Border enforcement is Trump’s focus 100 days into second term.
The White House on Monday commenced a weeklong celebration of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, emphasizing his border crackdown, which stands as a notable strength for the president amid concerning signals in the latest polling data. Yard signs displaying mugshots of immigrants accused of serious crimes such as rape and murder were strategically placed across the White House lawn, ensuring they appeared in the backdrop of television broadcasts from outside the West Wing. Tom Homan, who served as Trump’s chief border adviser, informed reporters that there has been “unprecedented success” regarding border initiatives and asserted, “we’re going to keep doing it, full speed ahead”.
Immigration stands as Trump’s foremost concern in public opinion surveys, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt remarked during a morning briefing that the administration is in “the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history”. According to the White House, approximately 139,000 individuals have been removed thus far. Deportations have at times fallen behind the figures of Democratic President Joe Biden; however, officials from the Trump administration dismiss the comparison as not being “apples to apples,” citing the significantly lower number of individuals crossing the border currently.
Later on Monday, Leavitt conducted a second briefing specifically for “new media”, during which Trump-aligned social media influencers posed amicable questions and expressed their approval with applause at the conclusion. On Tuesday, Trump will reach the milestone of his 100th day in office, with plans to commemorate the occasion in Michigan. He is set to hold a rally in Macomb County, a key automotive center located north of Detroit. Following a period of limited travel during his presidency, Trump is set to give a commencement address on Thursday at the University of Alabama.
Trump is conducting several interviews coinciding with the 100-day milestone, including an Oval Office discussion with ABC News scheduled to be broadcast on Tuesday night. He also engaged in discussions with journalists from The Atlantic magazine, a publication he has often criticized for its unfavorable coverage.
Trump conveyed to The Atlantic that he perceives himself as more powerful during his second tenure in the White House. His administration is filled with loyalists, and he has grown increasingly confrontational with a judicial system that occasionally acts as a check on his agenda. “The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said. “And the second time, I govern the nation and the globe.”
Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933 and moved swiftly to counter the Great Depression, presidents have traditionally marked the initial 100 days of their terms. During his first term, Trump exhibited a lack of enthusiasm for the idea, as he faced numerous setbacks, investigations, and high turnover within his administration, referring to the 100-day mark as “an artificial barrier”.
However, he is currently attempting to leverage this moment to highlight the ambitious agenda he has been pursuing in his initial months. Leavitt noted that Trump had already signed nearly as many executive orders as Biden did throughout his entire term. However, a significant number of Americans contend that Trump has primarily concentrated on issues that are not of paramount importance.
According to an AP-NORC survey, Americans are almost twice as inclined to assert that Trump has primarily concentrated on the wrong priorities rather than the right ones, with only around half of Republicans indicating that he has predominantly maintained the correct focus. A further 25% of Republicans indicate that they perceive a balance of right and wrong priorities, while approximately 10% believe he is concentrating on the incorrect issues.
Among Trump’s own supporters, the proportion of Republicans who consider him to have been at least a “good” president has decreased by approximately 10 percentage points since January. Recent polls have indicated comparable levels of discontent regarding Trump’s initial months in office, especially concerning his economic strategies and tariff policies. Trump expressed his discontent with the results on social media, labeling them as “FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS”.
As he faces pressure to intensify efforts against illegal immigration, Trump has attracted scrutiny for stretching the boundaries of executive authority, targeting judges who have opposed him, transferring hundreds of purported Venezuelan gang members to a large prison in El Salvador in disregard of a court ruling, and hesitating to comply with a Supreme Court directive requiring his administration to assist in the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was erroneously deported to El Salvador. His plans to carry out a mass deportation have not yet materialized, but the White House is intensifying efforts to motivate individuals residing in the country illegally to “self-deport”, through measures that encompass increased fines and incentives for departure, such as airfare and stipends.
The administration has highlighted the substantial decrease in illegal border crossings as an initial and noteworthy indicator of success. On Monday, Trump enacted two executive orders concerning immigration, one of which mandates state and federal officials to release a list of “sanctuary city” jurisdictions.
