire agencies, slashing and demoralizing others, while hoovering up Americans’ personal data for as yet unclear (but surely not benign) purposes.
Trump’s 100 days are consequential, but not politically successful. At the 100 day mark he’s the least popular president in some 80 years. His chaotic and nasty style of governance has sent his approvals into the toilet. He now finds himself under water even on his signature issue immigration. Trump has spent the days leading up to the milestone melting down over his polling.
It hasn’t been all bad, though. He did move to get rid of the penny.
Below we survey 100 of the most terrifying, corrupt, and otherwise absurd actions that Trump and his administration have taken since he was inaugurated on Jan. 20.
- Stages billionaire’s row at his inauguration — placing tech CEOs Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and other high-dollar donors in front of some of his Cabinet nominees.
- Demands an apology from the “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” bishop who implored him to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now” during a sermon at the National Cathedral.
- Attempts to repeal birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the Constitution, by executive order. The move inspires a wave of lawsuits and is blocked by several federal judges. The Supreme Court is set to take up the issue in May.
- Deports hundreds of immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador without due process, citing the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law infamously used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The move was made in defiance of a judge’s order.
- Calls for a judge’s impeachment in response to a judge’s order barring his deportations — earning a reprimand from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts: “Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
- Admits it wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland man without a criminal record — due to what it described as an “administrative error.” The Supreme Court unanimously orders the administration to “facilitate” his return. It is so far refusing to do so, claiming the high court didn’t say what it said.
- Mentions repeatedly how much he would “love” to illegally send American citizens to prison in El Salvador, even suggesting directly to the nation’s president, Nayib Bukele, that he’d like to rendition “homegrown” criminals during an Oval Office meeting.
- Deports U.S. citizen children. Those removed, along with undocumented parents, include a two-year-old, a four-year-old with metastatic cancer, and a 10-year-old with brain cancer who was stopped on the way to an emergency medical treatment.
- Says about the quest for mass deportations: “We cannot give everyone a trial.”
- Renames the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” (Also revives “Mount McKinley” as the name for the great Alaskan mountain, Denali.)
- Ousts the Associated Press from White House briefings over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” (The move is later ruled unconstitutional.) The White House subsequently takes control of which reporters get access to press briefings, while the Justice Department revokes Biden-era protections for reporters.
- Spends Presidents’ Day weekend asserting he is allowed to break any law he wants. “He who saves his Country does not violate any law,” Trump made sure to post to both Truth Social and X, driving home the point.
- Says he wouldn’t “100 percent” agree that the U.S. should be governed by laws, not men.
- Pardons his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including those who assaulted cops. Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers honcho sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy, and Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years, were also let off the hook.
- Ed Martin, Trump’s loyalist prosecutor in D.C., fires the Justice Department lawyers who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
- Issues an executive order expanding police state to “unleash high-impact local police forces,” equipped with spare weapons from the military, and guaranteed legal representation if they abuse the citizenry.
- Drops federal corruption charges against Eric Adams, while attempting to hold the New York City mayor by the short hairs as “an ever present partner,” under threat of future prosecution.
- Burns through four IRS interim commissioners as the administration seeks to gain control over personal taxpayer records to aid its deportation efforts and threatens to revoke tax exempt status of nonprofits Trump opposes.
- Thumbs his nose at constitutional term limits by repeatedly discussing a potential 2028 presidential run, as his family business even starts selling “Trump 2028” merch.
- Blocks the State Department from issuing passports marked with X to Americans who don’t fall on the gender binary.
- Attempts to ban trans soldiers from the military, implying they are dishonorable. A judge later blocks the order, writing that it was “soaked in animus.”
- Arrests a sitting judge in Wisconsin, allegedly for helping a migrant avoid being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
- Captures and seeks deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who condemned Israel’s violence toward Gaza at student protests, on the pretext that his presence in the U.S. is harming American foreign policy objectives. (Khalil missed the birth of his child while in custody.)
- Threatens to arrest and imprison pro-Gaza participants of “illegal protests” at American universities, First Amendment be damned.
- Detains Rumeysa Ozturk, a student visa holder from Turkey studying at Tufts University, without charge, over her publication of a pro-Palestine op-ed.
- Shares an AI video on Truth Social imagining Gaza as a glitzy beach paradise with a lavish “Trump Gaza” hotel. (Trump previously pledged a U.S. takeover of Gaza, insisting: “We will own it.”)
- Imposes sweeping tariffs on America’s trading partners, dubbing the move “Liberation Day,” and insisting America “IS HEALING” as the markets crash before hitting the golf course.
- Trump’s nonsensical tariff plan calls for import levies on the Heard and McDonald Islands, an uninhabited Australian territory that’s home to penguins, but none for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
- Promotes a video on Truth Social about how he is “purposely crashing the stock market.”
- Tells Americans that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” hours before scaling back his tariffs, leading to accusations of market manipulation.
- Jacks up the tariff on Chinese goods to well over 100 percent, exacerbating a trade war that appears to have no end.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posts sensitive military attack plans in an unsecured Signal group chat that accidentally included a journalist.
- Hegseth messages the same attack plans to another unsecured Signal chat that included his wife.
- Fires multiple national security officials a day after right-wing extremist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer recommends their ouster in a meeting at the White House.
- Sides with Putin by calling Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky a “dictator” as he continues to fight Russia’s invasion.
- Berates Zelensky in the Oval Office, turning a meeting that was supposed to be about an economic agreement to help end the war into an intercontinental embarrassment (to the Kremlin’s delight).
- The Justice Department shuts down an anti-corruption task force that went after Russian oligarchs, including by seizing assets of those violating sanctions.
- Sells a “gold card” allowing a pathway to citizenship for just about anyone who can afford the $5 million price tag, including Russian oligarchs.
- Threatens to take Greenland with military force.
- Repeatedly pressures Canada to submit to becoming America’s “51st state,” subjecting the close ally to stiff tariffs and incessant bullying.
- Skips honoring the return of four American soldiers killed in a training exercise in Lithuania to attend a golf tournament at his Doral resort in Florida.
- Issues executive orders cracking down on some of the nation’s biggest law firms, as retaliation for representing his political enemies. He has since mocked how some of these firms have bowed to his demands in order to skirt retribution.
- Wages a pressure campaign against higher-learning institutions, threatening to withhold funding unless they satisfy the administration’s demands. Some, like Columbia University, cave, while others, like Harvard, fight back.
- Signs an executive order to “eliminate” the Department of Education.
- Opens a snitch line for parents to rat out pro-diversity efforts in public education. The federal initiative is introduced in coordination with the extremist group Moms for Liberty.
- Says he might get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and later denies loyalist Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ request for disaster relief as the state struggles to recover from a series of tornadoes.
- Uselessly drains billions of gallons from California reservoirs in the Central Valley for a photo op, while lying that the water will help put out (already fully contained) Los Angeles wildfires.
- Suggests withholding federal wildfire aid from California unless the state satisfies a series of demands.
- Issues executive orders directing the Justice Department to investigate former Trump officials Miles Taylor for writing anonymously about his first administration, and Chris Krebs, a former Homeland Security official, for telling the truth about the 2020 election.
- Ends Secret Service security detail for loyalists-turned-critics — including former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — who face foreign death threats over their involvement in Trump’s assasination of a top Iranian general.
- Purges top staff of the National Archives in apparent payback for its connection to the criminal charges brought against Trump for absconding to Mar-a-Lago with boxes of classified presidential records.
- Instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate ActBlue, the fundraising portal widely used by Democratic political campaigns. (WinRed, the GOP equivalent, is the subject of multiple consumer complaints and state-level investigations.)
- Shutters the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
- Allows Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to gleefully fire tens of thousands of federal workers without any basis.
- Empowers DOGE to mine sensitive data the government holds on American citizens, from the Social Security Administration to the IRS, raising alarms about privacy and federal surveillance.
- Repeatedly attempts to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
- Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance team up to rehire a staffer who once wrote, “I was racist before it was cool.” The staffer is part of a stable of problematic, inexperienced Musk acolytes aiding DOGE in the reckless teardown of federal agencies.
- Pulls the plug on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), leaving aid workers and recipients in the lurch. The cuts are threatening tens of millions of lives.
- Slashes jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, while laying out plans to cut 80,000 more from the already short-staffed agency responsible for veteran health care and other services.
- Fires over a dozen inspectors general, who offer oversight of executive agencies and actually prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.
- Musk admits DOGE “accidentally canceled” Ebola prevention, before supposedly reinstating it.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, fires thousands from the Centers for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, FDA, and other agencies responsible for the nation’s health and scientific research. The “bloodbath” pushes scientists to consider leaving America.
- RFK Jr. downplays the severity of a measles outbreak in Texas that led to the first death from the disease in a decade. “It’s not unusual to have measles outbreaks every year,” he insisted during a Cabinet meeting.
- RFK Jr. says he wants a “registry” of Americans living with autism. The administration said it’s ”not creating“ the database after intense backlash, but RFK Jr. still seems to be planning to determine what causes autism “by September.”
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) slashes $1 billion that helped food banks and schools buy products from local farmers.
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspends milk inspections amid DOGE cuts, while the USDA pulls the plug on a program to monitor the nation’s raw chicken supply for salmonella.
- Announces a private dinner and White House tour for the largest investors in Trump’s personal cryptocurrency meme coin, which he launched just days before his inauguration.
- Pardons loyalist in Nevada who fraudulently used funds meant to honor a fallen police officer for plastic surgery.
- Turns the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom in order to pump up the stock price of Musk’s flagship company. Alleges that a boycott of Tesla is somehow “illegal,” while the Justice Department describes Tesla vandalism as “domestic terrorism.”
- Musk and DOGE slash the Federal Aviation Administration workforce. The cuts include air traffic control support staff.
- Baselessly blames a deadly mid-air collision of a military helicopter and a passenger jet on DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
- Orders a sweeping freeze of trillions in federal grants and spending, affecting programs including Meals on Wheels and Medicaid. Mostly rescinds it after getting smacked down in court — but keeps it in place for green energy projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.
- Pulls the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, placing America alongside pariah nations Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only countries refusing to commit to coordinated reductions of greenhouse gases.
- Places 31 core environmental regulations on the chopping block — including the “endangerment finding” that made carbon pollution subject to the Clean Air Act. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin brags of “driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”
- Dismisses the authors working on the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated overview of the impact of global warming on the United States.
- Fires hundreds of staffers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency responsible for weather monitoring.
- Guts the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the nation’s bedrock public health and environmental protection laws that the fossil fuel industry had been targeting for decades.
- Stages a MAGA takeover of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, declaring himself chairman of the venerated institution.
- The White House X account becomes dark and trollish, posting an “ASMR” video of deportees being shackled before a flight, as well as other memes mocking migrants.
- Instructs the Department of Homeland Security to produce ads thanking him for closing the border. The DHS budgets up to $200 million for the campaign, exempting the money from DOGE review.
- DHS Secretary Kristi Noem poses for a ghoulish photo op inside of El Salvador’s infamous mega-prison, standing in front of a prison cell full of shirtless inmates with shaved heads.
- Rescinds Biden-era executive orders that would have dramatically lowered prescription drug prices.
- Backs legislation to abolish limits on bank overdraft fees, scrapping reforms that imposed a $5 cap.
- Issues an executive order banning collective bargaining at many federal agencies, insisting that union rights are a threat to national security.
- The Pentagon’s anti-diversity purge leads the Naval Academy to remove Maya Angelou from its library, while retaining Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
- The Pentagon briefly blocks web pages and training materials dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo codebreakers, Jackie Robinson, and Women Airforce Service Pilots (a.k.a. WASPs). It even flags the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atom bomb on Japan, as woke.
- Fires senior women military leaders from their posts at the Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force, as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a Black man.
- Orders a crackdown on supposed “anti-American ideology” at the Smithsonian Institution, in particular at the National Museum of African American History and the Women’s History Museum.
- Rescinds a bedrock Civil Rights-era order from Lyndon B. Johnson barring discrimination among federal contractors. Trump later issues an executive order, dubbed “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” calling for the rescission of Civil Rights Act regulations.
- Spars with Maine’s governor at the White House over the state refusing to comply with an order barring trans athletes from participating in women’s sports. The Department of Education announces an investigation into Maine’s DOE later the same day.
- Tries to erase LGBTQ history by removing “T” and “Q” from the website for the Stonewall Inn National Monument, the site that birthed the modern LGBTQ movement, dismissing the leadership of trans icons like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
- Cuts thousands of jobs at the Forest Service and National Park Service, throwing the parks into chaos while elevating the risk for wildfires.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy orders federal funding be prioritized to serve communities with high marriage and birth rates.
- Reclassifies millions of undocumented immigrants with Social Security numbers as dead, seeking to “terminate” their legal and financial lives.
- Issues an executive order demanding a registry of sanctuary cities and states, which would be targeted for the “suspension or termination” of federal funding.
- Yanks ReproductiveRights.gov off the internet, while removing every mention of “abortion” from the Department of Health and Human Services website.
- Pardons 23 anti-abortion activists convicted of crimes breaking into reproductive health centers, stealing fetal tissue, and accosting pregnant patients outside.
- Amid dismal polling preceding his 100th day in office, Trump calls pollsters “criminals” who should be “investigated.”
From Rolling Stone US
