President Donald Trump started his first 100 days in office with his staff heralding a new, more professionalized Trump White House. He’s entering the next pivotal 100 days with the veil slipping just a bit on a president who can’t resist some old-fashioned drama.
People close to the president saw that in Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, when he hosted outgoing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for dinner. Paxton is challenging Sen. John Cornyn in next year’s Senate race, and Trump is now openly contemplating bucking the longtime incumbent, effectively ousting him in favor of a firebrand more closely aligned with the MAGA movement.
“It’s his best weapon for keeping control over the people in Congress,” said a former Trump official who attended the dinner that evening. An additional source confirmed Paxton’s attendance.
That flare for personal pressure turned up on day 100 itself, when Trump called up Jeff Bezos over a reported plan for Amazon to display tariff costs on sale pages.
“He’s a good guy, I’ve gotten to know him over the last couple of years, and he’s done a fantastic job,” Trump said of Bezos when NOTUS asked about his call with the Amazon founder. “So I appreciated what he did.”
The president has bent independent organizations to his will for the first 100 days in office, with the help of his officials. Advisers for the incoming White House promised a radically different one than Trump’s first term. It would work swiftly, seeking to enact his authority at a crushing pace in the first months — something that has proven to be undeniably true.
“This strategy of just kind of all gas, no brakes, has been hugely effective,” said one outside ally close to the White House.
Trump officials promised the administration would be focused in part on the base of voters that elected the president for issues like immigration and the economy, but also because of cultural issues that have divided the nation. And they said that it would be carried out by a White House without the same infighting from aides that dominated and in some ways derailed progress in the first term.
The more than half dozen Republican allies and critics who spoke with NOTUS say that is still true. At least mostly.
“It’s very true in terms of people who are not his personal friends,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a friend and supporter of the president. “I think Susie [Wiles] has a very keen instinct into what you can and cannot do to make things more orderly. And she understands the times that Trump is going to be Trump.”
The outside ally put it more succinctly: “There’s been some side drama and some side shows, but they haven’t been the main show.”
There’ve been days and weeks, though, where that hasn’t been exactly true. The continuing drama over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal, for instance, does not appear to be something the White House is willingly talking about. But sometimes dark dramas that have seemingly engulfed the administration — like the fate of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a Salvadoran prison, setting off a steep conflict with the judiciary — are exactly what the president and his team want. Prime evidence: the White House’s decision this week to decorate the front lawn with posters depicting migrants the administration says they’ve deported.
Still, the White House has taken the approach in the first 100 days that no story can’t just be beaten away by constant activity and yet another story.
“That’s one of the lessons they’ve learned, that you just keep moving forward. The news media can’t cover it very long. The country doesn’t care,” said Gingrich.
And, some say, Trump is still the same person who encouraged his aides to fight one another in his first administration, who pushes chaos through diverging opinions — as long as it doesn’t thwart the big picture.
“I always felt like the far more disciplined, less chaotic, was always mythology that a lot of, you know, frankly, media reported,” Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, said of the concept of a more professionalized second term.
Trump, he said, “likes the chaos — like for him, he wants the ratings. And so if it’s orderly and boring, then it’s not gonna have the same ratings. And so that’s not meant as a reflection on Susie or what’s happening inside. It’s just his nature, it’s what he wants.”
One White House official told NOTUS Tuesday, “We thrive on chaos.”
Democrats and the media, they said, “don’t understand our ability to deal with chaos and deal with pain,” citing their pain threshold as much higher than any of their detractors. “It’s how we operate.”
Those close to the president note his change of mentality this time around, with many saying he’s enjoying this term as he watches the world meet his demands.
“He’s having a lot of fun. He certainly has his mojo,” a senior adviser said in January. Asked by NOTUS if that still remains true, they texted quickly, “absolutely.”
But the reviews after 100 days are mixed, even from some supporters.
Trump’s allies and foes cite a calmer Southern border as the most prevailing success of this administration so far, with border crossings down significantly since January. The administration has gotten credit from the right for taking on liberal-leaning institutions and higher education, threatening funding to colleges that don’t adopt its worldview. He’s expanded presidential power significantly compared to his predecessors, consolidating it closer within the White House. He’s achieved firm control over the Republican Party and thus Congress, which the GOP narrowly controls. And he’s rolled back DEI and as well as foreign aid from across the government.
But polling shows that voters aren’t as enthusiastic about the rapid change. Recent polling has shown the president underwater on the issue of immigration and the border, typically a place where Trump enjoys high marks.
On the economy, another place where Trump has typically fared well, recent surveys have captured a sour mood across the country, with more Americans expressing pessimism about the future, in part because of Trump’s actions, like his aggressive tariff plan.
These all present prevailing headwinds for the president that have yet to stop his consolidation of power but threaten to slow the momentum should they continue in a downward spiral. Voters have expressed disappointment to pollsters with high prices and inflation as well.
On Tuesday, the White House touted the gains made in bringing those both down, including energy and gas prices as well as the supposed progress on tariff deals.
“They are pretty excited at the prospect of some near-term deals being announced,” Wilbur Ross, Trump’s former commerce secretary who spent the past weekend with officials in Washington, told NOTUS. “That’s really important, because that will help to calm down the U.S. markets.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Besent told NOTUS during a briefing Tuesday that India is close to being done, with South Korea shaping up to quickly come next.
But those close to Trump theorized that there’s a clock working against Trump — he only has so much time until the disruptions he’s causing as part of his full reimaging of the federal government turn into angry voters. That’s something people close to Trump say the president knows as well.
“There’s no immediate cost to them doing what they’re doing, because you don’t get an election until next November,” said Gingrich. “I think by January, February of next year, they’ve got to become more stabilized. But they have the rest of this year to keep taking things apart.”
That makes this new 100 days key for Trump to cement his legacy. And that won’t be entirely up to him.
“I think in the next 100 days, it’s really going to be up to Congress to solidify the policy the president has put on the board,” said the outside ally close to the White House.
That won’t be too simple, with congressional Republicans now deep in discussions on the massive reconciliation bill that would house many of Trump’s legislative priorities, from tax cuts to immigration policy. The self-imposed deadline on the bill has already begun to slip beyond Memorial Day.
Other traditional Republicans want to see Trump make a course correction now — and see his administration’s mentality as an impediment to their own success.
“There’s just this attitude over there that it’s not enough to win, they have to dominate,” said a GOP strategist unhappy with the White House’s trajectory. “The headwinds are only of his own making.”
—
Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS. Daniella Diaz contributed reporting.