Understanding the “First Hundred Days”
The idea of judging a president by their first 100 days in office dates back to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal blitz in 1933. Ever since, it’s served as a benchmark for evaluating early priorities, tone, and executive impact. For libertarians, that means asking: Has government grown or shrunk? Have Americans gained more freedom, or lost it?
Let’s examine where President Trump’s return to the White House stands on those counts.
Economy
Tariffs Return with a Vengeance: Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports, from allies and adversaries alike, signal a revival of protectionist policy. Markets wobbled, and consumer prices are already rising in key sectors.
Tax Cuts Without Spending Cuts: Promises to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime sound good, but without significant spending reductions, they risk compounding the federal debt.
Libertarian View: Tariffs are taxes on consumers, not foreign governments. We favor tax relief, but when paired with spending discipline.
Foreign Policy
Ukraine Aid Halted: The administration has halted lethal aid to Ukraine and called on Europe to assume more responsibility. This marks a shift away from interventionist spending.
Blank Check to Israel: Simultaneously, the administration continues sending arms to Israel and offering military support without conditions.
Libertarian View: We applaud a move toward restraint in Ukraine, but oppose maintaining entanglements elsewhere. America should not be the world’s police force, or arms dealer.
Support our push to end America’s role as the world’s police. >>>
Domestic Policy and Regulation
Executive Order Overload: Over 140 executive orders in the first 100 days alone. Topics range from rolling back DEI mandates to renaming geographic regions and expanding executive authority.
DOGE and Downsizing: A new Department of Government Efficiency claims billions in cuts and tens of thousands of federal layoffs, though questions remain about the math. Even with these cuts, overall U.S. spending remains at or near record highs.
Libertarian View: Shrinking government is a win. But relying on executive orders instead of legislative change centralizes power, even when the policy is right. Real decentralization requires structural change, not just a reshuffling of bureaucracies.
Justice and Criminal Reform
Mass Pardons: President Trump has pardoned over 1,500 individuals, including non-violent January 6 defendants and Ross Ulbricht.
Police Militarization Resurges: Orders to loosen federal oversight of police, re-arm departments with military gear, and expand legal immunity signal a doubling down on authoritarian law enforcement.
Support for Foreign Detention Without Trial: The administration has voiced admiration for El Salvador’s mega-prison strategy, locking thousands of people away without trial, and expressed interest in similar approaches, raising serious due process concerns.
Libertarian View: We cheer the pardons, especially for peaceful dissenters and victims of the drug war. But we strongly oppose the expansion of the death penalty, militarized policing, and any move toward extrajudicial imprisonment. Liberty demands justice, not vengeance.
Education
States First, Bureaucracy Last: Moves to decentralize education and restore power to states and parents have gained steam.
Simultaneously, the Department of Education is increasing its investigations into universities and revoking student visas for foreign nationals who express support for Palestinians, an alarming violation of free speech, regardless of citizenship.
Libertarian View: Education should be free of federal control, full stop. We support school choice and oppose any federal overreach, whether from the left or right.
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Energy & Environment
Paris Accord Abandoned Again: The administration has exited the Paris climate agreement and reversed several “green” federal mandates.
Protectionist Energy Tariffs: Tariffs on Canadian oil and other imports contradict the principles of free trade and energy independence.
Libertarian View: We support rejecting international regulatory entanglements. But tariffs, even green ones, interfere with market efficiency and raise costs.
Health
WHO Withdrawal: Trump has cut ties with the World Health Organization, citing its pandemic failures and lack of transparency.
Budget Cuts at HHS: Billions in cuts have been proposed for Health and Human Services, though without broader entitlement reform.
Food Color Bans & Autism Registry: Federal regulatory actions have also targeted certain food dyes and floated a national “autism registry” with both raising troubling questions about medical surveillance and government overreach into personal health decisions.
Libertarian View: Government should never be in the business of making health decisions for individuals. Whether it’s mandates, registries, or nanny-state bans, the principle remains the same: the state should not be your doctor, nor your dietitian.
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Debt and Fiscal Outlook
Despite a few headline cuts, a ballooning defense budget and unfunded tax changes threaten to expand an already unsustainable national debt.
Libertarian View: Real fiscal responsibility means tackling the root of the problem: entitlements and military spending. Anything else is political theater.
Military
Defense Budget Soars: A record-setting $1 trillion defense package, new fighter jets, and expanded military bases reveal that the warfare state remains fully funded.
Libertarian View: National defense is vital, but the Pentagon is not sacred. We oppose endless growth in military budgets and unconstitutional foreign interventions.
Help us challenge bloated defense budgets and endless wars. >>>
Immigration
Mass Deportation Plan Announced: The administration is rapidly expanding detention facilities and pledging mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, including long-settled workers and families.
Asylum Restriction Orders: New policies further limit asylum access, encourage expedited removals, and penalize humanitarian entry.
Underlying System Still Broken: Despite aggressive enforcement, there is no serious effort to reform the legal immigration system, leaving in place a byzantine, quota-ridden bureaucracy that incentivizes illegal entry in the first place.
Libertarian View: A free society requires the free movement of peaceful people. Mass deportation, militarized borders, and federal centralization of immigration policy are fundamentally at odds with individual liberty. Without real reform that expands legal pathways, the core dysfunctions fueling illegal immigration will remain, and so will the crisis.
| Libertarian Scorecard |
| Liberty Wins: Mass pardons of peaceful offenders, DEI rollbacks and agency cuts, Pause on Ukraine aid, School choice emphasis, WHO exit and HHS cuts Liberty Losses: Tariffs and protectionism, Record use of executive orders, $1T defense budget and military buildup, Police militarization and civil-liberties erosion, Immigration crackdowns without system reform |
| Final Grade: C- Trump’s second term launch is a mixed bag for liberty. While there are signs of positive disruption—some red tape is being slashed, some political prisoners pardoned, some war spending paused—the deeper disease of centralization, fiscal irresponsibility, and state power remains unaddressed. Libertarians should praise the steps toward decentralization, but stay vigilant as power continues to shift, often just from one federal hand to another. |