The first 100 days of Trump’s second term: Burning bridges, allies and the world
He lit the match in his first term — but now he’s throwing fuel on the fire
One hundred days into Trump’s second term, the wreckage is impossible to ignore. Economies are faltering. Alliances are crumbling. Authoritarians are emboldened. International institutions are bleeding out. Far from “running the world”, Trump is burning it down.
Wrecking the economy at home and abroad
Mass deportations of immigrants have gutted critical sectors from agriculture to construction, creating labour shortages that are already pushing some U.S. businesses into collapse.
Aggressive border crackdowns have sent a chill through tourism and international education. The so-called travel “Trump slump” is no longer a warning; it is a reality costing America billions in lost revenue.
New shipping fees and sweeping tariffs have shocked supply chains, with retailers warning of empty shelves and economists of an economic downturn deeper than the 2008 crash.
It’s economic self-harm on a grand scale, and the global impacts are starting to materialise, with the International Monetary Fund slashing global growth forecasts.
Tearing down the global safety nets
The first Trump administration cut funding for the World Health Organisation, the second has withdrawn from it entirely. It is just one of many examples of how Trump’s contempt for international institutions has grown even more brazen.
In the space of a few months the second Trump administration has:
- gutted lifesaving U.S. Agency for International Development programs;
- issued sanctions against staff of the International Criminal Court;
- dismantled the Voice of America media organisation that broadcast into countries whose government’s censor free information;
- withdrawn from the Paris Climate Accord (again); and
- threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organisation and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
And we are witnessing the unravelling of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and turbocharging of a new arms race following Trump’s 2019 withdrawal from an arms control treaty with Russia.
At a time when global challenges demand a unity that can only be delivered through the international rules-based order, Trump’s America has ripped up the rule book and created a new world disorder.
Alliances and U.S. democracy are crumbling
Nowhere is Trump’s betrayal more stark than with respect to Ukraine. He has cut critical military aid, berated President Zelensky in front of the world’s media, repeated Kremlin propaganda, blamed Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, and he is attempting to extort half a trillion dollars worth of minerals from the war-torn country.
This isn’t diplomacy. It’s daylight robbery.
Meanwhile, Trump has revived his bizarre obsession with Greenland, openly threatening to take it by force if Denmark refuses to sell. Similar threats have been levelled at Panama and even Canada. It is nothing short of terrifying for the rhetoric of the President of the United States to be so blatantly authoritarian, and yet, Trump’s actions clearly are as well.
Trump is unceremoniously firing government, intelligence and military officials to install loyalists, ignoring court orders, governing by executive order rather than legislation to sidestep the authority of congress, replacing independent media in press briefings with uncritical influencers, and holding televised cabinet meetings where everyone at the table takes turns saying how great he is. This is shocking, but none of it should come as a surprise given his attempted coup on January 6, 2021.
Then there are the recent rumours of U.S. controlled ‘kill switches’ in F-35 fighter jets it has sold to allies, adding to an already long list of grievances and concerns. NATO members, often accused by Trump of freeloading, are now urgently building their own defence capabilities — not to meet his demands, but to protect themselves from the chaos he has unleashed.
A world on the brink
Trump’s first stint in the White House was chaotic, but his second is an unmitigated disaster. In just 100 days his actions have destabilised the U.S. and global economies, threatened allies, taken a sledgehammer to international institutions, and significantly increased the likelihood of a major global conflict.
Trump was re-elected on the promise of bringing a new Golden Age to America. But in light of Trump’s historically low approval ratings in his first 100 days, it is clear Americans are waking up to the reality they were sold a fool’s gold; fake, like the man who peddled it to them.
Jonathan Meddings is an author and advocate from Melbourne, Australia.
