Karen Hult
The first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term were highlight by fast-paced executive actions, deepening political polarization, and mixed public reaction, says a Virginia Tech political scientist.
“Many view Trump — like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan — as a ‘transformative’ president, a ‘disrupter.’ For many voters seeking ‘change,’ this was an attractive description,” said Virginia Tech political scientist , noting that the first 100 days of a presidential term is a familiar — if at best incomplete — early indicator of presidential performance, that dates back to FDR.
Hult noted differences between the first 100 days of Trump’s second term and those who held office before him.
· “There is increasing party polarization at all levels of U.S. government, amidst the emerging dominance of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party and internal disagreements over priorities and strategies in the Democratic Party.”
· “Trump is only the second president in U.S. history to be reelected after a previous defeat. That Mr. Trump returned to office after the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and the July 2024 Trump v. U.S. U.S. Supreme Court decision on presidential powers further distinguishes him from his predecessors and may well be shaping his actions as President.”
· “Unlike FDR in 1933 and Barack Obama in 2009, President Trump has not returned to the White House in the midst of an economic crisis.”
She noted that reactions to Trump’s second-term 100 days have been sharply mixed.
· “At the outset, the speed and the diverse nature of the actions of the new administration —ranging from national security to absorption of Greenland and Canada, to trade, to deportation, to public health, to scientific research, to restrictions on education, to firing government workers — took some off-guard, with others trying to decide how to prioritize responses,” Hult said.
· “Over time, anger and resistance emerged both in the U.S. and around the world, lawsuits mounted, and citizen protests began to be organized. For much of the time, though, most Republicans remained supportive, or reluctant to publicly challenge the President,” she said.
· She added, “These factors and evident chaos and disorganization at the defense department and elsewhere may well be behind the President’s declining approval ratings and mounting disapproval responses.”
About Hult   
Hult, professor of political science at Virginia Tech, serves on the faculty of the ’ with expertise in the U.S. presidency, federal and state politics, policy and governance, and federal and state courts. Read her full bio .
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