One hundred days is way too short a time to assess a presidency. On this, if little else, there was unanimity among our stellar panel, facing a 1,000-strong audience in the dramatic arena of Westminster’s Emmanuel Centre. In summary, The Donald’s performance has been erratic and high-risk, but he isn’t all bad: panellist and self-proclaimed friend-of-Trump Piers Morgan recalled a New York barman saying, ‘He’ll either turn out a great president, or we’re all gonna die.’
So why try to judge him so soon? Because it is presidents themselves, starting with FDR, who have chosen to highlight this artificial milestone — and Donald Trump went larger than most by setting himself a crazily overblown list of objectives. That included building a wall along America’s southern border and replacing Obamacare, both of which (as the cultural commentator Bonnie Greer pointed out, with satisfaction) he has so far signally failed to achieve.
Listen to the full audio from last night’s event:
Greer apart, the panel gave the Donald some credit for his 100-day record.
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