WHAT TRUMP 100-DAYS HONEYMOON MEANS?

May 20, 2017 Editorial

United States President Donald Trump is just as surprised as most Americans and the rest of the world at how few of his plans have been enacted during his first 100 days in office. The first 100 days of a new leader is known as the honeymoon period. Typically, it is the grace period that is generally free from bad press because of all the new appointments that Heads of State have to make.
Also, in this period, the public is willing to cut their leaders some slack by giving them the benefit of the doubt because they hope that their heads of State will govern in ways that they like.
Although it is not precisely known who developed this terminology, historians have claimed that it began with Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) swearing in as President of the US during the great depression when the country was faced with an economic crisis of epic proportions. Upon taking office, F.D.R. rushed bills through Congress that expanded the role of the federal government in order to establish programmes to create jobs.
Since then, this seemingly arbitrary 100-day honeymoon concept became a popular tool for assessing Presidents who followed F.D.R. Some presidents seem to be especially effective during this honeymoon phase because it is simply the time when the public is having their first important impressions of them.
It is also when everyone is hopeful about new policies. However, once the president starts to make controversial decisions as President Trump did with signing executive orders, the honeymoon ends pretty quickly as people get angry, no matter what the leader does.
The honeymoon for Presidents usually only applies to their first term in office. While there are some accomplishments, during this period, there are failures and disappointments. The nation watched how the American political system of checks and balances kicked in to restrain many of President Trump’s executive orders.
Trump is by no means the first US President to face such rude awakening to the limits of presidential authority. In reality, many other executive orders signed by previous presidents were far more difficult to materialize.
No one can undo the fact that conservative voters in the United States elected their tough talking media and business tycoon candidate. The reality now is that many of his policies are being sensibly moderated by other actors, including Congress and the Senate which are under Republican control. His plans to toughen immigration laws by executive order have been curbed by the US federal courts.
Furthermore, he had to shed his plans to build a wall on the US-Mexico border at a cost of US$20 billion in order to avoid a financial shutdown of the US Government. He has apparently reversed his decision to remove the US from NATO, cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement, refrain from labeling China a currency manipulator or engage in a trade war with China.
Instead, he co-opted China as a key ally to rein in North Korea. Despite clues of his closeness with Russian leader Vladmir Putin, Trump surprised him by bombing the Syrian military after it was alleged that they had used poisonous gas on civilians. And the dropping of the Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) known as “the mother of all bombs,” on suspected ISIS locations in Afghanistan has sent a message to the world, especially North Korea of the US military resolve.
However, some measures of his success are the appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court and the repeal of the Health Care Act or Obama care by the House. By now, Trump has got the message of just how ill-prepared he was to be president and the proverbial leader of the free world.
Given all that has happened in his first 100 days, Trump must consider himself lucky that he is not fired – a term made famous by him in his reality TV show, the Apprentice.

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