The Roundtable: President Trump's First 100 Days

Love him or hate him, President Donald Trump is the biggest story on the planet.  

Today marks the 100th day of the Trump administration and it has been nothing short of a rollercoaster thus far. While any President's 100th day on the surface is a cosmetic number, it has mostly been acknowledged as a benchmark into how much an administration has accomplished since said President was inaugurated on January 20th of that same year. 

So I decided to gather up a few of my friends. Some who represent both conservative and liberal sides of the spectrum and to weigh in on their opinions on the first 100 days of the aI presented a series of questions related to the Trump administration focusing on the 100 day mark and get their take as to what they think of the President's performance thus far. Love it? Hate it? Indifferent?

THE PANEL

Joshua Jacobs: Blogger at Josh Off The Press
Rick Farrington: Creator of Advice For Whiners, Trump supporter
Zack Seaton: Earnestly Speaking contributor, Registered Democrat
Wil Herrera: Friend, Registered Republican


​​1. Ok, so we are 100 days into the Trump administration. Partisan position aside (if possible) how do you think the President is performing?

Jacobs: First, what the fuck is wrong with him for hiring Jeff Sessions? And then Betsy DeVos. Shit, those two make your Secretary of State Tillerson, look somewhat more rational. He hasn't passed any legislation. Like none. Just executive orders! And they are bad for the environment, bad the working man! Is there a score lower than F?

Farrington: With a totally biased media against him he is still fulfilling campaign promises. Unlike when Obama was inaugurated the media is treating him as hostile to America. I would ask what is wrong with putting America first when it comes to trade, jobs and the economy? What is wrong with reducing taxes and regulations?

Seaton: I think he is drowning in a lack of aptitude by the people he has surrounded himself with. 

​Herrera: For the record, I did not vote for Mr. Trump.  I am a Conservative Republican. After Ted Cruz dropped out, I chose to vote for Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party.  In my opinion, Neil Gorsuch is Trump’s crowning achievement.  Hopefully, he will maintain his originalist position.  For the most part, I was pleased with the small government, fiscally responsible direction that his administration has taken.  Unfortunately, some of these seem to be “negotiable”: NAFTA, Immigration ban, etc. In his defense, not being an ideologue, it is normal for him to “pivot” on a position if he can get some of what he wants. He is going to make a deal when he sees that it will benefit his agenda. 

2. One of the bigger themes since Donald Trump took office on January 20th is the alleged involvement of Russia into the 2016 election. Is the Russia story overstated or something that every American should be legitimately concerned about?

Jacobs: Lets suspend reality for a moment and assume Hillary won the election. Imagine if Iran was the country that influenced the election for Hillary and Iran helped prop up fake news organizations. How do you think Republicans would feel about that? Then and only then can I legitimize overtly partisan and biased sentiments that try to downplay the treason going on in the Trump Administration.

Farrington: If they actually had some real evidence it would have already been presented! It is obvious they don't. In fact it looks like Trump has evidence against them for what they are accusing him of.

Seaton: This is a situation that actually cuts both ways. It can not be overstated the new dangers of social media to our democracy. It should also be alarming that a nominee and/or campaign would pseudo collude with a foreign advisory. As far as whether Donald Trump did win thanks to a possible collusion with Russia -- NO NO NO!! He won because of gerrymandering in our country and party loyalty.

​Herrera: I believe that is overstated; however, we should be concerned with any of our elected officials or bureaucrats having inappropriate relationships with other countries. Most of this seems to be feigned outrage from the Left.  Obama gave Iran BILLIONS in untraceable non US currency to circumvent the law.  No outrage.  We now find out from Politico that he lied about the nature of the Iranians that were repatriated.  When Obama told Medvedev on a hot mic to tell “Vlad” that he would have more flexibility after the election, where were the cries of collusion? On April 2, House Intelligence Committee top Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff said that there is “no definitive proof” of any ties between Trump and Russia.  This is an attempt by the Left to delegitimize the Trump administration from the start.  However, if they find ANY inappropriate behavior, we must take action and hold all responsible parties accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
​
3. During his campaign, President Trump continuously stated his #1 goal was to repeal and replace Obamacare within his first 100 days of his administration So far that has not happened due to with house Republicans not able to reach common ground on new health care reform. Could the health care divide between both in house Republicans and also Democrats potentially be his undoing for a 2020 re-election bid?

Jacobs: Read my letter to Trump on his first day in office.

The only good thing Trump can do with Obamacare is actually cut a deal with Democrats and make it work better. Anything less like even "the status quo" further perpetuates why he is incredibly unfit for office. The bottom line is the fact that Obamacare is not Trump's undoing, but Trump himself is Trump's undoing.

​Farrington: They will come together on it. If and when Obamacare completely implodes they will be forced to. It will happen before that.

Seaton: The only thing that could affect his re-election bid is the unemployment numbers. If the economy is humming along and wages are rising the only thing that could prevent a re-election is if he were to be impeached. 
​
Herrera: Obamacare is imploding.  It was DESIGNED to implode in order to usher in single payer healthcare.  Unfortunately, Candidate Trump said that he would prefer single payer healthcare.  It is way too soon to discuss reelection but if Obamacare is not repealed, it should hinder EVERY Republican’s chances for reelection.  They control the Executive and both Houses of Congress.  This should have been done immediately.  

​
4. The subject of Syria has been a hot button issue for the President even before he took the oath of office. In 2013 he was vehemently against the previous administrations involvement with Syria. He has since changed his stance on that with the recent bombings in that region. What is your opinion on the United States involvement in Syria as a whole?

Jacobs: Honestly, I do not find myself as well informed on Syria as I should be. But, from things I read and based on how many Democrats supported Syrian intervention in 2013 compared to now, it's about the same. Roughly 38%. Meaning Democrats innately are more dovish, but you still have a large contingency of chicken hawks in the Party regardless of who is the POTUS. But Republicans are chickens save for a few like (maybe a Lindsey Graham...who I'm still not exactly enamored with). There's no way around this truth!

Farrington: I am not crazy about us bombing Syria. We should not be committing acts of war without Congressional authorization. We should try minding our own business more and stay out of foreign entanglements.

Seaton: Yes, we must do everything possible to rid the country of Assad and put in place a stable regime had we not taken Senator John McCain's and/or Senator Lindsey Graham's advice to back Syrian rebel groups with ties to Al-Queda. 

​Herrera: When the Obama administration for all intents and purposes eliminated Gaddafi in Libya, we created a power vacuum.  The vacuum was quickly filled by ISIS, Al Qaeda, and warlords whose only loyalty is to money and power.  When the Obama administration forced Mubarak to resign the people elected the Muslim Brotherhood.  The Muslim Brotherhood is the prototypical Islamist organization with its hands in both terrorism and politics.  Removing Assad will create another rogue state in the Middle East.  ISIS and Al Qaeda will quickly fill that vacuum as well.   The people of the Middle East and the Muslim world in general do not want Democracy: they want Sharia.  Assad may be an alleged tyrant but Christians flourish in Syria while they are being exterminated everywhere else in that part of the world.  We must ask ourselves why Assad would use nerve agents at this time.  Syria is a mess.  We arm Al Qaeda to fight Assad.  Russia arms other rebels to fight Al Qaeda.  ISIS is fighting  everyone.  We do not need another Islamic “republic” like Iran.  Turkey has shifted to a more Islamic and less secular government.  Turkey and Saudi Arabia are both involved in Syria.  It is a HUGE mess and we should be very wary of deepening involvement.


​5. If you were a room with the President and had the golden opportunity to offer him advice, what would you tell him?

Jacobs: I will keep it brief for the POTUS but this is what I find of utmost importance

1st - Fire Jeff Sessions
2nd - Fire Betsy DeVos
3rd - Fire Mike Pence
4th - Tap John Kasich for VP with a wink wink and the implicit understanding that he will be the next President Of The United States as soon as humanly possible/when it makes the most sense.
5th - RESIGN IMMEDIATELY AND GET THE F*CK OUT OF THE WAY!

​Farrington: Keep as many campaign promises as you possibly can. Stay focused on those things which you ran on. I love the Tweets!

Seaton: I would tell him if he really wanted to sound more inclusive to all of America he should buy hooked on phonics and learn how to read.  

​Herrera:  My advice is simple: Keep your promises. Keep government small. Cut taxes (which he just proposed).  I also have advice for the America voter: stop treating politics like sports.  These politicians are not your favorite athlete and the parties are not your favorite sports franchise.  If “your guy” is a liar, then his supporters should be the FIRST calling him out.  We need to remember the words of Davy Crockett, “ I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the white house, no matter who he is.”

 

​