From promises to mayhem: U.S. administration at 100 days

Editor's note: Radhika Desai, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Nearly a century ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt, after telling the nation mired in the depths of the Great Depression that it had nothing to fear but fear itself, managed to get all the major elements of the historic New Deal that would change the framework of U.S. politics for the next half century through Congress within his first three months. Since then, the end of the first 100 days has been the time to take the first real measure of U.S. presidencies.

Like Roosevelt, U.S. President Donald Trump was elected on a promise to end deep economic misery. Like him, Trump has had a busy, even frenetic, first 100 days. However, there the resemblance ends.

Whereas Roosevelt summoned Congress to a special session and passed legislation, Trump administration has issued executive orders, many of dubious constitutionality. Whereas Roosevelt took office after decades-long breakneck growth had made the U.S. the world's largest economy and trading nation, Trump administration is presiding over a country laid waste by economic decline and the diminution of its share of world GDP and trade.

Whereas Roosevelt deepened the U.S.'s engagement with the world throughout his long presidency (he won the presidency four times, before the currently applicable term limits were set), whether by passing the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, establishing relations with the Soviet Union, or leading his country into the Second World War, Trump has, in the words of one New York Times columnist, "sever(ed) America from the world" within his first 100 days with his administration's explosively disruptive tariffs, threats to annex countries, brutal and illegal treatment of immigrants and tourists and uncouth dealings with world leaders.

Whereas Roosevelt was re-elected three times, enjoyed high approval when opinion polling began and is still considered by most the greatest U.S. president, Trump goes to his 100th's day, as the president with the lowest popularity at the 100-day mark, 39 percent in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, beating out his own previous low of 41 percent in 2017.

Although many have tried to discern a method in the manifest madness of the Trump administration, some sort of economic theory that might explain what the administration is trying to achieve, they have failed, as they must. To explain Trump's actions, we need to look beyond economic theory.

As a political maverick, Trump was able to emerge as the Republican presidential nominee because he understood one thing that the U.S. political class, the established leaderships of both parties, did not: That, after decades of economic and industrial decline, of deindustrialization that had bled away good jobs and financialization that was sending inequality skyrocketing, it was no longer possible to win elections by telling the U.S. electorate that their economy was doing well. Trump acknowledged that it was not and was able to take over the Republican party, and has today reduced the Democrats to incoherence.

However, the Trump administration still represents the same bankrupt capitalism and the same unproductive, speculative and predatory capitalist class that they do; indeed, many would say, the administration particularly represents its most depraved maverick elements. So, Trump must continue the same neoliberal policies of reducing taxes on the rich, cutting welfare for the poor, encouraging finance, not production, etc.

Having had to tell one truth to win elections, the president had to undo the damage to corporate America's interests by telling an equal and opposite lie. That lie was about why the U.S. economy was not doing well, why most U.S. voters felt they were doing less well than before. Rather than telling them that this was due to four and a half decades, and counting, of neoliberal policies, he told them it was due to trade, above all trade with China, and to immigration.

Trump has spent the first 100 days in frenetic activity – imposing tariffs, alienating allies, terrorizing the U.S.'s non-white population with his illegal deportations, sending markets into wild ructions – which is designed to create the appearance of fulfilling his election promises to the people while, in reality, taking neoliberalism to new heights with further tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation, the gutting of the apparatus of regulatory control over the economy, illegal deportations, attacks on universities and the like – while benefitting his financial backers.

The U.S. administration hardly cares if the overall result is economic misery for the many. As with the market ructions, and the advice of chief executive officers that made Trump pause his "Liberation Day" tariffs on most countries, only the concerns of his corporate financial backers have any hope of modifying his administration's erratic program, though with many corporate chief executive officers being daunted by Trump, even that cannot be assured.

The first 100 days of the Trump administration reveal that the pervasive crisis of the U.S. economy, society and politics has produced truly erratic presidency, which neither electoral and corporate pressures can ultimately control.

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