After 100 days, what does the N.J. delegation think about Trump 2.0?

With President Donald Trump hitting his 100th day in office today, has his second term thus far been a success or a disaster? As with most things regarding the president, it depends on who you ask.

In just a few months, Trump has dramatically upped immigration enforcement, implemented (and then partially drew back) massive tariffs on the rest of the world, worked to drastically curtail the size and scope of the federal government, and issued a slew of executive actions that have since gotten tied up in court. Two New Jersey Republican congressmen, Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) and Chris Smith (R-Manchester), both told the New Jersey Globe today that they view it all as a success.

“I always said it was going to be bumpy. I think we’re doing good things,” Van Drew said. “All the bold, difficult moves are being made now, including on foreign policy and all the issues related to it, whether it’s Ukraine and Russia, whether it’s Israel and Hezbollah and Hamas. That means that not everything is going to be smooth as silk in his first 100 days.”

Democrats, not unexpectedly, are saying something very different. After spending most of Trump’s term thus far loudly pushing back on nearly everything the president has done, New Jersey’s Democrats said they view Trump’s first 100 days as, in the words of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), a “shit show.”

“As far as I’m concerned, in 100 days he gets a zero from me,” said Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), a freshman Democrat from a Trump-won seat.

In defense of Trump’s policies, Van Drew and Smith both specifically pointed to the southern border, where crossings are far down compared to prior years, and to Trump’s far-reaching tariffs as two major victories.

“He shut down the border. That was no small feat,” Smith argued. “I really think that we’ve had four years of lies about how the border was shut – how many times did Mayorkas tell us it was all secure? Now it really is.”

Asked whether they could name any areas where they disagreed with actions the president has taken, neither Van Drew nor Smith could immediately point to anything, though Van Drew said he does oppose offshore drilling off the coast of New Jersey (Trump has worked to expand offshore drilling as part of his energy agenda).

“By and large, I agree with the president. That’s why I made the move I made five years ago [to switch parties],” said Van Drew, who was a Democrat until 2019.

Conversely, Democrats were loath to say anything positive about Trump’s agenda whatsoever. While Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) and Senator Cory Booker both acknowledged that a focus on government efficiency and eliminating waste is a positive thing, they argued that the sledgehammer-esque way Trump has gone about reducing government bloat has led to far more negative consequences than positives, with particular impacts on the federal funds that New Jersey and other states rely on.

“It’s just so destructive, everything they’re doing,” said Sherrill, who also penned an NJ Spotlight News op-ed yesterday outlining her opposition to Trump. “Even the idea of creating more efficiency, or updating computer systems, or addressing areas where we could do better – they’re taking a hammer to something that you want to take a surgical knife to… There’s nothing, really, to look at and say, ‘At least here we’re moving in the right direction.’”

“[Amid] all of that damage, there are things that they found that are wasteful, like too many contracts for software licenses,” Booker said. “My thing isn’t that there haven’t been specific things that are good. It has been in the larger context of so much bad… It’s almost like saying, here we are in the midst of a lightning storm that causes a deluge of flooding and disaster, but there were some places that didn’t get wet.”

Booker has taken the lead on many Democratic efforts against Trump, such as his record-breaking, widely watched Senate floor speech that laid out everything he believes to be wrong with Trump’s policies. Booker also joined House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) on the Capitol steps on Sunday for a 12-hour sit-in protesting the congressional GOP agenda, and Democrats are planning to hold the Senate floor once again tonight to mark Trump’s 100-day milestone.

Most of what Trump has done thus far has been through executive actions – actions that, Democrats argue, have far exceeded the president’s legal power. His legislative agenda, meanwhile, is beginning to make headway in Congress, with several House committees taking up pieces of the GOP’s massive tax- and spending-focused reconciliation bill today.

Once the full bill is complete, a whole new wave of battles will begin over the federal deficit, Medicaid, the State and Local Tax deduction cap, and more, with Trump likely to play a starring role; Van Drew said it’s a good thing that Trump is fighting hard battles early in his term and not saving them for next year’s midterms.

“I think that, if you’re going to have a bumpier ride, even from a political viewpoint, you want to have that earlier rather than later,” Van Drew said. “I hope that we’re not having a bumpy ride next September.”