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Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world

Donald Trump returned to the White House in January promising to reboot America. “From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation,” he declared.

Since his inauguration, he has moved at breakneck speed to execute a radical agenda: directing the world’s richest man to gut the US government; vowing to broker peace deals from Ukraine to Israel; and upending long-standing trade alliances to reorder the world’s biggest economy.

The turmoil emanating from the most powerful politician on the planet has stupefied markets and shaken one of the world’s biggest bureaucracies. In 10 charts below, we map the first 100 days of Trump’s second term.

Executive orders

The main tool of Trump’s sweeping agenda has been the executive order. He has signed more than 100 directives in his second administration to date — an unrivalled pace.

New presidents often use executive orders to revoke those signed by their predecessors, but Trump’s second-term flurry has relentlessly unpicked Joe Biden’s legacy. In more than 140 orders Biden was mentioned by name 24 times, even in attacks on what Trump called the “anti-Christian weaponisation of government” and “the Obama-Biden war on showers”. Trump’s use of phrases such as “rescinding” or “revocation” far outstrip any postwar president.

Tariffs, the markets and inflation

Trump has made liberal use of tariff powers in his pursuit of a new era of American autarky. His protectionist approach has left the US’s effective tariff rate, at the upper estimate, above anything seen this century.

The tariffs have triggered widespread confusion and bitter trade wars as other nations, most notably China, hit back with levies of their own. The chaos has hurt the outlook for US economic growth and hammered the dollar, which recently hit its lowest level in three years against a basket of its peers.

After a brief bump following the president’s return to office, equity markets have also tumbled, driven largely by the tariff confusion. The S&P 500 is down about 8 per cent since Trump’s inauguration — the worst first 100- day performance of any president since Gerald Ford.

Trump’s pledge to tame soaring prices was a key factor in securing his return to office. Inflation, which was already slowing under Biden, has continued to fall. But so has consumer sentiment, as the trade fallout stokes fears of a global recession.

Public approval

While it is common for presidents to see a decline in their approval polling during their initial months in office, the drop-off for Trump has been unusually steep. He is less popular at the 100-day mark than any president since the inception of approval polling — except himself, in his first term.

The most recent polling also shows net disapproval for his handling of issues including the economy, trade and immigration — areas that were widely considered central to his electoral victory in November.

Slashing the government

Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, is headed by multibillionaire Elon Musk. Doge has taken a hatchet to US government agencies and pushed mass lay-offs of federal employees. The number of contracts the government has scrapped has surged.

But the role played by Musk — the world’s richest man — has proved unpopular with Americans and many of the president’s allies. Musk’s approval rating has plunged — and with it the share price of Tesla, the electric car company he heads.

Border crackdown

Amid increased border enforcement and harsh rhetoric from Trump — who has vowed to carry out mass deportations — illegal border crossings have plummeted this year. US authorities at the southern border apprehended 7,181 people in March, the lowest monthly total since September 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Trump administration has also expanded immigration enforcement within the US and carried out deportations without due process in defiance of court rulings, including the erroneous deportation of a man who remains in a prison in El Salvador.

More aggressive enforcement at the border has also led to several high-profile incidents of detained European and Canadian tourists, including a Welsh backpacker who was in custody for 19 days and taken to the airport in shackles.

Such reports, along with opposition to US policies, have contributed to a sharp drop in international tourism. Canadians, incensed by Trump’s threats of annexation and tariffs, have also launched a “patriotic boycott” of US travel.

Reporting by Myles McCormick in Washington, Oliver Roeder, Eva Xiao and Sam Learner in New York and Clara Murray, Martin Stabe and Chris Cook in London