President Donald Trump is now three months into his second presidency, which is proving to be even more polarizing and controversial than his first. Many right-wing media outlets, from Fox News and Newsmax to Steve Bannon's "War Room" vodcast, routinely praise Trump's "record of accomplishment" — while Trump's critics on both the left and the right are attacking Trump's second term as an unqualified disaster.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on April 21, Doug Sosnik — who served as a senior adviser to former President Bill Clinton during the 1990s — argues that "the first 100 days of Donald Trump's second presidency will be considered the most consequential of any in modern history," although not in a good way.

"Since taking office," Sosnik explains, "Mr. Trump has consolidated extraordinary power in the executive branch, dismantled large portions of the federal government, undone the military and economic alliances that were formed following World War II and torn up the policy consensus that has governed global trade for just as long. But a consequential start does not in any way equate to long-term success. Mr. Trump's approval ratings are already falling, and if past presidencies are any guide, the worst is yet to come."

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Sosnik continues, "Now as in 2017, he is the only modern president to have a net negative approval rating at this point in his term. And as more and more Americans begin to feel the pain of his policies, we may well look back on his first 100 days as the prelude to a historically unpopular presidency."

According to the former Bill Clinton adviser, Trump "risks an even steeper fall in job approval" than former President Joe Biden experienced in 2021. Biden, Sosnik notes, went from "57 percent job approval rating as he approached his 100th day in office" but was " down to 43 percent" by early September 2021.

Trump, Sosnik argues, "is overreading the mandate that voters gave him."

"While he was the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years," Sosnik observes, "his vote share was under 50 percent, and his margin of victory was small by historical standards. Mr. Trump's victory was also driven more by opposition to the Biden-Harris Administration than support for him…. It will take about 230 days, not 100, to get a clear picture of whether the country believes he is delivering."

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Sosnik adds, "While only a fool would make predictions in this volatile political environment, we can be certain that by the beginning of September, Mr. Trump will no longer be able to blame Mr. Biden for his troubles; he will own, for better or worse, the state of the country."

Doug Sosnik's full op-ed for the New York Times is available at this link.

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