The White House kicked off its celebration of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office with a press briefing where the target audience appeared to be a party of one: the president.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was joined by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the briefing room Tuesday morning where they blasted Trump’s foe Joe Biden and the media while lavishing praise on their boss.
“The press is not talking nearly enough about the positive impact of President Trump’s deregulation campaign,” the press secretary complained.
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“Today officially marks 100 days of promises made and promises kept by President Trump,” Leavitt told the room of reporters.
“This has truly been the most historic start of a presidency in American history,” she continued.
Trump will deliver his own speech later on Tuesday in Macomb County, Michigan. He often bemoans the state of the country he inherited and complains about the media coverage of his administration.
His flurry of posts on Truth Social early Tuesday morning suggested the president, known for consuming a ton of cable news, was back to watching his favorite program, Fox News. The posts included a series of MAGA allies praising his first 100 days.
Leavitt’s bragging about the administration’s achievements came as the president’s approval ratings hit an historic low. The latest CNN poll showed his approval at just 41 percent, the lowest of any president in the first 100 days in seven decades dating back to President Dwight Eisenhower. Trump’s approval was even lower than it was marking 100 days in his first term.
A separate NPR/PBS/Marist poll released on Tuesday showed more Americans give Trump an “F” grade for his first 100 days than any other grade. 45 percent of adults gave him an “F” while just 23 percent gave him an “A.”
The president is under water for how he is handling issues across the board. Only 34 percent of Americans approve of how he is handling tariffs and just 39 percent approve of how he is handling the economy overall while 55 percent disapprove.
Meanwhile, just 39 percent approve of how the president has handled foreign policy. He has failed so far to secure a peace deal in Ukraine or to maintain a ceasefire in Gaza.
After focusing Monday morning’s press conference on boasts about Trump’s immigration successes, Leavitt spent Tuesday morning touting Trump’s “promises made, promises kept” on the economy.
The bright and early pity-party even brought up the president’s first term while continuing to blame the Biden administration for the financial woes Americans are facing.
“After building the greatest economy in the world in his first term as president, President Trump is in the process of doing that all over again,” Leavitt said.
She argued the president has been focused on “defeating the Biden inflation crisis, bringing down the cost of living and making the United States the best place in the world to do business, invest, create jobs and innovate.”
Leavitt said that the price of everyday goods have been dropping across the board. Progress has been slow when it comes to inflation, but it has been gradually slowing since its brutal peak in June 2022.
While the price of all items declined 0.1 percent in March, prices were up 0.2 percent in February, according to the Consumer Price Index. The cost of living remains up 2.4 percent from a year ago.
“Bringing down the terrible Biden inflation has been a top priority for the first 100 days of the Trump administration, and President Trump has done a great job of leading that since January 20,” Bessent added.
The press secretary has also specifically touted the drop in prescription drug prices, which were down two percent in March. Prescription drugs have been spared from the president’s tariffs so far, but it remains to be seen whether that will change as the administration has launched a probe into pharmaceutical imports.
“President Trump ended Joe Biden’s reckless war on American energy and fossil fuels, and has restored American energy dominance,” Leavitt also declared.
She went on to tout the president blocking rules not finalized by the Biden administration and rolling back regulations. Leavitt vowed the efforts would lead to savings for families in the coming months.
In Monday’s briefing, Leavitt decried Biden’s “awful open border policies” while arguing Trump has “overwhelmingly delivered” on his promises to secure the border.
When it comes to the top issue Trump ran on, only 44 of Americans approve of how he is handling immigration, the Marist poll found.
Overall, nearly two-thirds of Americans, 61 percent, believe the president is moving too quickly to make changes without considering the impact of his actions.
