Donald Trump at 100 Days

What is there to say about Donald Trump at 100 days?  Probably the biggest thing is to note his comment that he did not realize how hard the job was going to be.  When was the last time we had a president so unaware of the job he was trying to get elected to?

With respect to President Trump’s actual performance, I have previously said that I like some of his nominations/appointments, such as Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser.   

He is also getting some of his policies right.  He is not going to terminate NAFTA; he is going to renegotiate it.  He now says NATO is no longer obsolete because it is fighting terrorism.  He is not going to declare China a currency manipulator.  These positions are right; the problem is how long it took him to get to them – and how little he seems to have known about these issues to begin with.

Renegotiating NAFTA is fine.  But it was never a good idea to terminate it, and it took him too long to realize that.  The information that made him change his mind was something that a person who was running for president should have already known.  (Not that Barack Obama was all that good on his NAFTA statements while he was running for president in 2008.  {See here.}  And Hillary Clinton’s flip-flop on the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership was pretty impressive {sarcasm intended}.)

Of course, NATO is not obsolete.  It never has been.  And it is not a matter of NATO recently starting to fight terrorism. NATO has been in Afghanistan with us since near the beginning. They responded promptly after 9/11, and they have been fighting terrorism ever since.  This is not something new.

But at least President Trump is getting these things right.  The concern, however, is how many other things President Trump may still get wrong.  Also, given his late switch on these issues, you worry about how long he will stick with these positions.  How can we be sure he won’t change again?

The biggest concern, however, is his inconsistency and what seems like the randomness of his decision-making process.  While he has ultimately gotten these things right, will other countries be willing to trust him to get decisions right in the future?  More than President Trump himself, will other countries and their leaders feel they can trust the United States?  Trust is critical for a country and a leader.  Can/Will other countries trust President Trump – and us?