Our Best Stuff From the Week We Passed the 100-Day Mark

Hello and happy Saturday! On Wednesday, we marked the 100^th day since my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes won the College Football Playoff championship, beating Notre Dame 34-23. For some people, however, that was not the biggest news to come out of January 20, 2025. While quarterback Will Howard was piling up 231 yards passing and running back Quinshon Judkins was storming into the end zone repeatedly, President Donald Trump was hopping between inaugural balls, having been sworn in for his second term earlier in the day.

Checking in on the presidency at 100 days is a time-honored tradition. A president enters the White House seeking to establish the agenda for his term and to start making good on his campaign promises. It’s always a busy time. But I think it’s safe to say that few presidents have had an eventful first 100 days as Trump has these last few months.

I will let Michael Warren sum it up:

His administration’s first major domestic undertaking, the dubious plan to cut government waste through the Department of Government Efficiency, appears to be rapidly losing support after months of goal-post moving and results embellishing. All the major stock market indices have declined significantly since the beginning of the year, largely due to Trump’s new tariff regime, which is already harming the economy in other ways. American allies feel spurned while American enemies appear emboldened. Even the most successful part of the Trump administration’s agenda, increasing border and immigration enforcement, has become mired in legal challenges thanks to some high-profile cases that suggest, at best, administrative carelessness and, at worst, defiance of the law.

Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2, which prompted major sell-offs in the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 indices—as well as the bond market. A week later, the president announced a pause on most of those tariffs, with the exception of those on Chinese goods, which he has kicked up to 145 percent. The U.S.imported $438.9 billion worth of goods from China in 2024. 

Tariffs that high mean fewer Chinese goods will be coming into the country, and those that do will be more expensive. Trump, in fact, summed up the effects of the tariffs rather succinctly this week. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know?” he told reporters. “And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”

In Boiling Frogs (🔒), Nick Catoggio called it “one of the most un-American ideas a president has ever had.” The American dream is about abundance, he explained, even excess. But there’s something that bothers him more: “It’s the fact that fewer, more expensive dolls and fewer, more expensive clothing options means downscale families will struggle to afford anything, in some cases perhaps forced to do without altogether. In a country governed by a scarcity mindset, it’s the working class—the people whom Trump and his movement supposedly care about—that takes it on the chin.”

One aspect of Trump’s first 100 days that Michael Warren didn’t mention in his list was Trump’s actions against law firms. He has issued a series of executive orders canceling contracts and revoking security clearances for firms such as Perkins Coie, which represented Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Covington & Burling, which employs lawyers who worked with Jack Smith while he was a special counsel. Some firms have struck deals with the administration, while others have fought him in court. (Indeed, a federal judge ruled yesterday that the executive order targeting Perkins Coie was unconstitutional.)

In a piece this week, John Wrench of the Institute for Justice explained the potential long-term implications of Trump’s targeting of law firms.

The administration’s maneuver is clever, to be sure. A sufficiently intimidated legal industry means no lawsuit, no judicial testing of executive action, no friction with the judicial branch, no losses in court, and more resources for the administration to focus into its other priorities. If enough attorneys bow out, an executive action could become effectively unreviewable. Even the most principled, engaged judge cannot address constitutional questions that never make it into court. It’s akin to blocking the main road to the courthouse, ensuring a victory by default.

In Wanderland (🔒), Kevin Williamson noted that Trump has staffed his administration with unqualified officials, from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “conspiracy kook Kash Patel and his conspiracy kook deputy … Dan Bongino; conspiracy kook Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; conspiracy kook Tulsi Gabbard; weirdo mall ninja Kristi Noem” and others. And he blamed Republican lawmakers, particularly Senate Majority Leader John Thune, for lacking the will to oppose them in the confirmation process. “We are at a moment when the country urgently requires intelligent and patriotic political leadership, and John Thune refuses to provide it,” Kevin wrote. “It is impossible to say what events and challenges the future will bring. But if we cut off the timeline today, what would history have to say about John Thune? Only that, when his country was faced with dire threats to its prosperity, security, and stability, he did nothing.” 

Elsewhere at The Dispatch, Jesse Singal broke news about a review of youth gender medicine conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, David Drucker wrote about tariffs and abundance, and Jonah dove deep (deep) on the classical roots of Trump’s nationalism. Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend.