Trump, who has reversed course on tariffs multiple times, claimed China will “eat” the cost of the 145% tariffs he imposed, though economists have said consumers will feel the effects and retailers have already begun price hikes. 

Still, most polls show his approval rating in the low 40s, and last week’s The Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos poll found just 39% approve of how he’s handled his job as president.

So, what’s next for Trump? In this special edition of Forbes Daily, let’s take a look back and forward. 

On that day, Trump unveiled a chart that showed nearly all countries—even uninhabited ones—would face tariffs ranging from 10% to 50%. Markets crashed as the tariffs went into effect the morning of April 9—Trump told investors in a social media post to “BE COOL”—and later that afternoon he paused the reciprocal tariffs on most countries for 90 days, leading to a temporary economic rebound, though the market forecast has largely been a stormy one since. 

Investors have loudly rejected the president’s economic agenda when it comes to reciprocal tariffs, with the Wall Street Journal reporting last week that the S&P 500’s performance since Inauguration Day was the worst up to this point for any president since 1928. Meanwhile, the value of the U.S. dollar has plummeted to its lowest level in years, and safe haven investments like gold have surged as Americans seek out ways to protect themselves from economic uncertainty.

“What is potentially being compromised is the post World War II order of international finance where the dollar has been the central pillar” of the global economy, Bhanu Baweja, UBS Investment Bank’s chief strategist, said after tariffs were paused.

Such investor uncertainty has been exacerbated by comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has indicated that the Fed is unlikely to lower interest rates due in part to the president’s policies. While Trump himself appointed Powell in 2017, the real estate tycoon soured on him quickly, and the president has openly attacked Powell throughout his term. 

“Most presidents try to maintain distance from the Fed, whose leaders pride themselves on independence, but Donald Trump is not most presidents—he’s a billionaire with vast real estate investments,” Forbes’ Dan Alexander wrote earlier this month. Based on Trump’s current portfolio, a 1% decrease in the federal funds rate could theoretically save him more than $6 million in interest expenses per year.   

Pushing boundaries, testing limits and acting as if the rules don’t apply to him are nothing new for Trump, and in the absence of a true check on executive power, there’s no reason to believe he or his administration will change course in the duration of his term. “Decode the president’s base instincts, and his first 100 days become more understandable, his remaining 1,362 more predictable,” Alexander writes.

DOGE’s cuts have been swift and large in scale. Few government agencies have been spared a visit from DOGE, which has carried out mass layoffs at the IRS, EPA, State Department and beyond. In just February and March, DOGE actions led to 280,253 planned layoffs across 27 agencies, according to career services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

But these cuts haven’t all stuck. Earlier this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated that his agency may have erroneously terminated thousands of employees, including the CDC’s lead poisoning prevention program—just one instance of many in which the government has backtracked on its job decisions.

DOGE claims its cuts have saved $160 billion thus far, although a new report from CBS News shows its efforts could actually cost taxpayers an estimated $135 billion this fiscal year. But the Trump Administration’s motive behind these mass layoffs may lie in its mission to enable large-scale deregulation throughout the federal government. According to the New York Times, Trump 2.0 is targeting “the more than 400 federal agencies that regulate almost every aspect of American life, from flying in airplanes to processing poultry.” 

The new administration—with the help of DOGE—has laid the groundwork for a momentous shift in how businesses and agencies are regulated. How these deregulations impact everyday Americans will likely become more apparent in the president’s next 100 days in office. 

Virtually all of President Trump’s second-term immigration policy has been defined by executive orders—including a particularly controversial decree based on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. In March, the Trump Administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants under the act, meant to be used during times of war.

Enter the courts: After a high-profile dustup with a federal judge over the deportations, the world started to hear about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who the White House admitted was deported because of a “clerical error.” Despite this admission—and a separate Supreme Court decision ordering the president to facilitate Garcia’s return to the U.S.—the Trump Administration’s refusal to return Garcia defies multiple judiciary branch orders as they claim that bringing Garcia back would amount to “kidnapping” because he is now in the custody of El Salvador.

These immigration cases—along with other actions such as the freezing of federal birthright citizenship and the administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development—have some critics of the president concerned that the country is on the verge of a constitutional crisis. Opinions differ on what such a crisis actually entails, though retired federal judge Nancy Gertner told NPR that it occurs when “You have one branch of the government ignoring the legitimate…orders of another branch.”