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First 100 Days of Trump’s Presidency | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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US President Donald Trump (AFP)


London – The US President’s agenda for Tuesday was packed with political activities with internal and external ramifications including tensions with the Canadian government, criticism over “lying” media, and his speech on the holocaust remembrance day.

Like every day, Trump began his 96th day of the 1,400 presidency days, by receiving the intelligence report by 10:00 AM (local time). He then headed to the Congress for the holocaust remembrance day, followed by a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to discuss the budget that the Congress is supposed to approve on Friday. Later that afternoon, Trump met with National Security Adviser Lieutenant General Herbert Raymond.

The White House publishes each morning the schedule of the President, except the weekends he spends at his private resort in Mar-a-Lago.

Like every US President, the first 100 days is a chance to form his cabinet and set his domestic policies concerning important issues like the economy, immigration, healthcare, and security. It is also a time to decide on foreign policy like the North Korean threat, countering terrorism and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The first period of Trump’s presidency was a major concern all over the world to try and figure out whether the President was different than Trump the candidate. Everyone wanted to know if the policy he based on “America First” will affect Washington’s foreign policy.

It seems that Trump has managed to calm his western and Arab allies about his country’s commitment to support their interests. The president’s major achievement may be getting close to China and encouraging it to come up with a solution to end the North Korean crisis. He also managed to pressure Iran with a series of sanctions for supporting terrorism in the region.

While Democrats and some Republicans and international observers released their criticism for the first 100 days of presidency, the White House sent an email commemorating Donald Trump’s 100th day.

“Despite historic Democrat obstructionism, President Trump has worked with Congress to pass more legislation in his first 100 days than any President since Truman,” the email reads.

The email titled “President Trump’s 100 Days of Historic Accomplishments,” claims Trump has “accomplished more in his first 100 days than any other President since Franklin Roosevelt”.

It highlights the 30 executive orders and 28 laws Trump has signed since taking office, pointing that Barack Obama only signed 19 and George W. Bush 11 during their first 100 days.

The White House statement wasn’t enough as Trump insisted in a tweet that he has accomplished a great deal during the first 100 days.

“No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!” he wrote on Twitter last week.

US media is divided on his performance.

Newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post focused on the White House’s setbacks especially after the suspension of the travel ban which initially was for seven Muslim countries and then for six. Other newspapers stated his accomplishments like the release of Aya Hijazi and the attack on Shayrat airport in Syria and his strong opinions against Iran.

Yet, all observers agree that the president became aware of the mission assigned to him after he was elected. This was confirmed by Trump himself who said that his changed style is successful.

Minutes before giving his approval for the attacks on Assad’s regime, Trump said: “I am flexible and I am proud of that flexibility.”

The President also gave similar statements after he tried and failed to replace Obamacare, saying: “Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.”
Following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he said: “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy.”

It is worth mentioning that Trump is not the first president who realizes how complicated it is to be in the highest political position in the world.

Former President George W. Bush recently told AFP: “There’s just something about this job as president every president faces, you know, that you think one thing going in and then the pressures of the job or the realities of the world, you know, are different than you thought.”

Trump still has until Saturday to overcome an obstacle on the approval of the Congress to adopt the budget. After midnight of April 28, the US federal funding will stop and the administrations can’t perform legally if the Congress doesn’t vote.

Part of Trump’s priorities is to build the wall that prevents immigrants from illegally entering from Mexico. He requested $1.4 billion to build the wall but opposition by Democrats is setting obstacles in case the new budget allocated money for this project.

Over the next few days, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper will publish a series of articles analyzing the performance of the US President during the first 100 days.