2025 YIR: Jewish Atlanta Split on Trump at 100 Days

Opinions in Jewish Atlanta about the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term as president — a milestone marked on April 30 — mirrored those the AJT reported at the 30-day mark.

The torrent of executive orders and policy changes had eased, but just as in mid-February, the daily headlines either delighted or disgusted, the reaction depending on one’s political persuasion.

“I give President Trump credit for having the courage to tackle critical issues that have been ignored for years by both Republicans and Democrats. People are upset with the ‘chaos’ he has caused, but you have to break some eggs to build an omelet,” said Chuck Berk, co-chair of the Atlanta chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Michael Rosenzweig, a Jewish community activist and board member of Democratic Majority For Israel, offered a diametrically opposed viewpoint, contending that Trump’s first 100 days “have more than confirmed our worst fears about him . . . He has displayed breathtaking lawlessness, demonstrating that constitutional and legal constraints and traditional norms are meaningless to him.”

Court challenges and debates on Capitol Hill slowed progress on some of the administration’s domestic objectives. Meanwhile, the weave of programs that form the social safety net remained at risk of being pulled apart.

“We’ve never had an administration, an entire administration, that feeds itself on chaos and when you feed yourself on chaos you can’t plan for anything, and they know that. So that when anything comes down, you’re just happy that there’s a resolution,” said Abbie Fuksman, a board member of Georgians for a Healthy Future and of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

A close eye was being kept on Congress and a proposed reduction in Medicaid of $900 billion over 10 years, to help pay for multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts sought by the White House.