After being inaugurated in Jan, earlier this year, Donald Trump has had a tumultuous first few months in office. There have been a multitude of executive orders over the past few months, which do not appear to be slowing down, including those which have resulted in huge economic movements, shifting alliances, federal funding cuts, and intensified immigration policies. Additionally, the first apparent scandal of the new administration has emerged, with the recent discourse over the Signal chats that were leaked.
According to USA Today, due to the large economic downturn in the early months of the Trump administration, their approval rating has dropped by over 59 percent. Economically, primarily due to the introduction of severe tariffs on nearly every foreign nation, with the exemption of Russia. However, these tariffs were quickly placed on a 90 day pause, only days after being enacted. During the days that the tariffs were in effect, the result on the economy was increasingly negative, with stocks losing value eminently quickly. Despite the quick rescinding of these tariffs, economists still predict that the Trump Administration’s economic policies are likely to lead to recession according to USA Today. As stated by JP Morgan, the current chance of recession has increased to approximately 40 percent. This, among continually rising prices of everyday items has led to growing dissatisfaction with the Trump administration in the past few months. Additionally, many have been dissatisfied with the apparent method of calculation for the tariffs, which the Trump Administration claimed were only reciprocal. The method appears to have taken no consideration for the actual tariffs a nation was placing, or was not placing on American goods, instead calculated based on relative American imports and exports to and from the nation, regardless of what the goods were. This has created intense backlash over the poor calculation of supposedly reciprocal tariffs.
Furthermore, US foreign affairs under the new administration appear to be shifting massively, not only due to backlash from tariffs. During their first few months in office, the Trump administration has stated a desire to purchase or invade Greenland, claimed that Canada would be a 51st US state, mentioned wanting to reclaim the Panama Canal, and described wanting to take over Gaza and displace the Palestinians living there, in a unclarified permanent or temporary move. Other nations appear to be increasingly dissatisfied and wary of the new administration as well. The exemption of Russia from the severe tariffs placed on the rest of the world has also faced backlash, as it appears to signify a new dynamic for the US with Russia and Putin. This change has previously been suggested due to Trump’s actions regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict. These actions have seemingly villainized Ukraine in the war, while removing fault from Russia, and even resulted in a seemingly undiplomatic meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, in which a meeting between Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance, dissolved into the latter two berating Zelensky. The shift in foreign affairs comes amid the Trump administration’s intensified deportations, many of which appear to be incredibly severe, and even unauthorized, lacking in due process, and even being mistakes, as seen with the erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been judicially shielded from deportation years earlier.
The Trump administration has also had their federal budget plan approved, and have utilized DOGE in order to administer massive federal funding cuts. So far, DOGE has terminated over a hundred contracts according to Business Insider, many of which were research grant programs, and cut the budgets and employees of various other programs, many of which were social welfare programs or boards, including the Board of Education. However, despite all the cuts, this has only resulted in minimal saving, the exact amount widely disputed. The government’s use of DOGE, has also highlighted the relationship between the administration and Elon Musk, who remains an unelected addition, yet appears to have massive sway in the ongoings of the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has also faced backlash, due to the leaking of Signal chats, in which top officials planned Yemen airstrikes. Not only were the chats regarding sensitive, classified information on a website that is not nearly as secure as the ones that would typically be used for such discussions, but the chats themselves were leaked due to a member of the group chat adding the editor of The Atlantic newspaper, Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat. This prompted massive outrage, not only over the chats themselves and their casual nature, but also due to the substantial mistake of adding a journalist to the group chat. Outrage persists amid the administration’s failure to respond appropriately to the scandal. Recently, it has also been determined that Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, part of the original Signal chat, also shared sensitive military information on a separate chat, with his wife and brother. This has resulted in new demands for his resignation.
After an intense few months filled with growing uncertainty, and dropping popularity, at only the beginning of his second term, it is rather unpredictable what the Trump administration’s next actions will be, and how they will affect the US both domestically, and on an international level.
Trump and Vance’s adverse meeting with Zelensky. PHOTO: CNN
Trump presents new tariffs on nearly every nation, except Russia. PHOTO: BUSINESS STANDARD