Abby McCloskey, The Dallas Morning News, April 30, 2025

“How to make sense of the chaos, broken norms and kept promises of the last 100 days? Even those of us who follow politics for a living have had a time sorting through it.

But consistent threads are emerging. The mother thread is that Donald Trump was serious about most of his campaign promises. He might be a wheeling-dealing, emotional and erratic man, but he did not bluff about what he planned to do.

Sealing the border was Trump’s No. 1 campaign promise, and it has happened in record time. There’s been a dramatic drop-off in border crossings in recent months. This is good news. We should have a better handle on who is coming to and leaving this country. Things had gotten out of control after the post-pandemic surge across the border during the Biden administration.

In contrast, we are a far way from his other immigration promise of the largest deportation campaign in American history. Thank goodness. But high-profile raids and deportations (including wrongful ones), eliminating and reinstating student visas, and an indefinite pause on the refugee program have all communicated loud and clear that immigrants aren’t welcome here. This is upsetting, unnecessary and antithetical to America as a shining city on a hill. But is it consistent with Trump’s agenda? Absolutely. See the more than 1,400 children who remain separated from their parents after his first term.

The tariffs have been on-again-off-again, but the president was serious about trade wars too. Trump’s tariffs represent the biggest tax hike since 1993 and the highest level tariffs have been since coming out of the Great Depression. Tariffs will fundamentally rewire our economy. Allies and manufacturing plants aren’t built overnight. . . .”