Trump at 100: The Negative Reviews

Critics are calling these first 100 days the worst of any president
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2017 12:58 PM CDT
Trump at 100: The Negative Reviews
Critics are calling President Trump's first 100 days in office the worst of any president.   (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, file)

President Trump's first 100 days in office end Saturday, and while the 100-day mark is arbitrary, it's true that presidents are most influential early in their terms, writes David Leonhardt at the New York Times. So it may be of some concern to Trump and his supporters that, according to Leonhardt, his first 100 days have been "the worst on record." "Even if you forget about the content of his actions ... and focus only on how much he accomplished, it's a poor beginning. His supporters deserve to be disappointed, and his opponents should be cheered." Leonhardt points to failures in staffing, legislation, scandals, polling, and more, calling Trump "a weak president off to a uniquely poor start." Here are some more of the negative reviews of the president's first 100 days: (Or click here for a roundup of positive reviews.)

  • Daylin Leach at the Sun-Sentinel says we should count our blessings Trump has been as ineffective as he has because the small amount he has accomplished has "ranged from the very bad to the truly horrific."
  • The Washington Post says Trump's presidency has gone well for one group—late-night comedians—and rounds up some of the best jokes from the first 100 days, including this one from Stephen Colbert: "How could Trump blow the honeymoon? He’s had three of them."
  • While "the Trump administration has engaged in a stunning display of ham-fisted, tone-deaf, and downright incomprehensible policy maneuvers" so far, John Feffer at Foreign Policy in Focus says it could get much worse—think North Korea.
  • Philip Carter at Slate says Trump has spent his first 100 days making America less secure by lacking a clear foreign policy or a staff to implement that policy. "Until the situation improves, we will all be consigned to living in a state of national insecurity."
  • Even Trump's supporters should be upset with his early presidency—because it bears so much resemblance to the one that came before it, Yochi Dreazen at Vox says. "From North Korea to China to NATO, Trump has talked about jettisoning the Obama administration’s foreign policy and replacing it with something far more aggressive. ... He hasn’t done so."
  • Despite being a weak president, "Trump has managed to wreak considerable destruction on both the stature of the American presidency, its credibility and its influence, and the course of US policy at home and abroad," including his one major accomplishment: putting Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, the San Francisco Chronicle argues.
(More Donald Trump stories.)

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