'Lasting damage': Anti-Trump senators assess 'staggering' impact of Trump 2.0
WASHINGTON — Lamenting Donald Trump’s first 100 days in the White House, one prominent Democratic senator resorted to blunt talk as he pondered how long it might take to repair damage done to America’s global standing.
“It's hard to put the s––t back in the donkey,” said Mark Kelly, from Arizona.
Tuesday was the 100th day of Trump’s second term. The first 100 days are a highly symbolic period of any administration, as a president seeks to establish a governing agenda and illustrate command of the political landscape. This time, Trump has dizzied Washington and the world with a blizzard of executive actions, swinging cuts to the federal government and hectic media scandals.
On the Senate side of Capitol Hill, Raw Story asked Republicans for their thoughts on Trump’s first 100 days. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama’s declaration – “We got a tough guy like President Trump, he’s gonna do it the right way” – summed up their curt satisfaction.
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Democrats were more eager to talk.
Asked about aspects of Trump’s 100 days that might be in danger of being under-appreciated by the American public, Kelly pointed to lasting damage done to relationships with US allies, not least Canada, which Trump says he wants to make the 51st state.
“Stuff that is getting attention is that Americans are poorer and less safe because of his 100 days,” said Kelly, a U.S. Navy pilot and astronaut before entering Congress.
“What isn't getting attention, I would say, is just the damage in the relationships with our allies. If you watched Mark Carney's speech last night [after winning the Canadian election, to remain as prime minister], it's pretty obvious that we now have a long-term problem with one of our closest allies. I don't think that gets enough attention.
“It’s hard to quantify, what does that mean over the next decade, and can the next guy in the White House [change course]. You know, it's hard to put the s––t back in the donkey.
“And somebody's got to figure out how to do that eventually. And it's not just Canada. It's our European allies, folks in Asia — how much confidence do they have in who we are and what our principles are, and if we're going to stand with them or not?”
Tammy Duckworth is also a combat veteran. The Illinois senator, who lost both legs when the Black Hawk helicopter she flew was shot down in Iraq, worried that under Trump, “the Pentagon is being absolutely gutted, and the morale is so low, under [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth. I think all of that we need to continue” watching.
“But fundamentally, these first 100 days are about a man who's basically destroyed America’s standing in the global order, destroyed our economy, and even gone after the fundamentals of our society and the checks and balances in the Constitution.
“That’s gonna have a lasting impact. And I am deeply, deeply disappointed in my colleagues on the Republican side that they're going along with this. They're part and parcel of the disruption of the checks and balances. They are basically handing over control of the purse strings of the legislative branch to a wannabe dictator. I think my Republican colleagues have become invertebrates. They've lost their backbones, and they're hiding in their shells.”
‘Pay to play’
Elizabeth Warren, from Massachusetts, said the “chaos and corruption of the first 100 days” had been “overwhelming nearly everything” – but focused on Trump’s economic policy, which has stoked wild market swings and antagonized trading partners.
Trump is “undermin[ing] people's confidence in an even moderately fair game,” Warren said, before pointing to claims of insider trading by Trump allies.
“When Donald Trump started the dumbest trade war in US history, and then played red light, green light with the tariffs, and suddenly he reverses himself after having driven the market down … and drives the market back up, millions of people start to wonder, ‘Did the folks who were close in get a great deal there? A deal that's not available to middle class families in this country?’”
Before entering the Senate, Warren played a key role in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, meant to help ordinary Americans guard against exploitation by financial firms but which Trump now wants to destroy.
“Same thing with tariffs,” Warren continued. “He announces, no matter what, there will be no exceptions on the tariffs. And then he turns around and says, ‘Oh, yeah, but I got a visit from Tim Cook, and now a special deal just for Apple.’ I hear from little businesses in Massachusetts who are wiped out by the Trump tariffs, but who don't have a million dollars to contribute to Trump's pocket, and therefore don't get a hearing and no special deals for them.
“… Trump has pushed this country hard in the direction of pay to play, and we've never seen anything like the scale of that at the federal government level … the tariffs have split this country into two economies, one for a handful of billionaires and billionaire corporations that can get access to Donald Trump or his family, and the other for everybody else just trying to make a living.”
Tina Smith, from Minnesota, stressed the impact of Trump’s economic policies on her state.
“We have an agricultural economy, we manufacture a lot of things, it’s the home of Best Buy and Target,” she said. “So for Minnesotans, the president's economic tariffs are one, raising costs; two, hurting their businesses; and three, just creating massive anxiety, because nobody knows exactly what's going on.
“I think of the farmers who probably many of them voted for the president and want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but they feel like they're just pawns … and nobody is really thinking about what's going on with them and what it means for them. And … this is happening in a moment where it's probably one of the worst agricultural economies since, like, the late 80s. Really bad. Nobody's making any money.”
Smith also looked back at Trump’s first term, when he first sought a trade fight with China.
“Farmers have told me … the market share that they lost during the last Trump trade war they have not yet regained,” Smith said. “They've gotten some of it back, but not a lot of it. And … China has shifted its purchases to South America, and they've invested billions of dollars in the infrastructure that you need in order to be able to get that grain to China.
“They're not going to just flip a switch if the president changes his mind again. And so that's just one example of how the economy in Minnesota has been really hurt by what the president has done.”
‘You all are under attack’
Cory Booker of New Jersey made headlines of his own recently, with a record-breaking Senate speech meant to draw attention to the costs of Trump’s policies.
On Tuesday, Booker told Raw Story that Trump’s “flood the zone” strategy was working, forcing the press and the public to constantly switch attention from one dramatic attack to another.
But Booker also identified Trump’s threat to the media itself as a story the media might not cover enough.
“We're in a moment where the Fourth Estate, you all are under attack,” Booker said. “Not just in the direct attacks, like he did in his first term [calling reporters] fake news, calling you all enemies, trying to de-legitimate you. We're seeing greater attacks now in removing people, turning the White House press room into a place with obsequious people who are just there to support and not there to get to facts, and then the constant threats leading to doxing of reporters. And so this is a dangerous story in and of itself.”
Like Duckworth, Booker also highlighted Republicans’ fealty to Trump.
“When you [show people] the things he's doing, they're wildly unpopular people on both sides of the aisle. When you start talking about a Republican Party that has so often championed ideas of freedom – what he's doing is not popular. So they find other ways to try to obscure it, and for the press not to have the bandwidth with which to do something about that.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) speaks to reporters. Jose Cabezas/Reuters
Elon Musk attends the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, last November. Carlos Barria/Reuters