Tuesday marks the end of the first 100 days of the second Trump presidency.

Since Franklin Roosevelt's first term, it's been a traditional time to take stock of a new

administration. Matthew Dalek is a political historian and professor at George Washington University.

How would you assess these first 100 days?

It has been, I think it's been a historic 100 days. The amount of executive

action that has happened. So the target of the Trump administration thing has been the very

core of modern liberalism. The actions are rooted, I think, in an older form of conservatism,

tariffs, a kind of protectionism, anti-immigrant policy,

the attacks on science and public health, ideas that were popular in the 1920s and 30s.

The first 100 days also have crystallized, I think, the inadequacies of the post-Watergate

reforms to curb the abuses of executive power.

I think I agree with those that say we've gotten a taste of what it is like to live in a kind

of American authoritarian state.

Should any of the surprise us, though, didn't he run on a lot of these things?

He did run on a lot of these things. But the particular form that it has taken is, it's not

surprising, but there is a level, I think, of shock. So think about, for example, the Doge,

the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, his team, they've gone into federal agencies.

They've closed them down. They've cut tens of thousands of staff. They've gutted some agencies,

and all without the Congress, right? Really upended the idea and the laws about the Congress

having the power of the purse.

Not only Congress, but also the courts, their reaction to the Kilmer-Ebrigo-Garcia cases.

What does this say about how they view or address the two other branches of government?

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