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By Carlo Versano
Director, Politics & Culture
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The Insider's Track
Good morning,
There's a scene in the last season of HBO's Succession where Logan Roy, the family patriarch and Rupert Murdoch stand-in, is addressing all of his idiot children and says: "I love you, but you are not serious people." That's where I'm at with the Trump administration at the 100 day mark. These are just not serious people.
I was mocked/teased back in January when I said I was hopeful that the incoming president, having had four years to marinate on what went wrong during his first term and having just completed a political comeback for the ages, would return to office armed with a strategy beyond just "burn it all down." But after 100 days, I sure don't see it.
Sure, Trump deserves credit for doing—or at least attempting—much of what he said he was going to do on the campaign trail. And in terms of just sheer speed and vitality, it's a remarkable start to a presidency. The man does not stop. But it's all so backwards looking. MAGA is built on destruction..of norms, of enemies, of expertise. Where is the vision? Who in this administration or the broader MAGA movement is talking about what we want this country to look like in 10, 20, 50 years? How are we going to manage the AI and clean energy transitions? Trump's talking about bringing back coal ffs, when we have the tech to build small modular nuclear reactors that could power every town in America.
DOGE was a failure, if you believe it was a cost-cutting venture and not an ideological purge (which was always the real point). Elon Musk will go down as a tragic figure of the Trump era—an actual industrialist visionary whose singular genius could have been used for something positive, rather than just firing a bunch of low-level bureaucrats and presiding over the brand destruction of a great American company.
The war in Ukraine seems no closer to an end than it did on Jan. 19, with even Trump appearing to see that he's being played by Putin now. Israel is back to carpet bombing what's left of Gaza, using my tax dollars (which I never seem to get a say in no matter who is president). China is calling our bluff on the tariffs, halting the export of critical materials we need for advanced technology—something entirely foreseeable to anyone paying attention—while Trump exempts Chinese-made electronics, which were the whole point if we wanted to actually attempt to reshore manufacturing! And speaking of manufacturing, isn't Elon kind of an expert? They've got him standing around the White House in his dumb T-shirts, why not at least tap into his knowledge on this?
On immigration, which I suppose you could see as one of the administration's early successes, I think what is more likely is that Trump will end up presiding over a massive thermostatic backlash in public opinion to his legally questionable and, frankly, sickening deportation policy. Hosting an actual Latin American dictator in the Oval to discuss renditioning American citizens? Seriously? Why exactly are we deporting pregnant mothers and their toddlers? Or college students, misguided as they may be? Wasn't the priority supposed to be hardened criminals and gangbangers? All of this will just make it more difficult to get actual bipartisan immigration reform done, assuming Congress ever decides to attempt its job of passing legislation.
The NYT columnist David Brooks has a quote I've always liked: "Trump is the wrong answer to the right question." He is a political savant who has accurately diagnosed many of the problems of 21st century America. But his solutions to those problems are rarely the right ones. I was hopeful his second go around would be different: more strategic, less chaotic. So far, I've been wrong.
The Rundown
How Trump's Approval Rating Stands After 100 Days
After 100 days in office, Donald Trump's approval rating stands at 44 percent, with his disapproval at 54 percent, giving the president a net approval rating of -10 points, according to Newsweek's tracker—his net lowest approval rating so far since beginning his second term. Read more.
- Musk and DOGE: In Trump's first 100 days, Elon Musk has been a key ally, leading federal spending cuts as head of DOGE and promoting the administration on X. But his close ties to Trump have hurt his brands—and his approval rating has fallen even lower than the president's. Read more.
- Biggest political battles of 2026: Thirteen members of Congress have already announced they will not seek reelection in 2026, setting the stage for what could be a transformative midterm election cycle, with control of both chambers hanging in the balance. Read the full story.
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