Editorial:

President Trump has already damaged the presidency and the course of U.S. policy.

Some of President Trump’s signature campaign promises have been stymied by the courts, stalled in a Congress controlled by his own Republican Party or reconsidered as his own naivete about foreign affairs has run smack into the reality of the world.

But even a weakened president — and Trump’s early approval ratings are the worst in modern times — can invoke the powers of the office for the forces of good or ill.

In his first 100 days, Trump has managed to wreak considerable destruction on both the stature of the American presidency, its credibility and its influence, and the course of U.S. policy at home and abroad.

Let us begin with what is inarguably his definitive tactical accomplishment: the nomination and confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. The rollout was pitch perfect, with Trump demonstrating uncharacteristic restraint in introducing a Colorado jurist with strong legal credentials to the highest court in the land. It was a dignified announcement, and Gorsuch came across with a sincerity and humility that fit the moment and the gravity of the nomination.

But even that process had an unmistakable element of destruction attached. The nomination was available to Trump only because Senate Republicans had refused for most of 2016 to move on President Barack Obama’s similarly qualified choice, Judge Merrick Garland, for the Supreme Court. In the end, the Senate GOP’s decision to rewrite the rules to allow a simple-majority vote for confirmation — instead of the customary 60-vote threshold — has set the stage for Trump, and presidents after him, to choose more ideologically rigid justices incapable of drawing support across party lines.

Gorsuch’s confirmation came at a high cost, both to the confirmation process and to the rights of consumers, workers, minorities and others who might have received a fairer shake under Garland.

The good news is that Trump has not gotten his way on some of his most brazen initiatives. Federal courts have blocked his efforts to severely restrict passage from selective Muslim-majority countries or allow the U.S. government to block funding to cities, counties and states that want to provide sanctuaries for immigrants who have yet to establish legal status here. His proposal for a border wall met enough skepticism, from both parties, that he had to withdraw it as a condition for funding legislation to avoid a government shutdown. He is now hedging on his stumpspeech vow to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.

His promise to “repeal and replace Obamacare” ran into resistance in Congress, both from conservatives who wanted to go further in weaning health care from government control and more centrist Republicans who recognized the popularity and sensibility of various elements of the Democratic-passed Affordable Care Act of 2010. His tax-reform proposal, unveiled Wednesday, came across as half-baked and certain to add trillions to the national debt. It was serious only as an effort to try to claim another semi-fulfillment of a campaign promise.

These are some of the areas where Trump has caused damage in the first 100 days of his presidency.

White House credibility: The Trump administration has been at war with the truth since its opening days, when it tried to exaggerate the size of its inaugural crowds. It has never quite recovered, with the president routinely tweeting dubious or readily refutable claims, whether it’s the Obama White House ordering surveillance on him, his winning the popular vote or asserting that the U.S. murder rate was the highest in 45 years. The trust factor is shot with this White House.

Environment: This has been his area of greatest destruction. He has used executive orders to roll back rules on climate change and air and water pollution — and protection of national monuments. He has slashed funding for scientific research. If this continues, his administration could seriously undercut efforts to offset global warming, and time is not on the side of the planet. International relations: This is a president who has a hard time distinguishing between friend and foe. He has ruffled feathers with allies in Australia, Mexico and Germany, and comforted more authoritarianleaning leaders in Russia and Turkey. He has gone from calling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a pillar of post-World War II stability, “obsolete” to “no longer obsolete.” China has gone from being what he called “grand champions” of currency manipulation to a more benign economic power and potentially a help against North Korea. Speaking of which, his saber-rattling exchanges with Kim Jong Un are downright scary, with nuclear weapons at their call. Syria has gone from someone else’s problem — where intervention could bring World War III — to a brutal dictatorship that merited being a target of U.S. bombing. Trump’s unpredictability is jarring nerves around the globe.

Domestic policy: Where to begin? His Justice Department has decided that voter ID laws — clearly designed to chill minority participation — are irrelevant and that strict oversight of police misconduct is bad for force morale. He reversed executive orders that banned gun sales to the mentally ill and prohibited discrimination against LGBT employees. He reinstituted a “global gag rule” that proscribes health programs that receive U.S. aid from even mentioning abortion as an option. He has all but neutered the U.S. State Department. His proposed budget cuts would eviscerate federal support for after-school programs, rental assistance and the arts and humanities.

Nearly all of what he has accomplished — as opposed to proposed — has come through executive orders. Remember, Trump was once the candidate who heaped scorn on Obama for acting unilaterally.

“The country wasn’t based on executive orders,” said Trump at a town hall in South Carolina in February 2016. “Right now, Obama goes around signing executive orders. He can’t even get along with the Democrats, and he goes around signing all these executive orders. It’s a basic disaster. You can’t do it.”

Lacking a mandate, or the skills or credibility to build alliances beyond his narrow base, executive orders amount to the extent of Trump’s toolbox.

To borrow his own phrase, Trump’s 100 days have been a basic disaster.