The first 100 days of the second Trump administration was promised to be a flood the zone approach to bring upon the “Golden Age” and “Make America Great Again.”

What followed his inauguration was a barrage of executive orders, tariffs, 180 degree reversals of foreign policies and government employee layoffs and department changes as a result of DOGE recommendations.

Elon Musk has been Trump’s unelected sidekick in the bureaucracy cuts, some of which were admitted by Musk to be “mistakes” which have been corrected. He cited bird flu and ebola prevention efforts as examples of programs that were temporarily cut.

Federal employees have been let go and then re-hired.

Some highlights of half of the first 100 days:

• As of this writing, 81 Executive Orders have been signed; this is half of the total number of orders signed by Joe Biden – 162 – in his entire term.
• Trump has followed through on some of his promises, such as enforcing immigration policies and deporting criminal illegal immigrants.
• The stock market has been volatile on fears of how tariffs will impact the economy
• Not unexpected in a short time, the promised short term improvement on prices of common goods like groceries has not decreased. That particular promise was probably a bit aggressive. Aside from egg prices related to bird flu (no, it’s not Biden or Trump’s fault egg prices are higher), prices remain steady. Economic changes for better or worse take time.
• DOGE has recommended shutdown and defunded multiple government departments, such as USAID. There has been global impact felt by this.
• Around 16,000 federal employees have been laid off and another 75,000 have taken a buyout offer
• Foreign relations changes include withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and WHO, and tumultuous relations with Ukraine, Canada, China and Mexico.

For a comprehensive view of the Trump first 100 days so far, check out this article by PBS.