"Roosevelt's onslaught, in the depths of the Great Depression, was aimed at expanding the federal government's presence in Americans' lives. Trump's crusade is aimed largely at dismantling it," Bendavid added, noting that while FDR's agenda was enacted by Congress, the current president "has governed largely by unilateral executive action."
Ahead of nationwide protests planned for later this week, many Trump critics marked the 100-day milestone by chronicling how the president's policies are making life harder for the working class, from cutting federal employees and funding to pursuing mass deportations and economically devastating tariffs.
"The cruelty is unnerving, the disregard for the Constitution and rule of law is reckless, and the day-to-day pain can never be justified."
"It is a fallacy to argue that we must choose between fighting for a fair economy and protecting our democracy," the watchdog Accountable.US
said in a Monday memo. "Trump's first 100 days, which will be marked this week, clearly show that the two are interconnected, and he's failed Americans on both."
"What we have seen over the past 100 days is a president who has flouted the law, gutted checks and balances, and consolidated power for himself," the memo continues. "He has also, with the help of Elon Musk and allies in Congress, done catastrophic damage to our economy, injecting chaos and uncertainty for small businesses and investors, undermining workers' rights, tanking consumer confidence, and increasing the likelihood of a recession."
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped 7.9 points this month to 86—meaning "consumer confidence declined for a fifth consecutive month in April, falling to levels not seen since the onset of the Covid pandemic," according to Stephanie Guichard, a senior economist at the think tank.
Calling those numbers "sobering" and a "signal that we are plunging headfirst into a recession," Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens said that "if this is the level of pain the president is willing to inflict on Americans in just a few short months, it's no wonder that consumers and businesses are bracing themselves for a long, dark road ahead."
"This is a man-made crisis," Owens declared. "In his first 100 days, Trump did all he could to engineer a recession."
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) last week
compiled a list of "100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 days," which includes terminating grants to fight forced and child labor, nominating Crystal Casey to be general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, and leaving the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service with what one employee recently told Common Dreams is "a very skeletal crew."
In addition to detailing Trump administration actions to degrade wages and working conditions, the think tank's report lays out Trump's attacks on anti-discrimination protections, immigrant workers, public education, and more.
"During the campaign, Trump promised to put working people first, lower rising costs on groceries and gas, and preserve our earned benefits and healthcare," American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) president Lee Saunders
noted Monday. "Instead, the first 100 days of this billionaire-run administration have been fueled by lies, broken promises, and a relentless assault on working people and unions."
"He has handed over the reins of government to billionaires—appointing the wealthiest Cabinet in American history, kicking off a trade war that is raising prices on everyday goods, attacking Social Security and Medicaid, cutting wages for workers, and
stripping collective bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal employees," the union leader said. "The White House claimed it had nothing to do with Project 2025, yet it has already implemented over one-third of the anti-worker agenda, often sidestepping Congress and the courts to do so."
Saunders stressed that "the fallout has been immediate. Retirees are left wondering how to navigate Social Security as staff are laid off, offices are closed, and services are cut. People are watching their retirement savings shrink. Lifesaving health and safety regulations have been put on hold. Students with disabilities are losing vital support from the Department of Education. The Department of Health and Human Services is clawing back funding from states, cities, and towns to fight infectious diseases as measles is on the rise, and it's just the beginning."
AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers are challenging some of Trump's moves in court. AFT president Randi Weingarten on Tuesday condemned a similar list of Trump actions, including cuts to "research grants to colleges and universities that fund cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's research," and said that "it's no wonder his public approval is tanking."
"The cruelty is unnerving, the disregard for the Constitution and rule of law is reckless, and the day-to-day pain can never be justified," Weingarten added. "That's why our members are fighting back."
Some of the actions highlighted by union leaders are also included in First Focus on Children's Monday timeline for what the advocacy group called the Trump administration's "systematic war on the nation's children."
"I'm not sure we've ever seen an administration so laser-focused on targeting the nation's children for harm," said the group's president, Bruce Lesley. He called out Trump, his appointees, and the GOP-controlled Congress for planning to cut children's healthcare by $880 billion, shutter the Education Department, and "steal the lunch money of the nation's poorest kids."
"Babies have been singled out for special punishment with the proposed revocation of birthright citizenship and deportation of U.S. citizen children. This administration is also promoting tax policies that penalize families for having newborns," Lesley continued, also pointing to the "decimation" of the United States Agency for International Development. "The president has left children overseas to die of AIDS, malaria, and starvation by the millions."
Trying to end birthright citizenship is one of several ways Trump is attacking immigrants. The advocacy group America's Voice this week published a fact sheet titled, High Costs, No Benefits: 100 Days Of Trump's Immigration Agenda.
"Let this sink in: Our government is deporting American kids, including kids with cancer, and is now trying to defend and excuse their choices on national television," said the organization's executive director, Vanessa Cárdenas. "Their actions embody the cruelty, chaotic, and harmful nature of their agenda the past 100 days, and what they want from the next 100 weeks and beyond."
"As Americans see the cruelty and overreach in action," Cárdenas noted, "a growing majority is expressing disapproval, connecting it to broader concerns regarding the rule of law, the tanking economy, cuts to Americans' healthcare, and overall chaos and extremism."
The Trump administration's anti-immigrant agenda is featured in several of the items on a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) list of actions "that pose significant risks to the human rights of people living in the United States and around the world."
Tanya Greene, U.S. program director at HRW, said that the administration has already "inflicted enormous damage to human rights" and "we are deeply concerned that these attacks on fundamental freedoms will continue unabated."
Item 51 on HRW's list warns that "people in the United States risk seeing their democratic power weakened by a politically motivated effort to skew long-standing U.S. Census Bureau policies and methods aimed at ensuring accurate population counts that determine how presidents, members of Congress, and others are elected and how federal funding is allocated to states and localities."
All Voting Is Local executive director Hannah Fried said in a Tuesday statement that "these first 100 days have been a five-alarm fire for the freedom to vote," citing Trump's executive order on elections, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, "and copycat bills in Ohio and Michigan that would require voters to show a passport or birth certificate to vote."
"The voting rights assaults during this time specifically hurt Black, Brown, Native American, and other historically marginalized communities," she emphasized. "They also set a tone for further efforts to erode voting rights and consolidate power at all levels of government in the lead-up to next year's midterm elections."
A growing number of public figures and watchdogs are sounding the alarm about the consolidation of power under Trump. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been crisscrossing the country for his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, and the advocacy group Public Citizen this week put out a list of highlights from the president's first "100 days of oligarchy and conflicts of interest."
Public Citizen's resource outlines how Trump "is handing people with clear corporate conflicts of interest—like stakes in Big Oil companies, long corporate lobbying careers, and seats on major company boards—the power to regulate and oversee corporations," dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and ridding the government of inspectors general, among other actions that enrich him and his allies at the expense of the public.
"People aren't fooled. They see what's going on. It's why millions took the streets on April 5th to protest Trump and Musk's attacks on working families."
The organization Issue One also has a new report—Unchecked Exec—about how "Trump's first 100 days have been focused on consolidating power and sidestepping anti-corruption safeguards."
"The Founders were deeply concerned about concentrating too much power in the presidency," said Issue One CEO Nick Penniman. "The Founders fought a revolution to get rid of concentrated executive authority, and they placed 'We, the People'—and Congress—at the center of the Constitution."
"A hundred days into this administration, it's clear the White House is intent on pushing the limits of its power to the point where it risks violating the Constitution and eroding the freedoms of every American," Penniman added. "This is a time for total vigilance, before the America we were living in 101 days ago begins to disappear."
The public is already fighting back in the form of protest. Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said Tuesday that "calling Trump's first 100 days a dumpster fire would be an insult to dumpster fires."
"In less than four months, Trump has destroyed jobs, brought the economy to the brink of ruin, and done absolutely nothing to lower costs," he continued. "People aren't fooled. They see what's going on. It's why millions took the streets on April 5th to protest Trump and Musk's attacks on working families. It's why more and more people are joining community organizations or stepping up to run for office."
"Trump and his billionaire friends want us to fight against each other, so they can take an even larger share of the pie," he added. "But we're not playing their game. Instead, we're going to bring working people together, from every background and geography, to stop Trump and his MAGA cronies in their tracks."
A national day of action is planned for Thursday, recognized globally as May Day. There are more than 1,100 rallies scheduled—including one at Philadelphia City Hall, where Sanders is set to join the city's AFL-CIO chapter under the banner, "For the Workers, Not the Billionaires."
While Sanders and those who have joined him on tour, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have been praised for their response to the second Trump administration, constituents across the United States are calling on many members of Congress to do more.
Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, recent polling shows rising support for impeaching Trump a historic third time, and Congressman Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) on Monday filed seven articles of impeachment against the president. Thursday will feature some actions focused on pressuring lawmakers to pursue impeachment.
Given Congress' current makeup, Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, is specifically calling on Republican lawmakers who "aided and abetted" Trump to instead fight back against his "relentless assault on our democracy, our freedoms, and the basic services hardworking Americans depend on to survive."
"What more will it take for Republicans in Congress to find the courage to stand up for their constituents?" she asked Tuesday. "The president is not a king, and Congress is meant to be a co-equal branch of government. We can't afford to wait another 100 days for them to finally remember that."
Opponents of the president's agenda are also fighting in the courts. In a 100-day roundup, the ACLU said that "Trump has tested every limit, abused every power, and exploited every loophole to silence dissent, disenfranchise marginalized communities, and erode our rule of law."
"These are deliberate tactics designed to enforce compliance through fear, force, and censorship. But we aren't backing down. If the Trump administration wants to go after people's rights and freedoms, they'll have to go through us first. And we were ready for this fight," declared the group, which so far has filed 107 legal actions.
In a Monday blog post, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich argued that everyone must fight to save a nation that "is tottering on the edge of dictatorship."
"We are no longer Democrats or Republicans. We are either patriots fighting the regime, or we are complicit in its tyranny. There is no middle ground," Reich wrote. "Soon, I fear, the regime will openly defy the Supreme Court."
"Americans must be mobilized into such a huge wave of anger and disgust that members of the House are compelled to impeach Trump (for the third time) and enough senators are moved to finally convict him," he added. "Then this shameful chapter of American history will end."
