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In his first hundred days, Franklin Roosevelt established the foundations for what would become the welfate state, writes GÉRALD OLIVIER in La Contre-Révolution Trump après cent jours (1ere partie), that is, an ever-increasing involvement of the government in all aspects of citizens' lives.
What Trump has accomplished in his first hundred days almost a century later — in an article where GÉRALD OLIVIER gives a "survey of what was, if not accomplished, at least
initiated, during the hundred day-period that has changed America the
most in the past 100 years" — is similar to FDR's, but in the opposite direction.
In three months, he has launched the most ambitious counter-revolution ever envisioned in the United States. The term is not too strong. It is indeed a "counter-revolution." Donald Trump's ambition is to unravel the immense web woven by the government since 1945 and unleash the creative and entrepreneurial energy of the American people. At the same time, he aims to rebalance the international trade system as it has existed since that same date, in order to consolidate the United States' position as the world's leading power while restoring its aura in the world.
This counter-revolution has been conducted at a rapid pace, primarily through presidential decrees (Executive Orders or EOs). He signed 142 of them. A record. FDR signed 99 in his first three months.
Neither the form nor the substance of this counter-revolution were surprising.
Trump is known for wanting to move quickly and favoring a form of chaos to surprise and destabilize his adversaries. He learned this in business. To change things, "you have to move fast and cause havoc," as a popular expression in Silicon Valley goes. He therefore launched a furious "blitzkrieg," acting on all fronts simultaneously.
Donald Trump also announced and detailed the actions of his future administration during his presidential campaign. In dozens of tirelessly repeated remarks and speeches. His slogans "America First" and "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) foreshadowed everything he has undertaken since January 20: fighting illegal immigration, fighting inflation, reviving fossil fuels, reducing bureaucracy, eliminating wokeness, returning to common sense, reindustrializing the United States, and rebalancing international trade.
The only surprises came from his foreign policy. Trump restored the Monroe Doctrine and proclaimed a new American imperialism, something he had hardly elaborated on before his election. He also clashed with geopolitical realities, and his hopes of achieving peace in Ukraine were dashed by the intransigence of the parties to the conflict. However, his commitment to Israel in the Middle East was exemplary.
An overview of what was, if not accomplished, at least begun during the 100-day period that changed America the most in a century.
Illegal Immigration
The fight against illegal immigration is the most convincing success of the American administration since January. Donald Trump managed to close the country's southern border. What his predecessors said was impossible without a new law from Congress, he accomplished single-handedly in just a few weeks. The border with Mexico, which was crossed by an average of 5,000 people every day from 2021 to 2024, and sometimes as many as 12,000, is now seeing fewer than 200 daily crossings. 178 to be precise at the end of April. The flow has stopped. Overnight. There is no longer a massive influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. This has had an immediate impact on criminal risk, terrorism risk, and drug trafficking.
At the same time, the Trump administration has launched the most massive deportation operation of all time. Every day, approximately 1,000 illegal immigrants, accused of crimes in the United States and sometimes already convicted, are apprehended and returned to their countries of origin or held in pretrial detention on American soil. This is particularly the case for members of the MS-13 gangs in El Salvador and the Tren de Aragua gang in Venezuela, who are sent to the CECOT terrorist detention center in El Salvador.
The administration's swift execution, particularly that of the border police (ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement), has provoked the ire of Democrats and several judges who have attempted to block the deportations, arguing that they are unconstitutional and deprive the victims of their rights. Trump and his administration have appealed these orders, and these disputes will inevitably end up before the Supreme Court, which will be called upon to rule in the coming months, or even weeks. This will be an opportunity to clearly redefine the scope of presidential powers regarding illegal immigration, as well as the limits to judicial obstructionism.
As a reminder, interference by federal judges to block executive branch decisions at the national level has been steadily increasing recently, constituting a means of blocking government action, completely contrary to the popular will expressed through the electoral process. During George W. Bush's two eight-year terms in office, there were a total of six judicial injunctions against his decisions. Then, twelve during the eight years of the Obama presidency. And sixty-four during Trump's first term alone. Under Biden, the total had fallen to fourteen. It has reached thirty-five during the first three months of Trump's new term, for a total of 99. Clearly, the local judicial system has become the new recourse for the Democratic opposition to halt executive action and interfere with the democratic process when the Republicans are in power.
Fighting Inflation
On the inflation front, the price of key commodities, including eggs—a staple of the traditional American breakfast—and especially gasoline, have fallen considerably. It cost $6.50 to buy a dozen eggs on January 21st; now, the price is $3.20. A 50% drop. A barrel of crude oil, which was $73 on January 20th, fell to $58 on April 8th. It has since risen to $63. This represents a drop of 15 to 20%, which was immediately felt at the pump by American drivers (and European drivers, but with less impact given the weight of taxes on gasoline prices in Europe).
In Georgia, gasoline has fallen below $2 per gallon (akin to 4 liters) in some places. The national average price remains at $3.15, whereas it had hovered near $5 in July 2022.
The United States is currently experiencing no domestic inflationary pressure. This does not prevent the media from denouncing a "potential risk of imported inflation" presented by the widespread increase in tariffs that Trump introduced on April 2. However, this is only a "risk," not a proven reality, and this risk is uncertain because the level of the tariffs in question is currently subject to multiple negotiations, and the impact of a tariff on a product's selling price is a matter of debate.
Energy Revival
Regarding energy, the Green New Deal, beloved by the tree huggers, is dead, and the United States has once again withdrawn from the 2015 Paris Agreement. Donald Trump has reauthorized the exploitation of fossil fuel deposits, authorized liquefied gas exports, issued new exploration permits, notably in Alaska, a vast territory containing equally vast hydrocarbon reserves, restarted the production of "clean coal," and suspended permits for the installation of new "wind farms." In short, fossil fuels, which abound in the United States' subsoil, are once again popular, and renewable energies are being restored to their historic place as backup energy sources.
Trump established a "National Energy Dominance Council" whose task is to work not simply toward US energy independence, which was achieved during his first term, but also toward its dominance in the global market.
Trump also ended the ban on internal combustion vehicles in 2035. The Biden administration had decreed that electric vehicles should account for 67% of car sales by 2032, and 100% three years later. This decision was made without any public consultation or parliamentary debate by the un-elected bureaucrats of the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump put an end to this ambition, which was nothing more than wishful thinking and would spell the end of the American auto industry.
Conversely, he encouraged the production of all types of vehicles—internal combustion, hybrid, and electric—on American soil. This was to revive the struggling industry and support the re-industrialization of the United States. Many manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai, and Audi, have responded to this call, motivated by the desire to avoid the tariffs that President Trump has begun imposing on imported vehicles and auto parts.
Government Reform and the Fight Against the Deep State
The DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) is the most spectacular creation of the Trump 2.0 administration. And the opposition it has generated is both a reflection of its success and an illustration of the true mood prevailing in Washington.
For decades, American presidents, both Republican and Democratic, have complained about a sprawling, costly, and paralyzing bureaucracy. Ronald Reagan complained about it as early as 1981, Bill Clinton in the 1990s, and Barack Obama in 2012. All vowed to take action to reduce this bureaucracy.
At the time, this ambition was unanimously supported by public opinion. But all these presidents have, in truth, done nothing. A speech full of melodrama, and nothing beneath it. Donald Trump, on the other hand, who had promised to act quickly and decisively to reduce the power and influence of un-elected bureaucrats during his campaign, set about drastically reducing bureaucracy upon his return to the White House. First with a simple rule: a new regulation can only be instituted if ten existing rules are eliminated. Then with the creation of DOGE, which he entrusted to Elon Musk.
The task specified to Musk is to identify all "abuses, fraud, and waste" existing in government agencies and services, in order to inform directors so that they can take the necessary measures. In just three months, Musk has exposed tens of billions of dollars of waste, often bordering on negligence, sometimes incompetence, as well as outright embezzlement and a form of corruption. In short, Musk has revealed the use of billions of dollars of public funds to finance opaque progressive propaganda outlets in the United States and abroad.
Musk should have been celebrated as a hero. He should have been praised, thanked, and rewarded. Because, without asking for any compensation, he launched a fight on behalf of American taxpayers, to ensure that their hard-earned dollars were spent wisely and for causes that served the United States' interests. But he was vilified, denounced, threatened, and attacked. His companies' products were vandalized and boycotted. Why? Because by attacking the bureaucracy—that is, the deep state—with a chainsaw, Elon Musk has shaken the Democratic political machine and endangered the radical nebula that has thrived for years on hidden government subsidies. The violence of the attacks he continues to face is, moreover, the true measure of the success of his actions.
So far, DOGE has saved $160 billion. That's 10% of the budget deficit. One hundred and twenty thousand civil service jobs have been eliminated. That sounds like a lot, but it only represents 6% of the workforce, or $12 billion in savings per year. Dozens of agencies have nevertheless seen their missions redefined or suspended, indicating that DOGE's impact is not just economic but political.
Dans La Contre-Révolution Trump après cent jours (1ere partie), GÉRALD OLIVIER nous donne un "Tour d’horizon de ce qui a été, sinon accompli, du moins commencé, au cours des cent premiers jours qui ont le plus changé l'Amérique en un siècle."
Le 30 avril a clos les premiers cent jours du second mandat de Donald Trump à la Maison Blanche. C’est une date symbolique. Non pas en référence aux cent jours de Napoléon en 1815, mais aux cent jours de Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) en 1933.
Devenu président après deux ans d’une crise économique sans précédent, Roosevelt avait réussi à stopper la spirale dépressive et redonner espoir à ses concitoyens, grâce à une série de réformes votées durant ses cent premiers jours. Ce faisant, il avait révolutionné le gouvernement, la politique et l’économie américaines plus qu’aucun de ses prédécesseurs. Ses premiers jours avaient établi les fondations de ce qui allait devenir « l’Etat providence », soit une implication toujours plus étendue du gouvernement dans tous les aspects de la vie des citoyens.
Près d’un siècle plus tard, Donald Trump est engagé dans une œuvre comparable, mais en sens inverse. En trois mois, il a lancé la plus ambitieuse contre-révolution jamais envisagée aux Etats-Unis. Le terme n’est pas trop fort. Il s’agit bien d’une « contre-révolution ». Donald Trump a pour ambition de détricoter l’immense toile tissée par le gouvernement depuis 1945 et de libérer l’énergie créative et entrepreneuriale du peuple américain. Dans le même temps, il ambitionne de rééquilibrer le système du commerce international tel qu’il existe depuis cette même date, afin de conforter la place des Etats-Unis comme première puissance mondiale et de restaurer son aura sur le monde.
Cette contre-révolution a été conduite à cent à l’heure principalement à coups de décrets présidentiels (Exexutive Orders ou EOs). Il en a signé cent quarante-deux. Un record. FDR en avait signé 99 sur ses trois premiers mois. …
Immigration clandestine
… Pour rappel les interférences de juges fédéraux pour bloquer au niveau national les décisions de l’exécutif n’ont cessé de se multiplier récemment constituant un moyen, totalement contraire au vœux populaire exprimé via la processus électoral, de bloquer l’action du gouvernement. … l’appareil judiciaire local est devenu le nouveau recours de l’opposition démocrate pour stopper l’action de l’exécutif et interférer avec le processus démocratique lorsque les Républicains sont au pouvoir.
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