• Now that the adults in the room have been replaced (with notable exceptions) with cranks and yes-men, the results have been starkly different. From tanking our economy with tariffs to using executive orders to retaliate against law firms that represented his rivals to mucking around with due process, we can now say with some confidence that Trump’s first-term policy wins were probably not the result of a decent man existing underneath the mask. They were the result of a madman restrained. (Coleman Hughes)
• [E]ven before the second inauguration. Trump and his ravenous family launched their meme coins, skimming hundreds of millions of dollars from the MAGA cult and creating a mechanism by which supplicants, aspiring crooks, and foreign agents could purchase influence with the new regime. From this moment, it was clear that a second Trump presidency would degrade our country in ways that few had imagined possible. One hundred days later, it is hard to overstate just how much damage has been done to America’s standing in the world. When the history of this period is written, it will be widely acknowledged that the second Trump administration was stunning as much for its incompetence as for its corruption. (Sam Harris)
• Trump has signed fewer bills into law during his first 100 days than any modern president. And this has been by design. His team considers legislation the least appealing mode of action available to them. It’s slow, messy, and full of other people’s priorities. This is a mark of short-term thinking that will haunt them. (Yuval Levin)
• Many of his executive orders are deliberately drafted to maximize their unconstitutionality. His law-firm orders, for example, parade the fact that Trump is personally retaliating against handpicked firms for First Amendment–protected lawyering. These orders will be, and are being, struck down in a heartbeat. This is not a “constitutional crisis.” It’s political theater. (Jeb Rubenfeld)
• Seeing your retirement fund gutted does have a way of concentrating the mind. (Matt Labash)
• American health is not improved by canceling a multi-decade study on diabetes, a major chronic illness, because the study is overseen by Columbia University, an administration target. (Emily Yoffe)

Excerpts from Bill Maher, Mike Pompeo, Nellie Bowles, and More on 100 Days of Trump