100 Days of Trump: Promises Broken, Institutions Destroyed

t-online 100 Days of Trump: Promises Broken, Institutions Destroyed Bastian Brauns • 2 hours • 6 minutes reading time America in Crisis 100 Days of Power Shift – How Trump Restructured the USA US President Donald Trump in Washington: 100 Days of State Restructuring. The first 100 days of Trump's rule are louder, faster, more authoritarian – and more dangerous than ever. While his administration systematically restructures democratic institutions, key campaign promises are falling by the wayside. Bastian Brauns reports from Washington When Donald Trump took the oath of office for the second time on January 20, 2025, he promised a "national renewal." He announced he would curb immigration, deport millions of illegal immigrants, stop inflation, end foreign wars, and ultimately unleash an economic power the world has never seen before. In short: the "dawn of a golden age." Trump assured his voters that he had learned from the chaos of his first term. "This time," he said at his inauguration, "everything will be different." What followed in the first 100 days of his second presidency was, above all, incredibly loud and swift: a profound realignment of political thought and action in the USA. With each passing day, the US President gradually shifted the norms, values, and priorities within the state apparatus. The USA has become a different country after 100 days of Trump. Trump has carried out one of the most radical and coordinated upheavals in American governance in recent history. Supported by the detailed plans of the so-called Project 2025, a comprehensive blueprint drawn up before the election by the Heritage Foundation and a network of right-wing think tanks, the Trump administration has systematically dismantled central US institutions, massively concentrated presidential power, and brought the USA to the brink of a constitutional crisis. At the same time, the central promises with which Trump won his campaign for a second term last fall have sunk into chaos. Nothing has been done: Inflation is barely falling and is actually threatening to rise, consumer confidence is at a historic low, economic growth is looming into recession, and deportation rates, despite all the hype, are lower than during Biden's time. Foreign policy "successes" in Gaza, Ukraine, and the rest of the world have so far failed to materialize. Trump's first term already seemed chaotic – but it was driven by impulsiveness, personal feuds, and internal power struggles. His second term, however, is proceeding quite differently: Chaos has been elevated to a principle designed to create confusion. Within the government, however, ranks are closed this time, with few exceptions. This administration is working quietly, quickly – and frighteningly effectively in its primary goal of concentrating power. The reason for this is the so-called Project 2025. Before the election, few voters grasped the scope and ambition of this plan. More than 400 conservative policy experts and activists designed Project 2025 with the goal of "dismantling the administrative state" by replacing thousands of civil servants with ideologically entrenched loyalists, stripping federal agencies of their independence, and concentrating power in the president's hands. This long-gestating plan included policy blueprints for every department, legal justifications for circumventing court rulings, and a step-by-step guide for expanding presidential power over justice and security agencies. Much of this is now a reality. In his first 100 days, Trump has: Fired thousands of career bureaucrats under an expanded "Schedule F" order and replaced them with loyalists from the Project 2025 orbit. Filled more than 45 high-level government positions with Project 2025 authors—from cabinet members to agency heads, including many from the Heritage Foundation, the Claremont Institute, and other project contributors. Gained direct access to the Department of Justice and the FBI – political opponents are now being investigated, prosecutorial and even judicial independence is being restricted and discredited. Initiated extensive deregulation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Education, and the Consumer Protection Agency – sometimes bypassing legal procedures. Signaled that his administration will only comply with adverse court rulings to a limited extent – ​​which poses a direct confrontation with the judiciary. Undertook financial attacks on independent universities with the aim of bringing their teaching and decision-making under government control. The Trump administration is accomplishing all of this not through legislation, but primarily through executive orders on an unprecedented scale. Many of these override congressional statutes. This list could go on much longer. The short version is: Whether it's tariffs or deportations, Trump frequently governs with the help of emergency legislation to circumvent Congress, i.e., democratic processes. But the majority of Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives let him get away with it. In fact, they could oppose him. Trump as a tool of other actors In all of this, however, Trump himself appears less like the architect of this reactionary revolution than like its tool. Where his first term was frequently derailed by erratic behavior, his second is characterized by disciplined determination—not because Trump has changed, but because his environment has. It is tougher, more ideologically stable, better organized—and it has meticulously used the years under Biden to prepare. Right-wing conservative figures like Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, Russ Vought, the new budget director, and Stephen Miller, Deputy White House Chief of Staff, are setting the tone—directly or indirectly. Even though the US President still denies any connection to the plan, what Trump understood about Project 2025 was simple: He didn't even have to understand the plan—he just had to follow it. Added to this are the radical ideas of a minimal state from multi-billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. The result is a government that appears calmer on the outside—but at the same time is significantly more dangerous. Institutions that were supposed to limit the president's power have been gutted, intimidated, or silenced. With control over the judiciary and intelligence agencies, the ability to investigate or restrict executive action has been severely weakened. The Washington Post, the most famous newspaper in the US capital and long owned by multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, still advertises with its slogan: "Democracy dies in darkness." But in truth, democracy does not die in darkness. The authoritarian shift is taking place in the brightest light of day, made possible in part by an exhausted population that, after years of political strife, can no longer muster the courage to fight back. At least, not to the extent that Trump should care. Even the dismal polls so far don't seem to faze him. Broken Promises As effective as Trump and his Project 2025 architects are in restructuring the state, they have so far failed spectacularly in fulfilling his campaign promises: Inflation remains stubbornly high – caused by persistent supply chain problems and new tariffs not only on important Chinese and European goods, but also on imported products from around the world. The US is now a deeply unsettled economy. Economic growth has slowed significantly, and the US is on the verge of a technical recession. Investors are expressing concerns about political instability and the White House's unpredictable trade and regulatory policies. Immigration policy is more chaotic than ever. Trump did reintroduce tough measures at the border. According to official figures, illegal border crossings are indeed at a low level. But in a country that builds its economy and prosperity largely on millions of illegal immigrants, who are officially allowed to work here for starvation wages, the threatened mass deportations are spreading fear and terror. And although the Trump administration is even ignoring court rulings, deportation rates are falling even below those of the Biden years. In foreign policy, one crisis follows another: After the brief halt to almost all US military aid, the war in Ukraine continues to benefit Russia despite its resumption. There is no sign of Trump's promise to end the war within 24 hours. It has now been 2,400 hours, and Putin continues to bomb. The US government has so far come up with nothing but to put pressure on Ukraine. In the Gaza Strip, Trump's support for Israel has brought further harsh military strikes, but not peace. The plight of the Palestinian civilian population is at a new low, and not all hostages held by Hamas terrorists have yet been freed. Here, too, Trump's rhetoric is falling short of solid results. After 100 days in office, all of this stands in stark contradiction to Trump's promises to end wars, put "America first," and secure "peace through strength." Trump has started his own wars—around the world against allies and trading partners, at home against judges, lawyers, and universities, against dissidents, the media, and migrants. And these ignited wars are increasingly turning the United States into a dysfunctional democracy.