President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, on Aug. 3, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Sweeping tariffs that have kept the stock market swinging. Thousands of workers hastily terminated to slash the footprint of the federal government. A swift crackdown on immigration. A barrage of executive orders to transform aspects of education, health and foreign policy.
During the first 100 days of his second term, President Donald Trump has moved swiftly to reshape every corner of government, often testing the boundaries of presidential power, with far-reaching implications for Georgia, the country and the world.
Ahead of the 100-day milestone, top Republicans heaped praise on the president. At a small Georgia manufacturing business, former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, now administrator of the Small Business Administration, deemed the first few months “one of the greatest comebacks in our nation’s history.”
Democrats meanwhile have expressed a mixture of anger, anxiety, adriftness and resolve. At a town hall, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff characterized the early days of the Trump administration as a “crisis about the very character, nature and substance of our republic” that should “chill all Americans to the bone.”
In Georgia, scores of federal employees and programs, including at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have been eliminated in an effort led by billionaire Elon Musk and championed by Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Georgia farmers whose livelihood depends on the market for poultry, timber and pecans are carefully watching the impact of tariffs, as are Georgia auto dealers and manufacturers whose products move in and out of the Port of Brunswick.
International students, including at the University of Georgia and Emory University, have had their statuses abruptly changed or revoked and then restored. School districts and colleges have promptly refashioned policies to align with administration directives on diversity, equity and inclusion and gender.
U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler highlights the first 100 days of the Trump administration during an event at Winton Machine Company, a small business in Suwanee, Georgia, on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Republicans cheer Trump’s early moves, despite some uncertainty
At Winton Machine in Suwanee, which designs and manufactures custom machines to make metal tubing for products like swimming pool ladders and classroom chairs, floor-to-ceiling shelves are stocked with equipment wrapped in plastic. Signs for inventory and welding hang from the ceiling, and an American flag is draped across one wall.
“When he returned to the White House, President Trump made a promise, and it was clear, to put American workers, industry and businesses first again,” Loeffler told a crowd gathered to celebrate Trump’s early actions. “Now in just 100 days, we’re seeing all of his promises being fulfilled.”
Lisa Winton, one of the company founders, praised Trump’s pledge to extend the 2017 tax cuts, though she raised concerns about the new tariffs with Loeffler.
“We need certainty and I understand tariffs right now, it’s just a very complicated issue,” Winton said.
“Obviously, certainty is critical in the long term for businesses,” Loeffler told reporters. “I think the American people voted for fair trade for America first, for made in America. They know there’s going to be a period of adjustment. That’s what we’re going through right now.”
But some Georgia small business owners are still anxious about the uncertainty. Patrice Hull, who has run Stuff We Want to Say, a Black-owned custom tees and apparel company in Atlanta for over a decade, says she imports goods from Canada, Mexico and China.
“The whiplash of back and forth is disheartening to me, because I don’t know what to order, when to order,” Hull says. “And when I order, I don’t know how much my product is going to cost at the end. And I can’t pre-order anything with my customers because I may lose money instead of make money.”
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia at a rally at The Eastern in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 23, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Democrats decry deep cuts and debate how to respond
Wearing a suit and tie on a stage adorned with American flags, Ossoff did not hold back criticism of Trump as he addressed voters seated in rows of folding chairs inside the Cobb County Civic Center.
“He is using fear and intimidation and coercion in a campaign of vengeance unlike anything we’ve seen in the history of the republic,” Ossoff said.
Not long after Ossoff began taking questions in Marietta, some public health workers laid off from the CDC began pressing him to push back more forcefully against Trump’s cuts.
For 30 years, CDC microbiologist Kevin Pettus worked on public health threats like Zika, Ebola and COVID-19. A few weeks ago, he was abruptly let go. Last Friday, Pettus asked Ossoff what he was doing about it.
“What are you going to do to get us back to common sense, so you can get us back to doing what we love, which is serving the public?” Pettus asked.
Ossoff praised the CDC and vowed to keep putting pressure on his Republican colleagues. “But I have to level with you,” he said. “There is no button that I can simply press that I’m not pressing that will reverse what they’re doing.”
Ossoff said ultimately the best backstop is to win control of Congress, which will depend in part on holding his own seat in 2026.
Trump administration already leaving a mark in Georgia
In Georgia, thousands of federal workers have been terminated, affecting programs and staff not only at the CDC. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the Atlanta VA Medical Center have all experienced cuts.
“If we lose those people who answer the phone, who set the transportation up, there’s going to be less veterans getting to their appointments,” says Erika Alexander, a social worker at the Veterans Crisis Line. “And so I’m hoping that people will understand, this is how it’s going to impact veteran care.”
Cuts have also affected research projects housed at universities like Emory University and the Morehouse School of Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health.
“There has been so much work in the last five to seven years in this space,” says Dr. Whitney Wharton, a cognitive neuroscientist at Emory specializing in Alzheimer’s disease who had her clinical study abruptly terminated. “It’s going to instill so much mistrust into communities that we’ve worked so hard to garner trust from.”
A wide array of other programs like waterway monitoring and refugee services have also been affected.
“They are in limbo and they don’t know how to help themselves, and the only response that they hear is that we are sorry, we are not able to help you anymore,” says Muzhda Oriakhil, who leads a coalition of nonprofits that provide refugee services in the state.
But Trump’s allies say the cuts fulfill a campaign pledge to remake the federal government.
“Any time someone gets fired, it’s always difficult. But with $36 trillion in debt, we have to reduce the size of the federal government,” Rep. Greene said earlier this year. “We are really digging out some of the most egregious waste, fraud and abuse of federal funds.”
Among Trump’s first acts after taking office was granting clemency to the more than 40 Georgians charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“It’s pretty amazing to have all of my rights back, at 23 years old, believing I would be a convicted felon for the rest of my life,” Georgia resident Jake Maxwell said in January.
Trump’s vision for the country has also influenced the policy priorities of GOP state lawmakers, sparking a flurry of legislation mirroring changes coming out of the White House.
Trump’s allies in the state legislature took steps this session toward placing new restrictions on transgender Georgians, compelling localities to assist with immigration enforcement, eliminating DEI from classrooms and rolling back regulations.
