100 Days of 47

By John Thomas III, PhD, Editor

“But a lack of imagination is not an argument: it’s a limitation.”

Russia-American journalist Masha Gessen penned these words in July 2016 after then-candidate Donald J. Trump formally became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. Pundits and party stalwarts were flummoxed and stunned by his nomination and election.

Reflecting on the 100 Days of 47, I return to these words when I see people shocked by the actions taken by the Trump Administration 2.0. “We never believed that could happen?!”  After the 2024 election, I made it a point to read everything I could find on Project 2025, as well as surveys and comments from people who voted for President Trump. I was led to write this in my December 2024 editorial: “Legitimate concerns about growing inequality and lack of opportunity for many working-class Americans are what motivated many persons to vote for a candidate whose policy plans if fully enacted would cause long-term damage to health and economic welfare of millions of Americans.”

So, where are we now after 100 Days? I share a few numbers to anchor our understanding of Trump 2.0

175 and 5.

175 is the number of Executive Orders President Trump issued as of this article’s writing on April 28, 2025. Executive Orders are Directives signed by the President to instruct policy implementation at the Federal level. For example, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the United States Armed Forces through Executive Order 9982. The Trump Administration has utilized Executive Orders to test the power of the Executive Branch in various ways, such as implementing the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) Service, challenging the concept of Birthright citizenship, and declaring emergencies to implement tariffs and deport immigrants.

5 is the number of laws that President Trump has signed into law. This number is significant because it highlights the comparative weakness of President Trump’s position, given that many of his directives lack congressional approval and are being challenged throughout the Federal Court system against established congressional law. Regardless of the longevity of his policies, however, President Trump is creating a stress test of the system of checks and balances in the United States and the power and authority of the Federal Government.

400 million and 2.2 billion.

400 million is the amount in dollars of grants that President Trump threatened to withhold from Columbia University unless they implemented a list of policies by the Trump administration after the university allegedly failed to protect students and professors “from antisemitic violence and harassment”. These demands included enhanced oversight of the Middle Eastern studies program, a new internal security force, and a clear definition of antisemitism. Additionally, several students who engaged in protests were expelled or had their degrees revoked.

As of the writing of this editorial, the funds have not been restored to Columbia University. The Department of Education has sent letters to 60 schools warning them of investigations for discrimination and harassment.

$2.2 billion is the amount of grants that Harvard University has frozen due to its failure to comply with the Trump administration’s demands. As of writing, Harvard University if currently suing the Federal government under the provisions of the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act. The weaponization of Federal grant dollars to compel educational institutions to comply with the administration’s demands at this level is a tactic unseen in the history of the United States. Similar threats to withhold funding have been issued over “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” practices to K-12 school districts and non-profits that receive federal grants and assistance.

160 billion and 135 billion.

$160 billion is the amount the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) allegedly saved during its haphazard cost-cutting frenzy. When Elon Musk was announced as the co-lead of DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy, it was thought that this initiative would at best lead to a process similar to the Clinton-Gore Administration’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government (which cut over 400,000 jobs over 8 years), or at worst, another Grace Commission.

We lacked the imagination to think President Trump would allow Elon Musk to co-opt the United States Digital Service and run roughshod over federal privacy laws, Congressional mandates, and hiring protections to “move fast and break things” while supposedly looking for government waste. Initially declaring a goal of $1 trillion, the Musk-guided initiative has led to a tenth of that number in calculated “savings.” For perspective, the entire US Federal government spent $6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024. 

So, where did the $160 billion come from? The cancellation of grants supposedly associated with “DEI”, the destruction of the United States foreign aid apparatus, along with reductions in force across Federal agencies ranging from less than 1 percent at the Transportation Security Administration to more than 99 percent at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Note that several larger layoffs are expected to occur in the summer. As of this writing, at least 58,000 people have been confirmed to be cut, with at least another 148,000 planned reductions over the upcoming months.

This leads to $135 billion. This is the estimated amount that the US Federal government will pay in compensation to workers who were either laid off or accepted the buyout offer. Furthermore, there is no cost estimate for the future impact of these reductions.

The cuts to the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will curtail the United States’ ability to safeguard its citizens’ health and well-being.

The cuts to the Institute of Museums and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation will impact the preservation of cultural heritage and the production of new research that will save lives.

We have seen multiple instances of workers being abruptly fired, only to be hired days later. Already, Governors and Senators from “red” states are sheepishly arguing that while they support the idea of DOGE, specific federal programs need to be restored for their constituents.  Yet, the damage has been done.

41.

This represents the percentage of the Project 2025 blueprint that has been implemented, according to the independent website “Project 2025 Tracker”. As I stated at the beginning of the article, most people who voted for Donald Trump did not understand “Project 2025” or its goal to radically reshape the federal government under the authority of the President. It asserts, “Modern progressive politics has simply given the national government more to do than the complex separation-of-powers Constitution allows. … the only real solution is for the national government to do less: to decentralize and privatize as much as possible.”This proposal was guided by Russell Vought, who served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the first Trump administration and now holds the same role.

Project 2025 is a wish list of long-term conservative goals, including eliminating the Department of Education, curtailing environmental and business regulations, slashing programs such as Head Start and Medicare, and working towards the privatization of certain government functions, such as Social Security and the National Weather Service. Project 2025 advocates for a fringe (until now) legal theory known as the “unitary executive theory,” which argues that the Federal government’s paramount actor is the President and that his authority over the Executive Branch should be unfettered. To test this theory, President Trump fired appointees from independent federal agencies well before their terms finished. These firings have led to court lawsuits, in which the administration hopes to prevail.

Lost in the daily spin of headlines is the fact that behind the seemingly haphazard cuts of DOGE and Trump’s aggressive use of executive orders is a plan to reshape the Federal government and the very Republic.

There are other numbers important for us to remember:

885.

The number of measles cases this year, as of writing, compared to 243 for the entire calendar year of 2024.

10.

The tariff tax rate applied to goods from the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, according to the “Liberation Day tariffs” used by the Trump Administration.

200+.

The number of forcibly removed Venezuelan immigrants sent to prisons in El Salvador, including wrongly deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

I close with the two most important numbers.

554 and 1.

554 is the number of days until the 2026 Congressional Midterm elections. Educate yourself on the candidates in your area, and if you are in a “solid” red or blue state, consider supporting a candidate in a swing state whose policies align with your own.

One is the number of people it takes to make a difference.