Trump Administration First 100 Days
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the first 100 days. Well, this week, President Trump marks 100 days as President. It has been 100 days of hell for American families, for our economy, and for our democracy. The start of Donald Trump's second term has been the worst start of any President's in modern times. He now has the lowest approvals any President has seen through his first 100 days since they started polling 80 years ago.
Tomorrow night, Senate Democrats will take to the floor to highlight the disaster of Donald Trump's first 100 days. We will expose his broken promises. We will expose his lies. We will expose the ways he is threatening democracy. So we will take to the floor and expose Donald Trump as a disastrous President in his first 100 days. We ask America to listen.
On the day he became President, Donald Trump promised a golden age for America. Today, that seems laughable. Instead of a golden age, what Americans have gotten is one of the most chaotic, corrupt, and harmful starts to a Presidency in modern history. Before our very eyes, the man who occupies the Oval Office is destroying the foundations of our democracy.
Federal law enforcement is arresting people with little due process, even going as far as arresting a judge in Wisconsin. At least four U.S. citizens--all of them children, two suffering from cancer--have been illegally deported. It is sickening. It is immoral. Arrest a judge to try to threaten and scare judges, which he has done before, saying he is about impeachment and other things? Freedom of expression and the rule of law are under attack. Government has been weaponized against the free press, against academic and judicial independence, against anyone who might disagree with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump doesn't want to be President of a democratic republic. He has said he wants to be a King or some kind of dictator. He said: Let me be a dictator for one day. But his actions show he wants to be one for much longer.
Meanwhile--meanwhile--billionaires like Elon Musk have been handed the keys to the Federal Government with little accountability.
Donald Trump claims he is a better President than George Washington, but he takes inspiration more from the likes of Viktor Orban or worse.
So 100 days into Donald Trump's second term, what exactly do Americans have to feel good about? Is it that Donald Trump's trade war has pushed our country to the brink of recession? Is it that his tariffs will cost families an average of $4,700 annually? Is it that CEOs and business owners are warning about rising costs, empty shelves, and an economic downturn? Maybe it is that the Dow Jones is on track for its worst April since 1932.
The truth is, Donald Trump's Presidency is no golden age; it is a disaster--the worst start to a new administration in modern times.
Americans are already fed up. Americans are already beginning to see that Donald Trump has betrayed them, that Donald Trump's campaign promises before he won election and his actions as President are almost in direct contradiction on issue after issue after issue. They are seeing that Donald Trump is not on their side; he is not on the side of working families. He is on the side of the billionaires, and we are all suffering for it.
What happened during recess corroborated all of this. For the last 2 weeks, my Democratic colleagues and I have seen Americans' frustrations firsthand. During the Easter recess, I traveled from one end of my State to the other. I visited six of seven congressional districts represented by Republicans in Congress in New York, and I spoke with small business owners, seniors, healthcare workers, veterans, local electeds, Republicans, Democrats, Independents--people from all walks of life. People are anxious about tariffs driving up their costs, about inflation eroding their paychecks, and are fearful for the future of Social Security.
Last week, I met with the owner of a women's clothing shop in Suffolk County, a well-known woman in Suffolk County, the head of a very successful business, Tandy's clothes, and a longtime fan of the President. She said she proudly voted for him--right when I was standing there--but now she said her small business wouldn't be able to absorb the shock of a prolonged trade war, that her costs were already up 30 percent. This is a Donald Trump voter who is angry at these tariffs.
No one I met over the last 2 weeks believed we were entering the golden age Donald Trump promised. Instead, I heard worry; I heard frustration from Republicans; I heard a lot of buyer's remorse.
Republican Members from those districts I visited are nervous, worried, and scared as could be. They know their voters don't agree with Trump, but they are too scared to buck him. In the upcoming reconciliation, we will see what they do. Will they side with Trump against what Americans need and want or will they have a little courage? We are very, very worried about the future of this country with so much at stake.
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