President Trump’s first 100 days of his second term have seen an administration moving at breakneck speed to fundamentally alter the federal government in ways he previewed on the campaign trail.
Trump, largely through executive action, has moved to quickly deliver on a number of prominent campaign promises on immigration, tariffs and culture war issues.
The president has not yet made good on all of his campaign promises, though. The war in Ukraine is still raging on despite his pledge to end it before even taking office, and economists have warned his tariff policies could undercut his pledge to lower prices.
Here’s a look at where Trump has and hasn’t delivered on some of his major campaign promises in his first 100 days in office.
Immigration and the border
Trump and other White House officials have argued that immigration was the biggest reason he defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris in November, even more so than the economy.
Through 100 days, he has delivered on a host of actions intended to ramp up deportations, clamp down on border crossings and close off pathways for refugees and asylum-seekers to enter the country.
On his first day in office, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and began surging resources to the area, including from the Pentagon. The White House shut down the CBP One app, which migrants could use to make appointments at the border.
Trump signed an executive action aimed at ending birthright citizenship for children born to people who do not have legal status in the U.S. The matter is set to come before the Supreme Court in May, as critics have argued the move violates the 14th Amendment.
Trump paused refugee admissions and ended temporary protected status (TPS) for certain groups.
The president also signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which mandates the federal detention of immigrants without legal status who are accused of theft and burglary, among other things.
Trump pledged during a campaign rally in October he would use the law to target Tren de Aragua, which Trump and his allies had argued were turning the Colorado city of Aurora into a “war zone.”
The president in March signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act, asserting that any members of Tren de Aragua older than 14 years residing in the United States be “apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
The move delivered on a key campaign pledge to use centuries-old law to enact his immigration agenda, but it has led to contentious legal challenges and questions about whether the Trump administration has abided by court orders.
While deportations have not quite reached the soaring levels Trump spoke about on the campaign trail, a White House official predicted the U.S. would set a record by the end of 2025 for deportations in a single year.
Bringing down prices
Trump on the campaign trail pledged to “rapidly drive prices down” beginning the day he took office.
March data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is the most recent information available, showed core inflation continued to ease and was at its lowest rate since March 2021.
The average price of gas is down roughly 50 cents per gallon from a year ago, according to AAA data.
Some prices remain high. The national average cost for a dozen eggs was over $6 in March. Egg prices have spiked in recent months because of a bird flu outbreak, and Trump has fixated on the issue while blaming his predecessor for the increased cost.
Trump’s biggest problem on inflation and prices could come from his own hand.
Economists and some companies have warned tariffs imposed by Trump will make many goods more expensive and strain supply chains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 3,000 points since Trump took office, as well.
“The level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on April 16. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”
Tariffs
The president would often muse on the campaign trail that “tariff” was one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary as he outlined his plans to aggressively deploy tariffs to reshape global trade, and boost manufacturing.
Trump so far has made clear his tariff talk was no bluff.
The White House has imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China over the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
The administration imposed a 10 percent tariff on all imports, as well as higher “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries, including allies like Japan, India, South Korea and members of the European Union. In the face of skittish financial markets, Trump announced he would lower those “reciprocal” tariffs to 10 percent for all countries for 90 days, except in the case of China, where he has ratcheted up duties on Chinese goods to a total of 145 percent.
The president has imposed sector-specific tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and automobile imports. He has laid the groundwork to impose additional tariffs on pharmaceutical imports, critical mineral imports, semiconductor imports and copper imports.
While White House officials have said nearly 20 countries have presented trade proposals to address concerns about tariffs, those types of agreements can take months to negotiate, raising questions about whether Trump will back off if the economy begins to slide toward a recession or stagflation.
“I can assure you, the president’s commitment to this is complete and unwavering,” a White House official said of Trump’s approach to tariffs.
“His belief is there’s a profound industrial crisis that he inherited underneath the surface that also requires dramatic action to change,” the official added. “He’s also maintaining strategic flexibility and optionality.”
The war in Ukraine
Trump made grand promises while on the campaign trail about ending the war in Ukraine, pledging at various points that he would be able to solve the conflict within 24 hours of taking office and at one point asserting he could broker an end to the war during the transition.
The reality has proven more difficult, even as Trump claimed in an interview with Time magazine that the 24-hour comments were made “in jest.”
Trump administration officials have met directly with counterparts from Russia and Ukraine, and the president has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While Zelensky said he agreed to a limited ceasefire in March, there has been no extended pause in fighting. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after amassing forces at the border.
Trump has at times lashed out at Zelensky and at other times lashed out at Putin and Russia, placing blame on both nations as an impediment to an agreement. He has also in recent weeks sought to distance himself from the conflict, describing it as “Biden’s war,” a reference to the previous administration.
“We have a deadline. After that, we will have a very much different attitude,” Trump told reporters Thursday, though he did not specify what his deadline would be.
Transgender issues
One of Trump’s most consistent applause lines on the campaign trail came when he would tell supporters, typically at the end of rallies, that he would “keep men out of women’s sports.”
Trump made good on that campaign rhetoric just weeks after taking office, signing an executive order to ban transgender women from competing in girls and women’s sports. The White House invited hundreds of guests for the signing, touting it as a major milestone early in the administration.
Maine has found itself at the center of a fight over the implementation of Trump’s order after Gov. Janet Mills (D) argued it violated the state’s antidiscrimination laws. The administration has responded by threatening Maine’s funding if it does not comply.
The White House, and Republicans more broadly, view the issue as one where the majority of the public is on their side, even as it affects a small percentage of the population. But it is far from the only way in which the Trump administration has targeted transgender people in its first 100 days.
The Pentagon reinstated a ban on transgender troops serving in the military, a move that has been caught up in the courts. On Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order recognizing only two sexes, male and female, and directing federal agencies to cease promotion of the concept of gender transition.
Pardons, DEI and more
Trump has followed through on a number of other pledges on the campaign trail, including some controversial measures.
On his first day in office, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The move surprised even some of his aides, who had suggested Trump’s pardons would be more targeted.
Another major culture war issue that Trump took on during the campaign was ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the government.
The Trump administration swiftly put federal employees in DEI roles on leave and moved to shutter DEI-related offices. The president has also signed orders directing the Pentagon and State Department to remove DEI initiatives.
The president has also followed through on what many of his critics feared, using the levers of government to directly target his political opponents.
While Trump said on the campaign trail that “success” would be his revenge on his opponents, he has cut off security details for former administration officials who had been critical of him.
Trump has directed the Justice Department to investigate two former administration officials who crossed him. And he signed an executive order targeting ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform.
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