President Donald Trump has made one thing clear since his first day of his second term in office: his administration would make drastic change.
As of April 19, the president has signed well over 100 executive orders, many of them immediately following his inauguration, resulting in the implementation of various historically unseen policies and changes to the government and nation.
With April 30 marking Trump’s 100th day in office, here is a breakdown of some of the key actions his administration has taken and reactions from students and community members.
Education
On March 20, Trump mobilized a plan dismantling the U.S. Department of Education with Executive Order 14242, which seeks to have the Secretary of Education take steps to return authority over education to the states and local communities.
The DOE serves over 50 million students and provides grant, loan and work-study assistance to more than 12 million postsecondary students.
The action followed Trump’s long-term campaign to close the department due to concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion policies and financial management, according to the order.
A 23-year-old college student in Tarrant County, who chose to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said they have already seen the order’s effect on campus.
“The intercultural festival at my school has been canceled. Student emergency fund for students who are experiencing financial crisis has been canceled because they are afraid of being identified under all these rules and getting things like funding eliminated,” they said.
Arlington resident Matthew Lucci said that as someone who attended and taught at a UT System school, he values education and advocates for the DOE’s removal. Lucci was also a District 25 candidate in the last U.S. House of Representatives primary election.
“If you move that money down to the state level instead of funneling it through the [DOE], you’ll actually see much better local control, and that’s something that I would definitely appreciate rather than having some unelected bureaucrats 2,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., make a lot of those administrative decisions,” he said.
Tariffs
On April 2, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all international imports and specialized “reciprocal tariffs” on nations with larger trade deficits, such as China. The tariffs were imposed to ensure national security and economic resilience and independence, according to a statement from the White House.
Trades were paused after over 75 countries inquired about new deals, with the exception of China, which retaliated and now faces up to a 245% tariff on imports, the statement read.
Austin Boyd, business economics and political science double major at the University of North Texas, said free trade helps keep prices down, and continuing to raise tariffs does not benefit anybody.
“Basically every economist that you’ll find is like, ‘Free trade is good,’” Boyd said. “There’s small exceptions to it, but it does not benefit anybody in either country whenever we start a trade war with other countries.”
Lucci said Trump’s policy on tariffs highlights restoring American jobs and keeping nationwide industries competitive in the global market.
“When you have adversaries like China that will intentionally subsidize their own product so that it is much less than the cost of the product in the United States,” he said. “That might not be a big problem if we’re talking about a T-shirt or a children’s toy, but it is a huge problem when we’re talking about raw materials like steel and aluminum.”
Immigration
On Jan. 20, Trump signed Executive Order 14159, which laid out his key stances on immigration.
The order declared illegal immigrants “significant threats to national security and public safety” and mobilized several immigration agencies, like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to tighten immigration laws.
In three other orders signed the same day, Trump designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, establishing plans to build physical barriers to prevent illegal migration and terminating immigrant parole programs.
Following the immigration policies, Trump’s administration gave federal officers a national quota to arrest a minimum of 1,200 undocumented immigrants per day, according to The Texas Tribune. The quota was not met, but ICE’s daily arrest reports showed a significant increase from the previous administration.
The Tarrant County student said it’s unfair that people are being scrutinized despite living in the U.S. legally. It’s especially pressing given the county’s diverse population, the student said.
“We need to protect the people who live here with us, who give us our culture and everything that makes this place special,” the student said.
Meanwhile, political science senior Jacob Wernette said he does not see the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration as inhumane. The U.S. has legal factors that define a citizen and for the democracy to succeed, those citizens must be enfranchised through the terms the Constitution sets, he said.
“If we have open borders, we are essentially taking out the right of a nation to execute its own laws,” he said.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
On Jan. 21, Trump signed Executive Order 14173, targeting decades-old affirmative action policies and preventing diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility initiatives within federal programs.
The order states DEI and accessibility policies “threaten the safety” of Americans by diminishing the value of individual merit within jobs and services.
The order also pressured the private sector to stop DEI policies. The attorney general was given 120 days since its signing to submit recommendations for enforcing federal civil rights laws and taking appropriate action to push DEI and accessibility out.
The report will identify the most “egregious and discriminatory” DEI practitioners.
“We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender,” Trump said in a joint address to Congress on March 4.
Wernette said the Republican Party has always pushed for the equality of opportunity over the equality of outcome, and Trump’s stance on DEI puts people’s skills and qualifications first.
“I definitely believe that, as a businessman, somebody who has been in the private sector, somebody who has promoted people based on certain things, this has probably reinforced a lot of how Trump sees DEI,” he said.
The Tarrant County student said DEI is important, and many people aren’t aware of how many groups fall under its umbrella. It helps keep society equitable, the student said.
@PMalkomes
