We are devoted to covering the first 100 days of the Trump 2.0 presidency because that has been the traditional metric for looking at incoming administrations. But special attention needs to be paid to the first 100 hours.
On day one — presumably within the first eight hours or so — Donald Trump plans a campaign of “shock and awe” that will include as many as 100 executive orders on issues ranging from the cultural wars to the economy, energy and the border, even as Congress begins holding confirmation hearings for his Cabinet.
Trump intends to overwhelm both the media and political opponents with the sheer volume and audacity of his agenda.
Indeed, next Monday — Jan. 20 — will be the Mother of All News Dumps, and Trump intends to overwhelm both the media and political opponents with the sheer volume and audacity of his agenda. And he may well succeed, because neither the media nor the political establishment seems prepared for the storm that is about to hit them.
But it should not come as a surprise. During the campaign, Trump made dozens of promises about things he would do on that first day.
His pledges to end birthright citizenship and mandate voter IDs are of questionable constitutionality. But he will also try use the trappings of the presidency to impose billions of dollars in new tariffs and dramatically expand drilling and fracking. He may pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement by the close of business Monday.
On the very first day, Trump may launch an attack on the “deep state” by firing nonpolitical staffers throughout the government. Even if he does not fire anyone, on that first day he is expected to revive a 2020 executive order known as “Schedule F,” which would strip job protections from tens of thousands of federal workers and create a vast new pool for MAGA patronage. The threat of being fired may be enough to push some to cater to his whims.
But that may get lost in the spiraling news cycle. As usual with Trump, there will be distractions within distractions, as the most controversial strokes of fear and favor will be buried in the avalanche of appointments, firings, pardons and executive orders. Trump is expected to flood the zone with orders on vaccine mandates, DEI, critical race theory and school policies on gender.
In the first few hours, while Washington parties, Trump may even issue pardons for the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and other MAGA cronies who have been restored to favor.
At the same time, he will launch his campaign of mass deportations. As Axios reported last month: “Watch out for a Day One photo op flexing the new administration’s deportation muscle.”
It is hard to know exactly which of the many measures Trump has promised that he will actually take in those first 100 hours. But knowing Trump, we can be confident that one of them will involve a photo-op.
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Charlie Sykes is an MS NOW contributor and the author of the newsletter "To the Contrary."