'100 Days of Destruction': Top Historian on Trump's Presidency So Far
Princeton's Julian Zelizer on how past US presidents used their first 100 days to build, while Trump has used his to dismantle, intimidate, and destroy.
In his inaugural address in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to calm a nation reeling from the Great Depression. “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance,” he said. From the outset, FDR defined his role as the nation’s commander-in-chief: a force to steady the nation’s nerves and provide stability in uncertain times.
President Donald Trump has done the opposite. In the first 100 days of his second term, Trump has become the source of chaos after taking office at a moment of relative stability, especially compared to four years earlier, when the country was still recovering from the pandemic.
Many Americans who once assumed democracy was resilient now realize how easily it can be undermined by a president willing to trample norms and fundamental legal principles.
This is not normal.
Where past presidents have used their first 100 days to build, Trump has used them almost entirely to dismantle, intimidate, and destroy. This will be the legacy of his second-term opening – and it could well have more lasting consequences than even the most productive legislative 100 days in American history.