March 11 (UPI) — President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office — a symbolic measuring stick for a new president — are halfway through.
Trump is leading a charge to cut federal spending, the federal workforce and foreign aid in his return to the White House, while also aiming to stem immigration and follow through on promises to impose tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada.
Here is what his administration has done in his return to the Oval Office.
Firing government employees
The Trump administration has undertaken a large-scale effort to cut government spending chiefly by laying off federal employees. Elon Musk, billionaire adviser to the president, has led the campaign to cut what he views as wasteful spending, along with the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump directed agencies to prepare for “large-scale reductions in force” as his administration seeks to cut more than $4 trillion in government spending.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget followed suit, issuing a memo in late February reiterating that a federal hiring freeze will remain in effect. Its guidance says that for every one employee hired, four should “depart.”
Nongovernmental organizations were the target of one of Trump’s broad efforts to slash the federal workforce.
Trump suspended foreign aid for 90 days and called for foreign aid workers abroad to return to the United States to be laid off. He ordered that the United States Agency for International Development be moved into the State Department under the purview of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The move put the jobs of more than 2,200 USAID employees on the chopping block. More than 80% of USAID programs will be canceled, according to Rubio.
Foreign aid represents about 1% of the federal budget.
The Trump administration gave more than 2 million federal workers an ultimatum to either return to the office full time or voluntarily resign. A federal judge temporarily paused what is being called a deferred resignation program in February before allowing it to go back into effect.
On Saturday, more federal workers received the buyout offer. Employees with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were offered “Voluntary Incentive Payments” of up to $25,000 in an email from the Office of Personnel Management. They were given five business days to decide if they would accept.
Layoffs have hit multiple agencies, initially focusing largely on new hires or probationary employees. Among other agencies that have begun firing employees are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration, Labor Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Aviation Association.
Inspectors general, federal judges and consumer watchdogs have been terminated as well.
Some of the firings and funding freezes have been premature or ill-conceived, the administration admitted. During a cabinet meeting, Musk quipped that it was a mistake to cut funding for Ebola prevention.
Since laying off employees with the National Nuclear Safety Administration, including employees responsible for the safekeeping of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the administration has scrambled to rehire those employees.
The Department of Education is among the next agencies Trump is seeking to downsize, if not close altogether. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt disputes that Trump will sign an executive order to close the department. However, The Washington Post, NPR and ABC News report seeing a draft of the executive order.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon reportedly emailed employees within the department indicating that it would be closing down.
Ending DEI programs
The Trump administration is dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programs across all federal agencies while encouraging corporate America to follow suit.
By executive order, Trump rescinded Biden administration policies aimed at establishing diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies and called for the end of “promoting diversity.”
The president ordered workers in those programs to be put on leave.
Trump’s anti-DEI push in the federal workforce contributed to the large number of layoffs among federal employees, including more than 160 Environmental Protection Agency staffers.
In February, the Department of Education directed federally funded schools to end all affirmative action policies.
“With this guidance, the Trump Administration is directing schools to end the use of racial preferences and race stereotypes in their programs and activities,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a release.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development canceled $4 million in contracts meant to promote diversity, equity and inclusion training, according to HUD secretary Scott Turner.
Immigration
Among the swath of day one actions by President Trump was the declaration of a national emergency at the southern border. Trump directed resources to the border, including military personnel, to deter immigrants from entering the United States.
Trump has authorized local law enforcement to detain unauthorized immigrants to be deported, even if it means entering a church or school to do so.
In February, the Department of Homeland Security reported that it has arrested more than 20,000 undocumented immigrants in Trump’s first month in office.
The Trump administration seeks to send those arrested to their countries of origin. Some have been sent out of the United States already. Those that remain detained are held in U.S. facilities.
Trump, in an attempt to expand U.S. detention capacity, has begun using the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to house some immigrants that he has described as the “worst of the worst.” Detainees and their family members argue that some of them have no criminal history.
More than 100 immigrants have been held in the detention facility. Guantanamo Bay houses 15 post-Sept. 11 detainees, referred to as enemy combatants, but they are held in a separate facility.
On Feb. 20, Trump signed an executive order to block undocumented immigrants from receiving government benefits. Undocumented immigrants were already barred from receiving government benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, before Trump signed the executive order.
Tariffs
The president has imposed, delayed and reworked 25% tariffs on the United States’ biggest trade partners Canada and Mexico, along with a 10% tariff on China.
After threatening tariffs before taking office, Trump put off enacting them for a month. He then enacted the tariffs early in March before quickly changing course and carving out exemptions in the case of Mexico.
Trump has also placed a broad 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports and Tuesday threatened to double the levy to 50% before reversing course.
A 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union also took effect Wednesday.
Canada will face further tariffs on dairy and lumber products beginning April 2.
In Trump’s executive orders and public comments he has outlined a few reasons for his approach to tariffs. He has long thought the United States was being taken advantage of in its trade deals with Canada and Mexico.
Trump also seeks to use tariffs to implore Canada and Mexico to take greater action to stem fentanyl smuggling into the United States. One of the reasons he quickly eased the tariffs on Mexico was, according to Trump, a show of good faith for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum committing resources toward stopping drug trafficking across the southern border.
A relatively small amount of fentanyl has been seized while being smuggled across the northern border.
Ukraine
The Trump administration has taken a starkly different approach to the war in Ukraine than its predecessor, marked with a fiery Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump has expressed his desire to end the war quickly after entering office. In February, he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to stop fighting,” after a call between the presidents a week prior.
The White House engaged in negotiations with Russia to end the war, notably leaving Ukraine out of those talks for some time.
Zelensky met with Trump at the White House on March 5 to discuss peace terms. The meeting devolved into Trump and Vice President JD Vance shouting down Zelensky, accusing him of being ungrateful and disrespectful over the United States’ support for Ukraine.
“It is regrettable that it happened this way,” Zelensky said of the meeting in a statement. “It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”
After the meeting, the Trump administration halted sharing military intelligence with Ukraine.
Trump and Zelensky had also been in talks on an agreement to assist in the reconstruction of Ukraine. The terms of the deal have not yet been finalized but it would involve Ukraine and the United States contributing to a Reconstruction Investment Fund. A share of Ukraine’s proceeds from its state-owned mineral resources would be put toward the fund.
The United States would control a maximum percentage of the fund’s equity and financial interest allowed under U.S. law.
Jan. 6 pardons
Within hours of taking office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol four years earlier.
Among those pardoned were convicted felons who orchestrated the attack on the Capitol, including leaders of neo-Nazi and white supremacists groups the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
Trump’s proclamation to release the rioters called their indictments a “grave national injustice.”
More than 1,500 people were charged with crimes related to the attack on the Capitol, including more than 500 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Pushback from courts
A number of Trump’s actions received pushback from the judicial system.
One of Trump’s first actions in office was an attempt to end birthright citizenship by executive order. A federal judge blocked this attempt, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” Birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“I have been on the bench for over four decades,” said Judge John Coughenour, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan. “I can’t remember another case where the case presented is as clear as it is here. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”
The Trump administration appealed the decision but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the emergency motion from the Justice Department.
Among Trump’s broad attempts to remove the rights and protections of the transgender community was a ban on gender-affirming care for youth. Judge Brendan Hurson of the U.S. District Court of Maryland issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration over this ban in February.
The ban sought to condition or withhold federal funding for healthcare facilities and professionals that provide gender-affirming care to patients under the age of 19.
Trump also signed an executive order to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports. A very small number of transgender women have competed in women’s sports in the United States.
In January, as part of the Trump administration’s push to examine federal spending, it froze all federal funding. The decision sparked widespread chaos as federal programs were put at risk. Programs that provide assistance to low-income families, schools, housing and healthcare were among those disrupted.
Federal Judge Loren AliKhan quickly granted a motion to block the Trump administration’s federal freeze and the administration rescinded the order.
AliKhan called the funding freeze “ill-conceived.”
The Trump administration’s plan to have the Office of Personnel Management identify employees across federal agencies to be fired was blocked by a federal judge on Feb. 27. The Trump administration sent out the memo to federal departments on Jan. 20 and Feb. 14.
Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California ruled that the memo is illegal and the Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority to hire or fire employees in other agencies.
The Trump administration was ruled to have unlawfully fired Hampton Dellinger, a Special Counsel of the Office of the Special Counsel. Dellinger, a government watchdog, was fired via email from Sergio Gor, a director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office.
The Office of the Special Counsel is responsible for protecting federal employees from whistleblower retaliation or political coercion. It also investigates misconduct and enforces the Hatch Act. It is designed to be an apolitical, independent agency.
On March 5, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must resume foreign aid payments. It was also ordered to pay about $2 billion to nonprofit aid groups that it had been withholding for work that was already completed.