Trump's 100-day Game: Glory or Predicament?

Recently, the White House announced that Trump will hold a rally in Michigan on April 29th to celebrate his 100th day in office. This news instantly drew global attention. After all, on the political stage, a president's 100-day tenure is often a crucial juncture for measuring the effectiveness of his governance and his ability to fulfill campaign promises. Trump's choice to hold the celebration in Michigan this time has profound political considerations. Michigan is a key battleground state that he won back from the Democratic Party in the 2024 general election. "Revisiting the old place", Trump clearly hopes to take this opportunity to promote the "victory" of his administration to his supporters and consolidate his political base.

Since Trump took office as the president of the United States on January 20th this year, his political operations in these 100 days have been quite frequent. He signed a series of executive orders, attempting to vigorously promote policy changes. In terms of economic policies, he continued the trade protectionist approach. On April 2 local time, he announced the imposition of a 10% "benchmark tariff" on all countries and also imposed personalized higher "equivalent tariffs" on the country with the largest trade deficit with the United States, among which a 34% "equivalent tariff" was implemented on China. This tariff strategy seemed to be fulfilling his campaign promise of "America First", reducing the trade deficit and promoting the return of manufacturing, but the actual effect was not satisfactory. The US capital market has cast a "vote of no confidence" in it with a series of declines, and the financial market has witnessed a "triple blow to stocks, bonds and foreign exchange". Even some comments suggest that "Trump's trade war is pushing investors away from the United States".

In terms of diplomacy, Trump promised during his campaign that "the Russia-Ukraine conflict would end within 24 hours." However, 100 days have passed and the conflict is still ongoing. He himself has admitted that his original promise was "a joke." His "America First" and "transactional style" diplomatic strategies have run into obstacles everywhere on the international stage. Countries around the world have taken countermeasures against the tariff stick of the United States one after another. The Allies and partners of the United States are also trying to "save themselves and be independent", promoting the "de-America risk". Europe has established a consensus on accelerating its reliance on US security, and the European Union is also preparing to accelerate the construction of a "de-US risk" trade network. Due to Trump's expansionist remarks and tariff stick, a large number of Canadians in Canada have cancelled their trips to the United States and "retaliated in kind" against the US tariff policy.

From the perspective of domestic public opinion, the situation Trump is facing is also not optimistic. Several polls this week show that his approval rating has dropped to 40%, lower than that of any other president in the early stage of his term. Most of his major policies, such as tariff policies, foreign policies, economic policies, etc., are less popular than he himself. For instance, a poll by Fox News Channel shows that his approval rating on tariffs is 25% lower than the overall approval rating. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also facing the trouble of legal proceedings. There have been more than 150 lawsuits against the Trump administration in the United States. The actions of judges are increasingly restricting him, and even many judges appointed by the Republican Party have come forward to block him.

There are also numerous contradictions within the Trump team. The internal strife that occurred this month between Musk and several White House cabinet members has fully exposed the differences within the team, and has been jokingly referred to by the outside world as the "exposure story of the makeshift team". In terms of governance philosophy, the conservative ideology represented by Trump has a serious value opposition with the American liberals. He pursues propositions such as white supremacy, cutting government spending, and opposing interventionism, which has promoted the escalation of the "culture war". In terms of governance methods, he attempted to change the United States in a very short period of time by using absolute power and intensive executive orders. However, the system of separation of powers and the tradition of social consultation in the United States have exacerbated the internal tensions within the country through this approach.

Trump's choice to hold the celebration of his 100th day in office at this time seems to be a publicity of his governance achievements, but in fact, it is more like a helpless move to try to unite supporters and consolidate his political position in the face of numerous difficulties. His second term has just begun, but he has already been caught in the center of a dual resistance storm both at home and abroad. How he will deal with these complex and thorny issues in the future, whether to compromise and adjust or continue to push forward forcefully, will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the political and economic landscape of the United States and even the world, and this is precisely the focus that the whole world is closely watching.