President Donald Trump has done more good for the United States in his first 100 days in the White House than Joe Biden did in four years. Yet, much of the mainstream news media, chock full of journalists with a leftist bias, portrays the Trump presidency as a chaotic disaster. Trump has been smeared, scorned and labeled an authoritarian.
If the news is any indication, America is already in steep decline because of Trump's first 100 days. But I want to show a different side of what we've seen unfold since Jan. 20 as Trump moves at an extraordinary pace to implement policies that 77.3 million Americans voted for in November. Those measures will in time improve our lives and strengthen our nation.
DOGE's mission to instill fiscal responsibility is vital South Africans supporting President Donald Trump and South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump assigned to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, demonstrate in front of the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria on Feb. 15, 2025. If I had to describe Trump's first 100 days in just four letters, it would be DOGE. The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, has undertaken the Herculean task of trying to bring fiscal responsibility to a federal government that doesn't blink at trillion dollar deficits.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DOGE's critics snipe at every cut to the bloated bureaucracy, but none has offered a credible alternative. Democrats have become the party of the status quo, and the status quo has respected financial experts forecasting economic disaster for the United States if we don't cut the deficit and slow the growth of the national debt. Opinion: Musk's radical approach may reduce US debt.
He's not the problem – we are. As the CATO Institute has noted, Musk overpromised with his goal to slash federal spending by $2 trillion. But don't miss something remarkable that Musk and Trump have done in only three months: The mindset in Washington for years has been that deficits and the debt don't really matter, that the bureaucracy will grow without fail, that taxpayers just need to suck it up and pay more to keep the federal spending machine chugging along.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That mindset has now been shocked back to reality. Federal workers and entire bureaucracies have to justify their work − just like most ordinary American workers. And the expectation of endless government growth is gone.
Trump's tariffs show signs that they're working President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before he and first lady Melania Trump depart the White House on April 25, 2025, for Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. Trump's tariffs have ignited a firestorm of criticism and sparked predictions of a recession. But there have been indications that the tariffs are bringing jobs back to America.
Here are a few examples: Swiss drugmaker Novartis on April 10 announced a $23 billion investment over five years to expand manufacturing and research in the United States. The company estimated that it will add 4,000 jobs here. Honda Motor has announced that it will move production of its Civic hybrid hatchback from Japan to America.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced in February that it will build four pharmaceutical manufacturing plants in the United States. The company said the expansion will create 13,000 jobs in manufacturing and construction. In addition to his big initiatives, Trump also has signed executive orders for obscure but important matters that modernize the government and strengthen the economy.
One of the orders will end the antiquated practice in our government of issuing and accepting paper checks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opinion: We're paying too much in taxes. I want Trump to fix it.
Trump also ordered the creation of a bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile, managed by the Treasury Department. The goal with these executive orders and others is to modernize and streamline the government, which far too often moves at the speed of snail mail in a nation that expects overnight delivery. Trump is still far more popular than Biden Supporters of President Donald Trump rally for his motorcade in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 4, 2025.
To hear Trump's critics on the left and in mainstream media tell it, the president's first 100 days have brought us to the brink of economic ruin and an authoritarian dystopia. But while Trump's approval rating has dropped since he took office, far more Americans now say Trump is doing a good job than said the same thing about President Joe Biden in January − 45.3% for Trump versus 36% for Biden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app.
Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. So while progressives scream louder and louder into the void, millions of ordinary Americans are sticking with Trump and his agenda of rapid and dramatic change.
I'm one of them. History will show that Trump's first 100 days involved a policy blitz of epic proportions. I didn't think he could drive so much change so fast, but he has, and I'm glad.
Nicole Russell is a columnist at USA TODAY and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at nrussell@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, The Right Track, here.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: In Trump's 100 days, DOGE, tariffs changed the conversation | Opinion
