April 29 (UPI) — Tuesday marks President Donald Trump‘s 100th day in office and his return as commander in chief has been marked with an aggressive approach to deportations, the trade market, foreign affairs and education in the United States.
Trump has signed more executive orders than any other president has in their first 100 days in office by a wide margin. His 142 executive orders signed is 20 shy of the total number of executive orders signed by former President Joe Biden in his entire term in office, according to the University of California-Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project.
“What is impressive is the speed and robustness of the agenda that has been enacted almost right away,” Taufiq Rahim, geopolitical strategist and author of Trump 2.5: A Primer, told UPI. “You could posit it’s almost one year of activity, if not more, done in 100 days.”
Governing through executive order has resulted in court challenges on nearly all fronts. State officials and businesses have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration over its broad tariff policy.
Advocacy organizations are suing the administration, alleging it has violated the Constitution rights of immigrants that have been detained within and outside of the United States.
Teachers unions and universities are challenging Trump’s attempt to close the Department of Education and withhold federal grants.
“He’s had more executive orders challenged in court in his first 100 days than any other president, other than possibly [Franklin Delano Roosevelt],” Michael Genovese, author of The Modern Presidency and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University, told UPI.
Genovese said that executive orders may create the appearance of achieving policy goals in the short term but passing legislation through Congress is more effective in the long term. Executive orders are prone to legal challenges. If they survive those challenges, they can be easily undone by a new administration.
“The laws are lasting. Executive orders are not,” Genovese said. “Executive orders are a good short-term elixir. But they’re almost always overturned. Biden overturned Trump’s. Trump overturned Biden’s. They don’t have lasting power but they certainly look good.”
Immigration and deportations
The president has taken broad, in some cases unprecedented measures to detain and remove immigrants from the United States. His plans began to unfurl within hours of being sworn in and have continued through his first 100 days in office.
The due process rights of immigrants have remained a concern as the administration has gone a step further, sending hundreds of detainees to a prison in El Salvador. At least one person, 29-year-old Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, has been determined to be falsely detained and sent to the prison.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States more than two weeks ago, determining that his removal from the United States is illegal. The Trump administration has refused to do so with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying he will not be returned.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, in a meeting with Trump at the White House, said he will not release Abrego Garcia to the United States. Trump did not respond when asked about returning Abrego Garcia and attorney general Pam Bondi said that decision is “up to El Salvador if they want to return him.”
“The courts have already made it pretty clear that people in the country are entitled to due process, whether they’re in the country legally or not,” Stephen Farnsworth, political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, told UPI.
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled that members of the Trump administration may be held in criminal contempt if they continue to disregard the court’s order to stop deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime law.
The U.S. Supreme Court later vacated Boasberg’s decision, ruling that deportation flights may continue.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” that have not cooperated with federal immigration law enforcement for punishment, threatening to withhold federal funding.
Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, ordering resources, including military personnel, to stem the arrival of immigrants into the United States. The administration undercut the functions of the CBP One app that was used for migrants to make appointments with immigration officials. It also authorized law enforcement officers to detain immigrants in churches and schools.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked the legal status of about 1 million migrants who entered the United States using the CBP One app. It has instructed those affected to leave the country “immediately.”
To increase the capacity for immigrant detentions, Trump turned to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. The site has been used to detain Haitian and Cuban refugees, as well as enemy combatants and terrorist suspects post-Sept. 11.
The decision created concern among legal experts over infringing the Constitutional rights of detainees, including the right to legal representation and due process.
Education and universities
Trump has ordered the dismantling of the Department of Education, a top priority of Education Secretary Linda McMahon. He remarked at the signing of the executive order that education will be returned “back to the states where it belongs.”
Shortly after being confirmed as education secretary, McMahon began informing department staff of broad incoming cuts. This followed a Trump administration trend across many federal agencies. The department cut about 50% of its staff in March.
Twenty-one attorneys general joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration for attempting to dismantle the Department of Education. The department’s funding has been established by Congress and ending it is meant to require congressional approval. This is also the argument the lawsuit makes.
Advocates for public education argue that eliminating the department could create gaps in civil rights protections, leaving racial, ethnic and religious minorities, LGBTQ students and students with disabilities vulnerable to mistreatment.
While public K-12 education undergoes changes at the federal level, Trump has also targeted institutions of higher learning.
As part of the administration’s agenda against immigration, it has revoked hundreds of student visas and removed the records of international students across the United States without notice. Universities including, the University of Connecticut, University of Washington, University of Minnesota and University of Michigan told UPI they were not aware of federal immigration activity on campus and were not informed of the government’s actions toward their international students beforehand.
On Monday, the University of Connecticut said in an email that all students who had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated have had them restored by the federal government.
“We have learned that all of the impacted students at UConn have now had their SEVIS records restored by the federal government, meaning absent some other unexpected change, they should be able to resume their studies and work at UConn uninterrupted,” the university said in an email. “UConn continues to work to provide support for all the impacted students and will share new information as it becomes available.”
The Department of Homeland Security had blocked access to the SEVIS program well, barring international students from being able to monitor their status. On Friday, it restored access to the database.
Some international students have been detained on college campuses for allegedly taking part in protests against the war between Israel and Hamas or for voicing opposition to the Israeli government on social media. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate, was the first known to be detained for leading a protest on campus in New York.
Khalil, 30, is accused by the government of supporting Hamas. He is married to a U.S. citizen who gave birth to the couple’s first child during his detention.
On April 11, Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans ruled that Khalil can be deported. He remains detained at the Central Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement Center.
In a court filing on Thursday, the Trump administration said it did not have a warrant when Khalil was arrested.
The Trump administration is blocking research grant funding to several universities over alleged anti-Semitism on campus. The administration has blocked more than $1 billion in funding to Cornell University, $790 to Northwestern, $9 billion to Harvard and dozens of research grants to Princeton.
Blocking federal grant funding has caused some research projects to shutter overnight, researchers and advocates for higher education told UPI.
Tariffs
On April 2, a day Trump christened “Liberation Day,” the president announced broad tariffs on 180 global trade partners ranging from 10% up to 25%. Higher tariff rates were imposed on countries that impose tariffs or other trade barriers on products from the United States.
Canada and Mexico, two of the United States’ biggest trade partners, were already subject to 25% tariffs from the Trump administration.
In March, economists told UPI that tariffs imposed by the United States and retaliatory tariffs from trade partners will increase prices for U.S. consumers and create “uncertainty” in the domestic and global marketplace.
In the first day of trading after Trump’s tariff announcement, U.S. markets fell drastically. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,679 points, or 4% on April 3. The S&P 500 fell 4.8% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 6%.
The markets fluctuated in the following days with indexes remaining lower than they were before the tariffs were enacted. They hit a low point on April 7, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its greatest decline since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the United States in March 2020.
On April 9, Trump backed off many of the United States’ reciprocal tariffs, placing them under a 90-day pause as he seeks to negotiate with trade partners. Tariffs on China remained in place.
China responded to the Trump administration’s 125% tariffs by increasing its tariffs on American products to 125%. The White House said the effective tariff on China may be as high as 145% in some instances.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warns that Trump’s tariff plan will harm economic growth and increase inflation. The Fed has spent the last four years attempting to lower the long-run inflation rate to 2%.
Twelve states and several American companies have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration over its use of tariffs. A lawsuit by the nonprofit Liberty Justice Center, filed on behalf of five businesses, claims that tariffs will threaten their finances and may put them out of business.
The twelve states that filed a joint-suit against the administration argue that the president needs congressional approval to enact such tariffs and duties.
On Friday, Trump claimed progress has been made in his trade negotiations. He said in an interview that he has negotiated 200 trade deals. However he declined to share further details about those deals, including who they were made with.
“We’re meeting with China. We’re doing fine with everybody,” Trump said. “But ultimately, I’ve made all the deals.”
