Trump’s jagged 100 days. It hasn’t been a serene beginning for our combative president. He’s ruffled more feathers in three months than a pair of wily foxes might ruffle when locked in a huge chicken coop for an equal duration.

President Trump has set records. As of April 25, he had signed 139 executive orders, more than three times that of the runner up in this area, Joe Biden, who had signed just over 40 over the same time frame.

Recent polls reveal how unpopular Trump has become. A CNN poll released yesterday (April 27) found 41% of respondents approve of his actions. Two days earlier, The Washington Post, ABC News, and Ipsos had him at 39% approval. Other polls have him down similar amounts, and all approval ratings have dropped several points from earlier polls. So, if those polls are accurate, I would guess that 4 out of every 10 readers of this post will be at least partly put off, but I urge them to read on. I do give our president well-deserved credit for some of his efforts.

Overall, the mood of our country is obvious. According to a recent survey of more than 900 voters conducted by the New York Times and Siena College Research Institute (see that here), 66% of those polled rated Trump’s term as “chaotic” while 42% said it was “exciting” and 59% called it “scary.”

Neither Party is popular

But democrats aren’t winning any popularity contest. Nearly 70% of voters have said that the Democratic party is out of touch with the concerns of most Americans. Some 64% of voters felt the same about the Republican party. Woe to us indeed.

Full disclosure: as I’ve said here before, my political orientation approximates that of a Jack Kennedy democrat (See here). I, like nearly 70% of the voters mentioned above, deplore how far leftward the democrats have drifted.

Nevertheless, for the last election between Trump and Harris, I, along with a significant number of voters, was faced with two subpar candidates. I thought Harris’s program, which she said did not differ from Biden’s, (such as open borders and other programs I opposed), was too much to sustain, so I voted against her by pulling the lever for Trump.

My opinion now? I haven’t been particularly charmed by Trump’s beginning. I do give him high marks for closing the borders, which is now sealed as tightly as it has been for the past 60 years, and I appreciate his attempts to rein in the federal government, albeit not the slash and burn methods he and Elon Musk have used to accomplish that.

To date, some 75,000 government employees have taken a voluntary buyout. Less impressively, thousands of federal workers that have been summarily laid off (although many have been temporarily reinstated by court orders).

On the other hand, what bugs me is the Bull in the china shop tactics by which Trump has insulted nearly all of our friends and allies throughout the world. His blabbing about Canada as our 51^st state is nonsense and demeaning. As a result, many Canadians have made clear their disdain for Trump, and even for products from our country. Who can blame them? Another reason for Trump’s jagged 100 days?

In my opinion, and that of most Americans as well, Trump had failed badly in his stumbling efforts to end the Russian-Ukrainian war. Russia started it. Russia has ignored cease fire agreements, and the Russians continue their aggression. How can Trump favor Putin when faced with these obvious facts? And by siding with Russia he puts the USA against its former European allies. Talk about not backing your NATO friends. Another reason for Trump’s jagged 100 days?

Email from my Finnish friend

I think it is instructive to focus on Russia’s previous, similar invasions of neighboring countries. I was reminded of one such attack this morning when I received an email from my good friend Martti Hakumaki in Finland. I’ve mentioned Martti before in this blog, most recently in my last post (see here for more about him). Martti, among other topics in his email, told me that he and his fellow Finns are strongly on the Ukrainian side in the current war. And well they should be, because they too have been invaded by Russia as it attempted to take over land from Finland.

Specifically, on November 30, 1939, the Soviets invaded Finland in what became known as the Winter War. Although having overwhelming military strength, the Russians suffered major losses (thousands of Russian troops were killed in battles) and they made little progress. Without going further into history here, I’ll simply say that Russia soon backed off and suggested it was willing to negotiate, and the war (fought in temperatures hovering around -40 Celsius) ended some three months later. For Martti, that winter war led to an extremely personal and painful loss. His father was shot and killed in one of the battles of that war, a time when Martti was just over one-year-old. Because of that Russian aggression, he never had the privilege of knowing his dad.

 Maybe, just maybe, Trump is beginning to wise up on the present war. Here’s what he said recently on his Truth Social platform. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”

And this president of ours, this graduate of the Wharton School of Business, and this author of The Art of the Deal, what has he been doing to the US economy? And for the world economy? It hasn’t been pretty, has it? Soon after he threatened his huge increase in tariffs, Wall Street went bonkers. The S&P 500 index dropped from its record high reached in February and sank into correction territory (a drop of at least 10%). The Nasdaq had entered correction a week earlier. Another reason for Trump’s jagged 100 days? The market plunge clearly caught the attention of the White House. Maybe Trump will come to his senses, a debatable possibility.

Room for hope?

Trump did put a 90-day delay on his tariff plans after the markets tanked. The president obviously watches the markets, but he also is sadly unpredictable. Accordingly, the financial future of the entire world is impossible to predict as of now. It is important to note, I think, that numerous economists have suggested Trump’s proposed tariffs are similar to those in  the infamous Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act passed in 1930. That act, signed by President Hoover despite objections from others on his staff, increased tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods. The Smoot-Hawley Act sparked a trade war as European nations passed retaliatory tariffs. Does any of that history sound faintly familiar?

This may be the time to recall those famous words of philosopher George Santayana? “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Perhaps someone will pass that meaningful quote on to our president.

On to other topics

In my next few posts, I’ll switch to nonpolitical topics. Stay tuned.