President Trump will reach his first 100 days in office on Saturday, April 29, but the ratings are already in—and they ain’t pretty.
This week, NBC and The Wall Street Journal released a poll showing that 64 percent of Americans felt President Trump has gotten off to a “poor or middling” start in his first 100 days, while just 35 percent think the president’s start has been “good” or “great.”
So, after two weeks off, Seth Meyers returned to his Late Night perch to assess the President’s job performance at the 100-day mark—something that Trump himself referred to as a “ridiculous standard” on Twitter:
That seemed, well, a bit hypocritical given that Trump also released a “Contract with the American Voter” (here) during his presidential campaign that detailed a “100-day action plan to Make America Great Again.” It included a number of promises, including: repealing and replacing Obamacare, a tax reform bill, border wall funding, new infrastructure funding, imposing new trade tariffs, labeling China a currency manipulator, and ending Common Core.
None of those things has happened.
“If this were a movie, it would be called: 100 Dayz and Confused,” joked Meyers, adding, “As the 100-day milestone nears, Trump has failed to deliver on almost every one of his legislative promises. Now, there are many reasons for this—including Trump’s ignorance about the basic political realities of governing.”
For example, in an interview with the Associated Press, Trump seemed surprised to learn that there are factions of moderates and conservatives within the Republican Party. He even repeatedly referred to House Speaker Paul Ryan as “Ron” during an April 18 rally in Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin.
But President Trump’s most pressing matter is the looming government shutdown. Yes, if Congress doesn’t send President Trump a government funding bill by midnight on Friday, the government will run out of money and shutdown. The big sticking point, it seems, is Trump’s insistence that the government funding bill include allocating funds for his proposed wall on the border with Mexico.
“Are we sure the government wasn’t shut down already?” asked Meyers. “Because it was reported recently that President Trump has appointed fewer than three-dozen of the top 1,000 officials he needs to run the federal government. Under Trump, our federal government is staffed as well as a Duane Reade on a Sunday morning.” In an AP interview on his first 100 days in office, when asked about whether he’d veto any bill that doesn’t include funding the border wall, Trump said “I don’t know yet” before rambling incoherently about the impressiveness of his Electoral College win and the dedication of his base.
Trump, of course, repeatedly promised on the campaign trail—and after his election win—that Mexico would be paying for the border wall. It now appears he’s changed his tune:
“Trump’s tweets are starting to sound like the fine print on a contest to win a free cruise,” quipped Meyers.
As for the cost of the wall, Trump told the AP: “I think $10 billion or less. And if I do a super-duper, higher, better, better security, everything else, maybe it goes a little bit more.” Cue Meyers: “Man, even the biggest sucker at the used car lot knows to walk away when the salesman says ‘super-duper.’”
On April 21, Trump was confronted by a gaggle of reporters while exiting the Treasury Department and asked how he was going to accomplish his recent flurry of legislative promises.
“It’s going to be great. It’ll happen. It’ll happen… We’ll see what happens. No particular rush, but we’ll see what happens. But healthcare is coming along well, government is coming along really well,” he replied. Meyers was not impressed: “That’s the President of the United States saying ‘government is coming along really well.’ That’s like going home to your wife and saying, ‘Hello, wife. Our marriage is coming along really well.’”