Grading the new president
A+ Not Hillary
Trump was elected in no small part because he was not Hillary Clinton, and he’s done an A+ job of not being Hillary Clinton during his first 100 days. And as additional news about Hillary’s shambolic presidential campaign has come out — including revelations that she combed through staff emails from her previous campaign and assigned people “loyalty scores” — the importance of having a president who is not Hillary Clinton seems even greater than it did in November. And, I’m happy to say, I expect President Trump to go on not being Hillary Clinton for the next four (or eight!) years. A+ job, Mr. President! Glenn Reynolds, University of Tennessee law professor
F- Divider
As a president who took office following a stunningly polarizing campaign — lacking a voter majority and after interference by both the FBI director and a foreign government — Trump’s first move should have been to unify and reassure a nervous and divided nation. Instead, he played to his base by trying to prohibit Muslim travelers (whom he arbitrarily labeled as terrorists) who represented no credible threat; then he compounded that outrage with a failed effort to eviscerate the insurance many of his own supporters depend on. Trump refuses to learn that tweeting or signing an ill-drawn executive order is not the same as effective governance, or that whacking away at his predecessor’s legacy is not the same as logging achievements of his own. Add to that Trump’s allergy to honesty and blindness to ethics, and the only real question his tenure so far raises is whether anyone could conceivably have accomplished less — or done more damage — in 100 days. Ellis Cose, senior fellow in residence at the American Civil Liberties Union
B+ Best to come
Trump gets an A+ for nominating Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, cheering up the economy, putting the fear of God into would-be illegal immigrants, and reducing his liberal opponents to screeching Hitlersteriacs wearing vagina symbols on their heads and pushing the hapless Chelsea Clinton to become 46th president of the United States. But I have to ding him seriously for those Tomahawks over Syria. The last thing we need is to get involved in more fruitless "regime change" operations in the Islamic world that mostly breed chaos, persecution of Christians, slaughter of brave Americans and, in Libya, slave markets. Still, Trump has proved he can turn in A work, so here’s hoping for more of it (hint: getting that wall built, repealing Obamacare). Charlotte Allen, writer in Washington, D.C.
D-
Cozying up
More and more, 2017 is turning out to be as predictable as 2016 was freakish and unimaginable. Trump’s presidency has taken shape largely as his critics expected — with the president cozying up to his conflicts of interests rather than resolving them, bumbling legislation he doesn’t even attempt to comprehend and veering us, tweet-by-tweet, closer than we’ve been to a nuclear war since the fall of the USSR. Then there’s all the golf. Meanwhile, our allies have been needlessly jolted and corporations set free to sell our Internet browsing histories or dump coal ash into rivers, as law-abiding undocumented immigrants attempt to keep paying taxes in unrelenting terror. And this appears to be just enough for Trump to hold on to his base, for at least as long as he can coast on the Obama economy. Jason Sattler, columnist for “The National Memo”
C+ Missteps at home
President Trump had some foreign policy successes, including the Syrian strike and keeping Russia guessing. But Trump also had a major misstep in domestic policy by trying to reform health care and now taxes instead of focusing on the issue that got him elected: jobs. When grading Trump’s first 100 days, one must disregard both the A’s from those who support him and believe he can do no wrong and the F’s from those who despise him and think he can’t do anything right. The truth is in between, with a + for tireless effort. Ruben Navarrette, columnist with The Washington Post Writers Group and “The Daily Beast”
B+ Mastery of Twitter, media
This is for Trump’s mastery of using Twitter to bypass the mainstream media and keep them on their toes working 24/7 and, at the same time, keep his base motivated. The net effect of that mastery and his calling the press “the enemy of the people,” however, has only served to foster division and confusion and done little to help democracy. Alicia Shepard, media writer and former NPR ombudsman
C- No wars, no legislation
On a positive note, Trump has not yet started a major shooting war, a trade war, defaulted on the national debt or triggered a financial crisis. Trump has also found significant time to work on his golf game. On a negative note Trump has violated norms regarding nepotism and conflicts of interest; his first executive order on immigration was arguably racist and certainly implemented in an incompetent manner. His party controls the Congress and the White House, but they can’t pass any significant legislation. And, he continues to politicize our judicial system by making unfounded allegations and attacking the independence of the judiciary. Has it only been 100 days? Steven Strauss, visiting professor at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs