TUESDAY April 29, 2025 |
By thenewsdesk.ng
United States, US, President Donald Trump celebrated Tuesday the first 100 days of what is already one of the most radical and far-reaching presidencies in US history, but polls show Americans becoming disenchanted with the economic and political tumult.
The 47th president will mark the milestone in trademark style, seeking to rejuvenate his base with a rally in the battleground state of Michigan that swung his way in November as he soundly defeated Kamala Harris.
Trump has shaken up the United States like few presidents before him.
His billionaire backer Elon Musk has led dramatic cutbacks of the federal workforce, and the president himself has reshaped relations with the world by unveiling sweeping tariffs, berating allies and eliminating much foreign aid.
Polls show that the honeymoon period that Americans historically accord presidents at the start of their terms has evaporated for Trump.
A poll published Sunday by The Washington Post and ABC News found that only 39 per cent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance.
The survey showed net disapproval even on what was his most popular issue — his aggressive crackdown on immigration — as controversy swirls over deportations without due process.
Trump angrily dismissed the polling but has been tacitly acknowledging that he must moderate some policies as stock market turmoil takes a toll.
Wall Street, down more than six per cent since Trump took office, ticked up Tuesday on news he would soften some of the sweeping tariffs impacting automakers.
‘We’ve done everything’ –
He also recently backtracked on threats to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has warned that Trump’s tariffs would likely reignite inflation.
After a 2017-2021 term in which some aides sought to rein him in, Trump has surrounded himself this time with unabashed loyalists — and told reporters he was on track to accomplish all of his second-term goals.
“I think either we’ve done everything, or it’s in the process of being done,” Trump said as he prepared to fly to his rally at a community college in Warren, Michigan.
In a Q&A with reporters, he was asked about his preference for the next pope, and he joked: “I would like to be pope. That would be my No. 1 choice.”
In the grand entrance hallway of the White House, Trump has removed a portrait of Barack Obama, the United States’ first Black president, to make way for a painting of himself surviving an assassination attempt.
He has used threats of cutting off government access and contracts to pressure law firms whose partners once were involved in cases against him, and he has frozen billions of dollars in funding for universities — hotbeds of criticism against the administration.
