There is much discussion of Trump’s first 100 days in office

May 6, 2025

There’s lots of talk about all the things President Donald Trump has and hasn’t done in his first 100 days in office. As expected, his supporters are satisfied with some things, and his critics are shouting about him not completing his rather long and strenuous list of hopes and dreams.

A lot of people are upset over Trump’s heavy focus of tariffs. In case you are not aware of the current tariff situation, here’s a look at what other countries are doing to the United States with tariffs on our goods, taken from the chart that Trump was seen holding in the Oval Office recently.

China - 67%; European Union - 39%; Taiwan - 64%; Japan - 46%; India - 52%; South Korea - 50%; Switzerland - 61%.

The highest two are Vietnam at 90%, and Cambodia at 97%. And there are a few at reasonable levels, such as the United Kingdom, Singapore and Brazil, all at just 10%.

On the other side of this situation is that the highest the U.S. charges is less than 50%, with the highest two at 49% for Cambodia and 46% for Vietnam. Everyone else is below 40%. That doesn’t include the current fight with China that might be higher if things don’t even out through negotiations.

Trump wants low tariffs, or no tariffs, so that trade with other nations is fair for all parties, in terms of cost of goods.

This process will take time — more than the 100 days Trump has been working on it. And, yes, there will be some discomfort.

Richard Porter, writing in Newsmax magazine, describes it this way: “Trump’s tariff policy is pragmatic and populist while theoretically inconsistent. It’s of a piece with his broader attempt to rebalance the terms under which the United States deals with other nations, moving away from the post-war, subsidy-for-friends model toward an everyone-pulls-their-own-weight model — a model in which alliances are premised on shared interests instead of subsidies.”

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing he has accomplished in his early days is to address the influx of some 12 million illegals who casually walked in during the Biden administration, and who it dispersed all across the country, criminals and all.

This critical need did not require Congressional action to reform the immigration policy of the country, as former President Joe Biden and his partners in this travesty kept telling us. All it took was someone willing to fix it.

As of now, daily border encounters are down by 93%; encounters with gotaways – the top threat to public safety – are down by 95%; and migrant crossings are down by 99.99%.

In March of this year, we had less than 7,200 border encounters, the lowest monthly number in recorded history.

The energy picture is also improving, and we are moving to recover the conditions achieved during Trump’s first term. He is moving us away from ideas that sound good, but are not good, such as the New Green Deal, and an electric vehicle mandate. 

We are returning to using clean coal for energy production, which is good for the Appalachian coal field communities, and drilling in new oil fields; working to ship natural gas to Europe, which badly needs it, and continuing fracking.

Because of the increased production of energy, the price of oil, which at one point under Biden was $120 a barrel, is now down close to $60 a barrel. Trump is no longer draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and will likely begin to refill it.

He has also begun doing away with the foolish policy of diversity, equity and inclusion, which put factors other than the abilities of people in their selection for important things.

While many/most prices are still too high, inflation has subsided. “This is truly remarkable,” economist E.J. Antoni, Ph.D., said. “Average annual inflation rate from ‘09 until ‘21 was 1.8%, then Biden drove it up to 8.6% for a year and a half, then it rose steadily at 3.1% for the rest of his term; but now Trump is averaging a mere 1.0% - remarkable!”

Trump is not perfect, not by a long shot. But neither was Biden or Obama, or any other president.

But his ideas are far more “American” than those of either Biden or Obama, or millions of other people who think that what is happening to Abrego Garcia is really important. Then there are the ones who idolize Luigi Mangione, the accused murderer of Brian Thompson, who was gunned down in cold blood as he walked down a street in midtown Manhattan.

Thompson was allegedly killed just because he held the position of CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a health insurance company. And Mangione is being celebrated as "so handsome!!!" and "guilty for being hot." He is even being celebrated with a new musical in his honor, as he and others believe Thompson’s murder was justified because of problems with the health insurance industry.

Much of the opposition to Trump is because some just don’t like him. But mostly it is because what he wants to do to help the country and its citizens are things that work directly against the twisted goals of Democrats, progressives and socialists.

Once upon a time, U.S. border security was an important concern!

The disgraceful chaos at the southern border is a topic of great concern to sensible Americans. It is a given that nations need secure and impenetrable borders, and levelheaded people understand that. And sometimes border policies and practices need reworking, such as after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Unbelievable as it may seem to us today, it was only 15 years ago — with the 9/11 terrorist attacks still fresh in our minds — when Congress came together in a bipartisan effort to pass the Secure Fence Act of 2006.” That comment came from Mark Morgan, in a speech delivered this past July at Hillsdale College. 

Morgan served as acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Trump administration, and as chief of U.S. Border Patrol in the Obama administration, and provided details on this action. “The Secure Fence Act directed the Department of Homeland Security to take appropriate actions to achieve ‘operational control’ over U.S. land and maritime borders to ‘prevent unlawful entry.’” The measure had the support of 80 of the 100 U.S. Senators.

“It defined operational control as the prevention of all unlawful entries into the U.S., including terrorists, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband,” he continued. “And it specifically set the goal of providing ‘at least two layers of reinforced fencing, installation of additional physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors.’ It added thousands of Border Patrol personnel, mandated the acquisition of new technologies, and resulted in the construction of more than 650 miles of physical barrier along the southern border of the U.S. between 2006 and 2011.”

With those actions, the southern border became even more secure than it had been, sparked by concerns of additional terrorist efforts to kill Americans. And Morgan noted that there was substantial support for this action in the Congress before and after those actions were taken. 

In 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama said: “We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.” 

And Senator Chuck Schumer said in 2009: “Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple … People who enter the United States without permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who enter the U.S. legally.”

And then there was this comment: “Let me tell you something, folks, people are driving across that border with tons, tons — hear me, tons — of everything from byproducts from methamphetamine to cocaine to heroin, and it’s all coming up through corrupt Mexico.” That comment was voiced by then-Senator, and current President, Joe Biden, in 2006.

But since that time, something has happened. Congressional Democrats seemingly no longer care about security at the southern border. “Some attribute the breakdown of the bipartisan consensus on securing the border to the fact that Democrats came to look on illegal immigrants as much-needed Democrat voters,” Morgan said. “For whatever reason, a decade later these same Democratic leaders were lambasting President Trump’s border wall policy as ‘immoral and ineffective,’ even ‘racist,’ and fiercely opposing any and every serious proposal aimed at enforcing immigration law.”

“One of the most ridiculous criticisms I’ve heard.” Morgan noted, “is that the wall is ‘a fourteenth century solution for a twenty-first century problem.’ The same could be said of the wheel, which also still works pretty well.” 

In the minds of at least some of today’s Congressional Democrats, the tighter and more successful border security methods of the recent past are immoral and ineffective, and trying to prevent drug dealers, child traffickers, and terrorists from entering the country is racist. Brilliant!

One of the most effective and sensible programs dealing with illegal aliens crossing the border was called the Remain in Mexico Program. It required people illegally entering or being smuggled into the country with a minor to be returned to Mexico as opposed to being released into the U.S. with only a date for a hearing that most ignore.

Joe Biden, almost as soon as he drew a breath after being sworn in, canceled the Remain in Mexico Program, replacing it with the senseless “catch and release” method that existed prior to the Trump administration’s successful alternative.

Now, however, according to Morgan, “In response to a lawsuit brought by the Texas Attorney General, a federal judge has recently ruled that the Remain in Mexico Program must be reinstated, and the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to overturn that ruling.”

This may be the best thing to occur in the Biden administration’s brief but catastrophic tenure, and Biden had nothing to do with it, other than to have cancelled it early on, and opposed its reinstatement.

It is projected that 1.7 million illegal aliens will enter the U.S. in 2021. Border Patrol documents show that more than160,000 illegal aliens have been released into the U.S. since March, often with little to no supervision.

These illegal aliens have not been vaccinated, and they have not been vetted. What could possibly go wrong? 

Need we even ask that question?