'100 Days From Hell': Chuck Schumer Issues Brutal Takedown Of Trump After Poor Approval Rating Polls

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the first 100 days of the Trump Administration.

Transcript

00:00Donald Trump's first hundred days have been a hundred days from hell.

00:06Over the past week, as I've thought about this hundred-day mark, as I met with people

00:10throughout my state, with business owners and nurses and seniors and veterans and many

00:15Republicans, I couldn't think of another way to describe the sentiment I felt back home.

00:21These hundred days have been hundred days from hell.

00:25Donald Trump is not governing like a president of a democratic republic.

00:29He's acting like a king, a despot, a wannabe dictator.

00:35Remember that during the campaign he indicated that he'd be a dictator just on day one.

00:41But everything we've seen so far shows he wants to be a dictator for much, much longer.

00:48And he's eating away at America's rule of law, America's norms, America's fundamental

00:54values.

00:55And people are scared and people are angry.

00:59When seniors in Buffalo tell me they're legitimately worried about whether or not they'll keep

01:03seeing their Social Security checks.

01:05And that's not just a political expression.

01:07They wonder how they're going to pay the rent, buy the food, buy the drugs next month if Social

01:14Security's, if their check isn't there.

01:17When doctors and health workers in Albany tell me they fear losing Medicaid funding for

01:21their hospitals and clinics, they're worried about caring for their patients who desperately

01:25need help and may not get it, they're worried about their jobs.

01:30When Republican business owners on Long Island tell me they're losing sleep over Donald Trump's

01:35tariffs, it's because their businesses may go under.

01:38This is not just a political game.

01:40People are really worried in ways they haven't seen in a long time.

01:45And when young people across New York tell me they're scared of being rounded up on the streets

01:50and sent to a prison in Louisiana because of the way they look or because of some blog

01:54post they may have shared a year ago, years ago, it's hard to fathom that this is all happening

02:02in America 2025.

02:06One hundred days into this presidency, there's a feeling of incompetence and indecision and

02:11chaos from the White House, in the White House, eating away at much of the country, emanating

02:19from the man who occupies the Oval Office.

02:22Donald Trump promised a golden age on the first day he became president.

02:28What Americans got instead was fool's gold.

02:31We knew Donald Trump was lying by the time he pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists a few hours

02:37later, pardoned outright criminals who beat up cops so much for back the blue, pardoning

02:46lawbreakers who had an intent on disrupting the Congress as we counted electoral votes.

02:54What a disgrace.

02:56What kind of morals is he setting for this country?

02:58This will go down in history as one of the ways America has declined under Donald Trump.

03:08So this morning, let's talk about Donald Trump's so-called golden age.

03:13Democrats are going to hammer away at this topic all day long today as we've done many

03:17days in the past.

03:19And tonight, we will come to this chamber and hold the floor until late tonight to mark these

03:26dismal hundred days by speaking the truth.

03:29Tonight, we will come to the floor and hold the chamber to mark these dismal hundred days.

03:37What is the truth?

03:39The truth is this.

03:41No president in modern history has promised more on day one and delivered less by day 100

03:48than Donald Trump.

03:50In record time, the president has turned a golden promise into an economic ticking time

03:55bomb.

03:57It's getting worse every day, and he calls it progress.

04:02Let's remember what Donald Trump said again and again on the campaign trail.

04:05Starting on day one, he said, we'll end inflation and make America affordable again.

04:10A vote for Trump, he said, means your groceries will be cheaper.

04:14We're going to get energy prices down by 50 percent.

04:18Well the opposite is happening.

04:20The economic winds are pointing in the wrong direction and reaching hurricane speed.

04:26Americans are still paying more and more today for their groceries, their rent, their housing,

04:31their gas, their cars, auto parts, drugs, and household necessities.

04:38And Donald Trump's asinide trade war has made it all the worse.

04:42Forty-four percent of families now believe they'll be worse off financially a year from

04:46now.

04:47A level of pessimism not even seen during the Great Depression or the 1970s stagflation.

04:54According to an AP Nork poll, half of Americans are worried about a recession and expect inflation

04:59to keep going up.

05:00These aren't just poll numbers.

05:03When I talk to New Yorkers, when I hear from Americans, that's exactly where they're

05:07at.

05:09Consumer sentiment is at a decades-long low.

05:11It's plunged by 30 percent.

05:14So the consumer's holding back.

05:16They're not spending.

05:17They're not planning that trip to see the grandkids.

05:22They're not thinking of buying the new car or new furniture.

05:27Because they're worried.

05:28And then businesses, seeing that, hearing that, they hold back.

05:32I've heard from business after business, large and small, everything's on freeze.

05:36Everything's hold.

05:37And you know what that does?

05:39That leads to a recession.

05:42In fact, Amazon announced that they will begin displaying how much tariffs contribute to the

05:47total price of products to consumers.

05:50I urge more companies, particularly national retailers that compete with Amazon, to adopt

05:58this practice.

05:59If Amazon has the courage to display why prices are going up because of tariffs, so should all

06:07of our other national retailers who compete with them, and I'm calling on them to do it now.

06:15To the large businesses that sell to consumers, I say, show your customers how much tariffs are

06:25hurting in their pocketbook.

06:27People deserve to know the impact tariffs have on their finances.

06:32And certainly, when people hear it, they'll let their congressmen and senators know, and

06:37businesses, then you'll have a chance to get rid of these tariffs, which are so stultifying

06:41your ability to move forward.

06:45And it's also small businesses.

06:46They don't want to get blamed for hiking prices when Donald Trump's tariffs have put them in

06:51terrible position, in a position that says, raise your prices or close your doors.

06:56They hate doing either.

06:59And finally, let's not forget Donald Trump's favorite measuring stick, the stock market,

07:04which he has conspicuously been silent about over the last few months.

07:08The Dow Jones is on track for its worst April since 1932.

07:14Did you hear that, Donald Trump?

07:16Your beloved stock market is on track for the worst April since 1932, the last year of Herbert

07:22Hoover.

07:27I asked this chamber, Mr. President, is this what a golden age looks like?

07:32Are we supposed to feel good that Donald Trump has single-handedly pushed us to the brink

07:37of a recession?

07:39This president, who governs chaotically and reverses himself like a weather vane in a windstorm,

07:46is driving the robust American economy into a ditch?

07:49I think if you asked Americans to pick one word that describes Donald Trump's economy and how he's

07:55handling it, it would be one word, a five-letter word, chaos, C-H-A-O-S, chaos.

08:03Another five-letter word is Trump, T-R-U-M-P.

08:06Chaos equals Trump.

08:08Trump equals chaos.

08:10Are Americans supposed to just take it when Donald Trump says family should be okay with prices going up, with

08:17experiencing some pain and disturbance?

08:20That's what he says.

08:21It's okay if prices go up.

08:23You'll get some pain and disturbance.

08:26Pretty rich, coming from a billionaire.

08:30American consumers are not supposed to take it.

08:33There is precious little, if anything, on the economic front to feel good about the 100 days in Trump 2.0.

08:43And don't take it from me.

08:45Today, Donald Trump has lower approval ratings than he did at this point in 2017.

08:49And, in fact, he has the lowest approval ratings of any president through 100 days in the last 80 years

08:57when they started doing these polls.

08:59The only thing historic about Donald Trump's golden age is how fast public confidence in him has collapsed,

09:07faster than any other president in modern history.

09:11Americans don't trust him on the economy, nor should they.

09:15They don't trust him on keeping America safe, nor should they.

09:19They don't trust him on his ability to fight for the interest of ordinary people,

09:24because they know that the whole place is run by a small coterie of billionaires

09:28who don't really care about average folks at all.

09:32And we are only 100 days in.

09:36And finally, on a related subject, let me say this.

09:40As Donald Trump races to sabotage the American economy,

09:44he has likewise already inflicted lasting harm to the foundations of American democracy.

09:50When our founders drafted the Constitution, they feared precisely a man like Donald Trump.

09:56They feared a man who sees rule of laws in nuisance,

09:59who considers the truth an inconvenience,

10:02who regards his federal citizens as little more than subjects.

10:06Either kiss the ring, bow the throne, bow before the throne, or watch your back.

10:11That's the ethos of Donald Trump.

10:14Kiss the ring, bow before the throne, or watch your back.

10:18The Trumpian ethos.

10:20In 100 days, Donald Trump is moved with lightning speed

10:24to weaponize the federal government against anyone he thinks might oppose him.

10:29Prain and simple, Donald Trump does not believe in democracy or debate,

10:32nor do the people around him.

10:35He doesn't believe in honest disagreement.

10:37He simply wants to crush his opponents.

10:40And that is what dictators do.

10:43He wiped the government clean of its independent watchdogs and rid the government of most measures of transparency.

10:52He has fired public workers by the tens of thousands and illegally paralyzed agency after agency that helps everyday Americans.

11:01He's attacked the free press.

11:02He's attacked our education system.

11:04He's attacked our scientists.

11:05He is systematically attempting to weaken any political opposition, anyone who might hold him accountable.

11:12In the name of security, which is a favorite justification for many of history's despots,

11:18Trump is arresting people with little due process and, in some cases, without even regard to immigration status.

11:27Last week, just look last week, four American citizens, all of them children, two of them battling life-threatening cancers,

11:35were deported from the U.S., from their homeland.

11:38They're citizens, like we are, and sent to places like Honduras.

11:43Let me repeat, these are American citizens, Donald Trump.

11:50And America, if you thought something like this could never happen in America, then unfortunately you were wrong.

11:56It's happening right in front of us.

12:00And what did Donald Trump have to say about the risk of deporting U.S. citizens?

12:05He said, let me tell you that nothing will ever be perfect in this world.

12:10That's what he said.

12:11That's disgusting.

12:12That's disgusting, just disgusting.

12:14If it was a member of his family, trapped in such a calamity, would he say, tough luck, nothing's perfect?

12:23Donald Trump's inability to feel empathy for people who do not look like him is shocking to the core.

12:31So as America marks 100 days of the worst president of our lifetimes,

12:36I ask America to look at this administration for what it is,

12:40full of frontal attack on the core elements of what America has made America truly great.

12:49The rule of people over kings and oligarchs.

12:53The rule of law and not the dictates of an authoritarian.

12:56Respect for the rights of all people.

12:59A commitment to, quote, promoting the general welfare, unquote, for the whole of society.

13:04Not cruel, cheap, and lying scapegoating.

13:09So let us commit ourselves, America.

13:11Let us commit ourselves to continue to struggle against this administration

13:15and to uphold the core values and principles of this great nation.

13:21Yield the floor.

Category

Transcript

Recommended