Ga. feels impact from 1st 100 days

President Trump has galvanized state allies while energizing foes.

One hundred days into the tenure of the most mold-shattering administration in modern history and President Donald Trump has moved at breakneck pace to strip away federal regulations, reset the country’s economic relationships abroad and dismantle the biggest pieces of his predecessor’s legacy.

Georgians now log on to Twitter to gauge the state of mind of the most powerful man in the world. Decades of custom on everything from foreign policy to trade — even the standard photo-op — have been upended.

The early days of Trump’s presidency have galvanized some in Georgia. Many conservatives, populists and rural Republicans who felt ignored in the old political world order see a no-nonsense ally in the White House who will cut through special interests and usher their ideas into law.

Democrats, who were licking their wounds after last year’s losses at the ballot box, are now re-energized in their resistance. Many have organized, protesting regularly on streets and sidewalks, flooding town hall events and propelling a 30-year-old political novice to the edge of an upset victory in the Republican-leaning 6th Congressional District.

Georgia’s clout in Washington has increased significantly under Trump’s short tenure. He promoted Roswell Congressman Tom Price and former Gov. Sonny Perdue to Cabinet-level posts and hired several of their aides, as well as other Georgians who backed his campaign, for plum White House posts.

A trio of Georgia Democrats — U.S. Rep. John Lewis, former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates and 6th District candidate Jon Ossoff — have emerged as national symbols of the left’s opposition to the administration and its agenda.

Meanwhile, the state’s more business-oriented Republicans have been forced to reckon with whether to embrace some of Trump’s more divisive policies or risk running afoul of the president’s committed supporters in Georgia. He won the state by 5 points, racking up huge margins in much of rural Georgia.

Some of the uncertainty that swirled as Trump prepared to take the oath of office hasn’t gone away. Gridlock persists in Washington, and Republican leaders have struggled to make much progress on Trump’s top priorities such as health care, the border wall and tax cuts.

The standstill has trickled down more than 600 miles south to Georgia, where most GOP leaders are waiting for more signals from Washington before deciding how to act on health care, tax policy or other daunting divides.