Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has claimed he has had the “most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country” — even as polls show Americans are disenchanted with the economic and political tumult he has caused.
At a rally marking his first 100 days in office, Trump said he missed the campaign trail and launched into a speech with many attacks on those he sees as his enemies.
He called Joe Biden “sleepy,” the media “fake,” judges who oppose him “communist,” Democratic opponents the “radical left,” and said friendly countries have “abused us more so than foe on trade”.
Trump promised to conclude deals on trade but provided little in the way of details.
To chants of “USA! USA!”, he showed a video of migrants in handcuffs and shackles being taken from a plane, transported by bus and filmed on their knees as their heads were shaved, illustrating his controversial deportation policy.
According to a poll conducted by Ipsos, only 39% of Americans currently approve of him and how he s conducting the presidency. 64% said he is “going too far” by trying to expand presidential powers.
Gallup, another polling company which has examined sentiments about US presidents at the 100-day mark for years, put Trump’s approval rating at 44%. By the Gallup poll, he’s the only American president after World War Two to have an approval rating lower than 50% at this time in his term (except for… himself, during his first term, when he was at 41% 100 days in).
Trump’s low rating is driven by the exceptionally high degree of polarisation in public opinion of him. The Gallup poll puts his approval among Republicans at 90% but just 4% among Democrats. Presidents of previous decades tended not to see such a dramatic margin of difference.
Trump 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 before heading to his rally.
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.
The Democratic Party is trying to emphasise the economic anxieties caused by Trump, although it has also struggled in polling.
“Trump is to blame for the fact that life is more expensive, it’s harder to retire, and a ‘Trump recession’ is at our doorstep,” the Democratic National Committee said, calling the 100 days a “colossal failure.”
Even with Congress narrowly in Republican hands, Trump has tested the limits of presidential power by signing more than 140 executive orders, many of which have faced court scrutiny.
He has sought to end birthright citizenship — which is guaranteed by the US Constitution — and Musk has summarily axed billions of dollars appropriated by Congress.
Asked in an ABC interview broadcast yesterday about Americans who are concerned he is seizing too much power, Trump said: “I would hate them to think that. I’m doing one thing: I’m making America great again.”
Additional reporting by Lauren Boland
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
He’s been good for Putin that’s for sure.
@Basildon Joe: Trumps corruption in his first 100 days.
https://x.com/SenAdamSchiff/status/1917327017789292591?t=_g4lLVqniTFXcBqL6y_-8g&s=19
@Basildon Joe: yawn, is that you Hillary?
Delusional psychopath
@KTH: in fairness he is a man that can not have a normal day.
@Dominic Leleu: We need to factor in that polls of people who have been misled by left wing media with give results that reflect this indoctrination.
@thomas molloy: and to be balanced, the opinions of those who have been misled by right wing media
@thomas molloy: utter horse manure out of you again.
@thomas molloy: More detail please Thomas. It’s easy to make simple statements but they mean little without some references and actual detail. Trump promised so many things. Is the average Joe richer or poorer? Is America more or less respected now? Has inflation gone down? Was the Ukraine war sorted in 24 hours?
@Fergus O’Donnell: not really is it. They said it was going to be the closest election In history according to the polls too and it wasn’t even close.
@tony hilton: Hey Tony hope all is well. I get your point to an extent but once again the electoral college really muddies the waters. I’m not saying it was down to a couple of votes but in such a huge country Trump’s 77,302,580 votes vs Kamala’s 75,017,613 is a decent victory, but it’s still very close in a country of approx 350 million people. It’s no wonder division is absolutely rife right now.
@SerotoninWars: oh I understand what you mean and usually enjoy reading what you comment too. I just don’t believe most polls to be honest especially when it comes to politics. It just crazy over there and it’s constant divide and divide. I hope you day is going good pal.
@tony hilton: Likewise! The polling in everything from Brexit to elections in multiple countries have gotten it badly wrong so many times. There’s clearly people saying what they think is the socially acceptable answer or else they simply aren’t getting the right mix of people that truly represent the feelings of the electorate. I know there’s a margin of error in these things, but you’re right, trust in polling is very low right now. Have a good one too mate!
@SerotoninWars: i think because people are afraid to be honest most of the time incase it’s a trap so they just say what everyone else is saying instead of their real opinion. Public holiday tomorrow so a few beers tonight might be on the menu.
@lesidees: what right wing media? Literally 90% of media is left wing and the bias is incredible. You’ll never notice that though
@tony hilton: Fair point. Enjoy the beers! The weather in Ireland today is only begging for a few cold ones!
Compare what he has done to our new government. Trump has got more done in 100 days then our lot would do in 100 years.
@common sense: bollocks
@common sense: The merits and legality of what he’s been doing could be debated. The story is about his break from the reality of the polling data, even Fox News polling numbers.
@Alan OConnor: is it though? What has our government achieved in the last 100 days other than scandal?
@common sense: Are you high? He has achieved nothing and won’t.
@common sense: nope. Name one good thing. Go on.
@common sense: The guy is nothing but hot air. Don’t you see?
@common sense: It would appear that common sense isn’t that common. Organising productivity and prosperity seems to be his issue. He excels in organising carnage.
@common sense: He’s definitely done more with the 100 days but as bad as Leinster House can be, our government haven’t tried to economically bankrupt our country based on lies and ridiculous notions of bringing American industry back at the same cost they are abroad
@Ross: Why do you deflect. Article is on USA.
@Ross: We don’t use 100days as a benchmark this is a US thing introduced by the US media to see what Roosevelt was going to do with the post the US Depression in the 1930s ……
@common sense: what actually has he got done? Gulf of America?
@common sense: what did he do? I’ll wait…
@common sense: Absolutely none of it was good though.
@Fergus O’Donnell: 142 executive orders, stopped the southern invasion, ended the woke agenda, I could go on.
@Ross: Well,
1) They haven’t caused carnage in the stock and bond markets,
2) They haven’t deported their own citizens,
3) They haven’t alienated their allies and closest neighbours,
4 They haven’t threatened to annex sovereign nations,
5) They haven’t threatened the separation of powers by questioning the role of judges and the courts,
for a start.
@common sense: more damage perhaps. an idi0t1c comment by you.
@Paul O’Mahoney: apart from world level damage
@common sense: more (damage) for sure. Trump is a menace
@common sense: the only thing your lot has done is invade Ukraine
@common sense: bankrupting an economy is not the positive thing you think it is.
@common sense: You do often go on. What you tend to not do is answer the actual facts.
I’m for a saner approach to borders, doesn’t mean that in doing so might have someone mislabelled and then fix the issue.
Number of EO’s is not some great thing to count if many are not legal.
Regardless, the story and point is about polling, across all, ignoring leaning. He can’t accept reality.
@ben wu: could be debated??? Are you having a laugh??
@common sense: no. He says he has. There’s a difference. He has done more to harm the US than any other president in history.
@JimmyR: Things like the deportations have broad support, though some of how they’d been done and targeted is questionable. The concept of bringing jobs back is supported, though the tariffs and wild uncertainty isn’t welcomed.
Those are the sort of things that I mean ‘could be debated’, but the story is not about any one aspect, it’s about his delusion that he thinks he’s the most successful in first 100 days, when every metric shows that he’s on the lowest possible rung, second only to his other term.
@common sense: Purposely messing with the stock market so his buddies could make billions. Ya he’s doing great work, a true man of the people who definitely isn’t taking the gullible ones for a ride.
@common sense: what has he done. Please tell us
As if we needed any more proof that Trump is a narcissist.
@Iano C: And a $h1te dancer….
@Iano C: And a crap dancer….
Kim Jung Trump is the best president since Kim Jung Trump. Anyone who says otherwise is a woke communist with a little willy.
@Anthony Curran: I actually fell across coverage of this rally last night, insomnia acting up, and honestly it’s amazing to witness the cult members in full flow. I have many friends and family in the US and we see each other regularly and some are Trump voters in that group, but none of them were remotely like those in the crowd last night.
It’s amazing and worrying that people are blindly following such a person. He’s approval rating is the lowest of all US presidents in this 100 day metric.
@Paul O’Mahoney: Not one of my friends is holidaying in the US this year. He is singlehandedly destroying the American tourism industry. Who wants to go somewhere where you and your family will be interrogated for hours because you once wrote f**k Trump on your social media.
@John Doe: Well, at least they’ll not be in Arbour Hill like you ye dope.
@Anthony Curran: Oh hell yeah! I’m as likely to head to the US these days as one of the garish Middle East destinations where they’d jail you for finding a speck of weed on the bottom of your shoe. America is a very scary place right now and you’d need your head examined to take the risk of running into pumped up jingoistic officials who could do god knows what with you. Ireland has its problems but a nice break in our generally laid back and liberal country looks infinitely more appealing right now!
@Anthony Curran: My wife travels to the US regularly for work now this situation has made the company send people to her and hold meetings here . One is Indian and she’s a naturalised citizen and she’s scared. Another an executive VP is Swiss , again a US citizen, and she rarely travels but she’s arriving next week for global meetings, everyone, 58 are travelling to Dublin from all over the globe. It’s nuts
1984 had nothing on this. If Orwell had added this it would have been rejected for being unrealistic
@FoxyBoiiYT: It would be labelled ” comedy “
John Doe: what’s your MO ? your popping up on every chat commenting on knee cap’
’?
’ I’d like to know your exact position on Israel’s annihilation’ if your capable of elaborating
Sad the way The Journal comment section is gone over the years you now have troll accounts replying to themselves. Hey Journal deactivate the comment section in the next update. It’s 40% full of actual sane people commenting but then the rest are plain and simple pure headers.
@Nemethon: That person who keeps replying to themselves has 22 accounts.
If only our own media could spend as much time questioning and criticising our own leaders failures, why did thousands protest in Dublin at the weekend? why no one is ever held accountable on the huge disgusting amount of our money is wasted on vanity projects…or just disappears, why we still have not managed to contain illegal migration whilst handing out millions to private businesses, why we have over 30 thousand Gov funded NGOs…unelected officials forcing their unwanted ideologies on us….but no, let’s keep looking the other way and focus on Trump….but then again you’re just another Gov mouthpiece…deflect, deflect, deflect!
Nothing new there, a government leader wants the people to think they’re doing a great job. And the people certainly know they are absolutely not doing a good job, yet the media outlets tell us they are doing a great job. Sound familiar? Irish media have some neck to question the validity of trump’s first few months in power, when they constantly spin government lies themselves.
@Jack: But it’s not the Irish Media, the US polling has showed that he is the least popular President after 100 days in Office. And wait until Amazon start showing the cost of tariffs on products on its website. Others are also considering this , he’s already a Lame Duck President.
@Jack: According to the UN, Ireland has a high quality of life on the planet. No developed nation has improved its score more than Ireland since records began. r/Dublin – According to the UN, Ireland has the 8th highest quality of life on the PLANET.
@Paul O’Mahoney: I wouldn’t trust the polls paul. They said it was going to be the closest election in history and it was far from it. I’m not saying he is doing nothing wrong but just that I wouldn’t believe the polls.
@thomas molloy: Ireland had a very low base to start from with a dramatic rise in over 30 years. We’re lucky we had that, but stats are not always what they seem. A lot of people struggle on what seems a good salary and points to a good standard of living, but most are just trying to make ends meet, which isn’t a good place to be, in a so called great country to live. Aside from that my point is, the media only tell you what governments want you hear/read. So for one’s own sanity either don’t listen to it or read between the lines. Since the beginning of time authorities try control populations by various means, our generation is no different, and the media is the main tool being used. All you one can do is “paddle your own boat”.
@tony hilton: 49.4 to 48.3. Wasn’t the landslide he likes to make out.
That pic really highlights his teeny tiny ickle handies!
Prime Minister Trump, Vice President Trump, whatever, the real USA president is Putin. He pulls all the strings and gets what he wants. The Russian agent who bought Trump as an asset must be flying high in Russia.
@Con Cussed: conspiracy theorist. Get help
Article states Trump has removed the presidential portrait of Obama and replaced it with a painting of Trump surviving that assassination attempt. Most Trump thing ever!
@John Doe: I wouldn’t call Obama a legend. He was a consequential president with a mixed record (not always his own fault). Trump is a vile oaf loved by the “poorly educated” and trolls. Troll!
AMERICA. Wake up. How much more of this do you need to take ?
Dictator alert and all I see is he has them Americans so washed that we’re in bumpy ride with this North Korean regime that he’s pursuing
Most successful at what exactly?
He exists in Trump cloud cuckoo land. The man is deluded with himself
This from the same news outlet that told us Biden was sharp and in charge.
@087 bed: Yes the one that spreads lefty lies and hate.
@087 bed: Biden’s first 100 days as president? No undermining of NATO. No trillions wiped off the stock markets. No flight from the US Dollar, or US Treasury Bonds. No aircraft crashes. No re-aligning of the Western World away from America. No coercion of Ukraine. Etc. Etc. Etc. Just think of how much of a dope Trump makes you by having to defend or distract him. Dope!
@Numinous20111: And Bidens approval rating at 57% was higher. Its bonkers
@087 bed: Biden left behind a booming economy with record stock market and record employment. Facts can be annoying I know.
@087 bed: by comparison to Trump Biden is razor sharp. Trump had the audacity to call Biden sleepy Joe when Trump has been seen napping most notably at Pope Francis funeral. The old saying mocking is catching seems to apply either that or Karmas a bitch
@087 bed: not just one outlet but multiples, including FOX. Only Trump and his cult followers believe what he says.
@Ted Daly: a booming economy hahhahaha
Lol.. It’s been shambolic on every conceivable level.
Deluded, devious Knut
It’s good that he has to tell everyone because otherwise they might think the shitshow unfolding in front of them is because he’s doing a bad job.
What a nobhead.
What an embarrassment
The man has seriously low self-esteem, reason 4,759,230,489,142,356 why he shouldn’t be president.
It’s called talking boll!*
He’s given the world a much needed wakeup call..
@Ed Brennan: I’ll fix that for you “ he’s given the world a good laugh “
This could be used for a study in years to go but very good example of perspective!! He believes he has done amazing work, others cant believe what they are reading!
I was never a Trump fan but thought he was a better option than Harris but I’m not so sure now . I just don’t understand why people have to constantly call names. Bizarre how much they let someone take over their life.
@tony hilton: You’re not so sure? Sorry now, he deserves not a good word said about him. He’s constantly name-calling and mocking people. This is a comment section on an article about him. People can say what they please.
@Jen McCartney: i never said people couldn’t say what they please. So the women who he protected from the transgenders in women sports with his executive order are not allowed say a good word about him because you don’t like him?
@Jen McCartney: and yes I’m not so sure because it’s only been a 100 days , not a 1000 but a 100.
@tony hilton: Namecalling is probably the main skill trump brings to the role. Seriously. Why should he be immune to names when he calls so many names?
@Setanta O’Toole: so everyone should lower themselves to his level of name calling but still expect to be held in a higher regard?
@tony hilton: no, but why criticise one side and ignore the other?
In his dreams…..
And some 1d1ots will believe him.
@Eamon: unfortunately alot of young dead men and women believed in bidan and went to ukriane as mercenaries, pathetic.
Alot of dangerous criminals have being sent home, oil and eggs are down, border is secured, a girl is a girl a boy is boy, alot of federal waste sorted out, lazy people fired, many new jobs coming online in the states, what exactly is wrong?.
@Darran Macken: Apart from all that being a lie, nothing
@Rui Firmino: tell that ‘lie’ to them family’s who buried their rap#d and murder#d children at the hands of the visitors, its no made up illusion to them its very real, games up, the only reason there’s opposition to trump is because they see something play out that deep down they won’t for their own nation like realsim must enter the scenario at some stage.
@Darran Macken: get help
Can’t wait for this POS to die
@Rui Firmino: and yet Journal.ie allow this lovely comment to remain….one must wonder why?
@Rui Firmino: another deranged liberal
@Emer McDonnell: Look it’s not ‘nice’ to wish death on anyone, but there’s some very important context here. He’s a sex predator, he has shamelessly wished for the removal of the Palestinians so he can set up a tacky resort, he has done exactly nothing to try and rein Israel in, he is sending innocent people to brutal gulags, he is hellbent on destroying any attempts at addressing the climate crisis which will cause untold death and suffering, he has wiped out US aid which again will cause endless misery and death, he is trying to crush all dissent and make targets of innocent people doing their jobs, he has made sure the white power mob know he thinks they include many ‘fine people’. Will I go on? Yes, our most noble selves should probably try and avoid wishing death on anyone, but when someone is already responsible and going to be further responsible for so much death and suffering in the future, it’s probably not that shocking that there are people who aren’t exactly wishing him the best.
Trump derangement syndrome is a real mental illness as seen in the comments. The man could cure cancer and their response would be why didn’t he cure aids
@John O B: he thinks there is a vaccine for Aids.
Pity Kamala didn’t get it. She’d have rolled the sleeves up and ramped up abortion.
@daragh harmon: think of the countless hours you could have had pretending to care!
Thanks to the lying media , most Irish people have a severe and terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
have your say