The first 100 days of the Trump Administration has been among the most consequential in American history. Consequential does not necessarily mean good. In this case, it means very, very bad.

Let’s start with the elusive issue of reputation. In the eyes of the rest of the world, America’s reputation is probably the worst it has ever been.

It took years of painstaking work to establish the trust and relationships that made America the leader of the Free World. It has had its problems, but generally speaking, post-war America is the closest the world has ever had to a “shining city on the hill.” Poof! Gone in 100 days or less.

Make America Great Again has become America first then we win, you lose zero-sum international politics.

The United States has gone from supporting democracies around the world to cosying up to dictatorships. It has threatened to withdraw support from its allies and threatened them with annexation.

The United States was the chief architect of the post-war rules-based international order which has resulted in one of the most sustained periods of world peace and economic growth in human history. Trump has turned his back on the rule of law in favour of might is right at both the international and domestic level.

He appears willing to turn away from Ukraine and towards rule-breaking Russia because—as he told Volodomyr Zelensky—the Ukrainian president doesn’t “have the cards.”

Domestically, he is bypassing Congress to rule by decree with a flurry of Executive Orders. These EOs have thrown tens of thousands of federal workers out of work. They have led to major cutbacks at the National Institute of Health, university research programmes and the Centre for Disease Control which will cost umpteen lives in America and the world.

His row with the universities has damaged academic freedom and the well-deserved reputation for excellence in America’s higher education.

He has called into question America’s much-admired system of checks and balances not only by bypassing Congress but by also ignoring the courts who have criticised him for arresting and deporting people without due process of law. Freedom of association, the press and speech (all of which are enshrined in the First Amendment) mean nothing to Trump.

He has also ignored the 8th Amendment protecting people from “cruel and unjust punishment” and Article One of the constitution which protects the right of Habeas Corpus.

Among Trump’s first EOs was the decree abolishing the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and cutting America’s international aid programme by 86 percent. Dr Atul Gawande, the former head of USAID’s health programme recently told the podcast “Leading” that overnight 90 percent of USAID’s programmes stopped.

As a result, Dr Gawande estimates that 20 million people who needed HIV treatments to live will now die. Another 100 million women and children in child and health programmes face sickness and death. Since 2005 it is estimated that 11.7 million lives have been saved by America’s anti-malarial programme. More than 100,000 are expected to die this year as a result of the cut-off. But then, as Trump told a Michigan rally to mark his 100 days in office, “who’s heard of any of these African countries anyhow?”

Tariffs have been perhaps the most controversial of Trump’s actions. Their imposition on April 2nd—“Liberty Day”—sent world stock markets, bond markets and the dollar into a tailspin. Trump quickly backtracked—but only for 90 days—and he kept a 10 percent across-the-board tariff plus 25 percent on cars, aluminium and steel. And, a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods.

The result is a Sino-American trade war which threatens to drag in every other country in the world. The tariffs also threaten to plunge the world into recession. America’s soybean farmers have already lost half their market, the big US retailers are talking about empty shelves and unhappy children at Christmas. Port authorities are talking about massive layoffs, especially on the west coast. America’s ports and harbours are responsible for 21.8 million jobs.

Trump has three years and nine months left in office (assuming he doesn’t find a way to circumvent the constitutional restrictions on his term). But the MAGA base and Vice President JD Vance is highly likely to be around long after Donald Trump leaves the White House. The question, therefore, that the rest of world must be asking, is “can we trust America again.”

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain".