Today, April 29, 2025, marks Donald Trump’s 100th day in office.
Since he took the oath of office, the 47th US President has moved at frantic speed to show Americans and the world that he is pursuing his campaign promises.
His blizzard of executive actions has reached into every corner of American life and the world at large.
His critics fear he is doing irreparable harm to the country and overstepping his powers – crippling important government functions and perhaps permanently reshaping the global scene.
Amnesty International has warned that the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power.
In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said that the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.
Describing a “freefall” in human rights, the report said growing inaction over the climate crisis, violent crackdowns on dissent and a mounting backlash against the rights of migrants, refugees, amongst others could be traced to the so-called “Trump effect.”
According to the organization, this “Trump effect” has compounded the damage done by other world leaders throughout 2024, eating away at decades of painstaking work to build up and advance universal human rights for all and accelerating humanity’s plunge into a brutal new era characterized by intermingling authoritarian practices and corporate greed.
Amnesty International also warned that the situation would deteriorate further this year as Trump continued to dismantle the rules-based world order that Washington helped to build from the devastation of the second world war.
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, described the US President’s swift and deliberate targeting of international institutions designed to make the world safer and fairer as “terrifying.”
“You look forward to the end of this decade and wonder whether the basic frameworks and underpinnings of not just human rights but international law will still be standing. You probably haven’t been able to say that since 1935.”
Sacha Deshmukh
Trump’s sweeping foreign aid cuts had made conditions worse across the world, Amnesty said, closing crucial programmes in states such as Yemen and Syria, leaving children and survivors of conflict without access to food, shelter or healthcare.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said that hundred days into his second term, Trump has shown “only utter contempt for universal human rights.”
“His government has swiftly and deliberately targeted vital US and international institutions and initiatives that were designed to make ours a safer and fairer world.
“His all-out assault on the very concepts of multilateralism, asylum, racial and gender justice, global health and life-saving climate action is exacerbating the significant damage those principles and institutions have already sustained and is further emboldening other anti-rights leaders and movements to join his onslaught.”
Agnès Callamard
Additionally, the organization warned that Trump’s exit from the crucial Paris climate agreement threatened “to drag others with him.”
Trump’s Approval At 100 Days Low
Meanwhile, a new poll conducted by SSRS finds that Americans’ views of what Trump has done so far have turned deeply negative.
Trump’s 41% approval rating is the lowest for any newly elected President at 100 days dating back at least to Dwight Eisenhower – including Trump’s own first term.
Approval of Trump’s handling of the presidency is down 4 points since March, and 7 points lower than it was in late February. Just 22% say they strongly approve of Trump’s handling of the job, a new low, and about twice as many say they strongly disapprove (45%).
Since March, Trump has seen notable drops in approval from women and Hispanic Americans (down 7 points in each group to 36% among women and 28% among Hispanics).
Partisan views of Trump remain broadly polarized, with 86% of Republicans approving and 93% of Democrats disapproving.
However, among political independents, the president’s approval rating has dipped to 31%, matching his first-term low point with that group and about the same as his standing with them in January 2021.
The poll finds the President sinking across nearly all major issues he’s sought to address during his time in office, with the public’s confidence in his ability to handle those issues also on the decline.
Trump’s approval ratings on economic issues have also dropped notably since early March as the rollout of his tariff plan led to volatility in the stock market and worries about rising prices.
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