The first 100 days of a president’s time in office can make or break the rest of the term. FDR’s first two thousand four hundred hours was marked with 76 laws passed through congress, including nine major initiatives. By the end of John F. In Kennedy’s first 3 months, his approval rating with the public was at 83%, the highest ever for a president’s first three months. During President-elect Donald Trump’s first term he had a uniformed government in the palm of his hand, a phenomenon that his affiliated political party had majority rule at all federal levels. Despite this advantage, he was unable to actually accomplish anything substantial in the first 100 days, but this time around, Trump not only has a strong grip over government again, but a party full of loyal followers ready to act on his every word. Lucas Ravenscraft, social studies teacher, said he believes he will do far more than his first term in 2016.
“The second Trump administration will be much more productive than their first term,” Ravenscraft said. “In 2016, even after Trump was elected, congress was not full of Trumpist Republicans that were in his populist, MAGA wing of the party. A higher percentage [of congress] was establishment Republicans in the 8 years since 2016. But since then the congressional members especially in the house [of representatives] became more aligned with Trump.”
Trump has a laundry list of policies he wishes to enact for the country, ranging from lowering taxes to mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Which of these plans should KHS students be looking out for?
Education
During his first term, Trump said he would dismantle the Department of Education on day one, but never followed through with his plan. Instead, Trump and his then-education secretary Betsey DeVos downsized the department, causing public schools to cut down staff numbers. During his 2024 campaign, he revived his promise to dismantle the Department of Education entirely. Sarah Hainline, junior, completely disagrees with this policy plan.
“I think it would be incredibly harmful,” Hainline said. “Getting rid of the system in which we decide [student’s education] would bring the education system to complete disarray. I genuinely think he does not know the gravity of what he is doing and how much impact that has.”
According to the Associated Press, public schools only get 14% of their funding from the Department of Education’s programs that aid low-income students in paying for K-12 education. This is not the only proposal that would heavily impact school, planning to dismantle the Department of Education is his first step toward a larger plan. In a statement from late 2023, the Trump campaign introduced a policy idea called “American Academy,” a free online school that would teach courses on a wide array of subjects: college and real-world skills alike. He plans to redirect the free funds from the disbanded Department of Education as well as tax ivy-league schools to pay for this unprecedented project. Hainline said she believes this plan has positive potential, but has concerns for his credibility in the idea.
“I think it would help students to be honest, I like the idea,” Hainline said. “But I remember his [business], Trump University that he created that was called out for fraud. It would be a really good idea if it had actually been implemented.”
Hainline is referring to Donald Trump’s failed university program during his real estate days, a school which taught students how to succeed in the real estate industry. But many students felt cheated by the Trump-owned business because it charged expensive prices for their low quality services, resulting in a wave of lawsuits against his company. Eventually, it led to a payout for the students.
Economy
In a Gallup poll shortly before the election, voters were asked who could handle each issue better. They rated Trump to handle the economy more by a nine point margin against Vice President Kamala Harris. Ravenscraft credits this toward the Biden administration’s handling of inflation that Harris was a part of.
“It is a product of the current inflation crisis that we are experiencing, not only in the US but globally.” Ravenscraft said “This is caused by a number of global factors, such as disruption of supply chains, government stimulus checks during COVID, etc. What we have seen is the working class people blaming the Biden administration for being the people in power while inflation is going on.”
Trump has put forward a long list of economic initiatives. One of his flagship policy positions is tariffs, a tax placed on an import from other countries. Trump on the campaign trail has advocated for 20%, 30% and at times 40% tariffs coming from all foreign countries. Simone Ciralsky, sophomore, said she is concerned about the tariffs being placed on goods that are not able to be produced in the United States
“I believe it is absolutely insane to try and cut down on trade with the world, because I simply don’t believe America has all the natural resources needed,” Ciralsky said. “Companies have already said they plan to raise prices after the tariff threat, meaning more money out of Americans’ pockets.”
According to Trump’s 2024 campaign platform “Agenda 47”, The main reason why he is placing these tariffs is because he wants to promote American manufacturing and prevent it from being outsourced. Wyatt Woodard, sophomore, agrees with this in terms of its use in the past.
“Historically, tariffs work,” Woodard said. “[They bring] in more revenue for the country applying them, [this happens] because it’s basically taxing the imports we bring in, generating money for the country.”
Trump himself has backed up tariffs with the large amount of revenue it would bring in. The President-elect at times even suggested the revenue generated would allow him to cut the income tax entirely. While the revenue generated would be positive, the base goal of the tariffs misses the point in Hainline’s feelings toward the plan.
“The [tariff] policy itself is interesting,” Hainline said. “wanting more American jobs and consolidating instead of reaching out to other countries for our own economy. I don’t think that is necessarily bad, but I do not agree with how he plans to go about trying to achieve that goal.”
Another important issue recognized by working high schoolers is the minimum wage, but has barely been mentioned publicly by Trump. On the campaign trail, Trump was asked about whether he would consider raising the federal minimum wage to $15 during a media stunt working at a McDonalds in Pennsylvania . He proceeded to dodge the question and instead said, “I think these people [at McDonalds] work hard” and “these are great franchises that produce a lot of jobs.”
Before that comment, he spoke about the minimum wage in a 2020 debate with current president Joe Biden. When asked by the moderator if he supported increasing the minimum wage, he directly answered the question with, “Alabama is different than New York. New York is different than Vermont. Every state is different, [so] it should be a state option.” With this being the last genuine response to the minimum wage debate, he is implying that the minimum wage should be left to the states themselves to decide. Currently in Missouri, the minimum wage is $12.30, excluding taxes, while at the federal level it is $7.25 hourly. Woodard said he agrees with this stance made by the President-elect because his logic behind it is on the right track
“I believe that it should be left to the states, the economy within states is different,” Woodard said. “A burger in New York is way more expensive than a burger in Wyoming. Raising it for everybody would probably cause problems for state economies who value the dollar a lot more.”
Ciralsky said she slightly disagrees with Woodard’s stance. She said she feels that Trump’s plan of placing tariffs on imports will push the issue to become more prominent.
“Although I do believe minimum wage should be up to the state to decide, I don’t see what’s wrong with raising minimum wages,” Ciralsky said. “A lot of people might depend on the raising of minimum wage to get along, especially in the future if tariffs are gonna be directly impacting people’s incomes.”
Housing
Over the course of Biden’s term, inflation has affected many aspects of life, including housing. Trump has promised on his website “Agenda ‘47” in which he would cut all forms of regulation to incentivize the construction of more homes at a lower cost. These regulations include the local zoning of what type of house can be built in a select area, a policy that Trump ironically has a history of supporting.
During Trump’s first term, he promoted zoning as a way to keep homes valuable and on his reelection campaign in 2020 he said he would “protect suburbia” from low income housing development. Ciralsky said she believes he will cut zoning regulations to promote affordable housing, citing an interview Trump did with Bloomberg News in late 2024.
“Trump has said before [in an interview] that zoning is a killer,” Ciralsky said. “I believe he thinks it’s part of the reason housing is so expensive, so I think he’d cut it.”
