It’s difficult to categorize the first one hundred days of the second term of American President Donald J. Trump — he is different from any other president, and his tenure so far is unlike any other. To some, he is a leader who has undermined the rules-based international system that emerged after World War II. For others, he is the only leader who can restore America's eroding global hegemony and make America great again. Millions both love and hate him inside and outside the U.S. borders.

President Trump’s first three months in office signal a broad shift in U.S. engagement with democratic norms and values. He likes to be the center of attention, as he was for over a decade on his reality show, “The Apprentice.” He makes decisions unilaterally with a transactional mindset that highly prizes personal loyalty and challenges expectations of transparency, accountability, and respect for institutional checks and balances. His approach devalues those democratic norms and values and gives rise to uncertainty about how resilient American democracy and its influence on international alliances will be in the long term.

Trump’s doctrine thus far has flown in the face of long-standing democratic conventions. His appointment of individuals widely regarded as unqualified to key Cabinet positions, like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and creating a new government agency free from traditional Congressional oversight, the Department of Government Efficiency, have triggered major controversy. Appointing Elon Musk, a technology entrepreneur and industrialist who leads companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), as head of that agency without him even having a security clearance yet, allowing him and his young team access to millions of Americans' most crucial data, has sparked significant debate. His budget cuts to the federal workforce — affecting everything from Social Security and Medicare administration to life-saving medical research — have raised alarms about the government’s ability to fulfill essential public functions.

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