STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump is marking 100 days in office. The president travels this evening to Michigan.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah, he'll speak in Macomb County outside Detroit. It's a classic blue-collar swing county that voted twice for President Obama, then three times for President Trump. On this program, we're hearing many perspectives on the administration. Yesterday, Steve sat down for a video interview with Trump's sometime adviser Steve Bannon. We'll hear that talk tomorrow.
INSKEEP: This morning, we have two outside perspectives. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey joins us in a moment. We begin with Marc Short, a longtime adviser to Trump's first vice president, Mike Pence. Mr. Short, welcome back.
MARC SHORT: Steve, thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: How, if at all, do you think these 100 days have changed the country?
SHORT: Well, Steve, I think that the president has brought remarkable energy back into the Oval Office, which I think is a stark contrast to the preceding administration. But I also think that - look, our founders created a very durable system, and I think that some of the changes are probably more temporary. And I think some of those changes actually are things that I think the president is doing well.
I think, unfortunately, the things that are probably - have more lasting impact, the things that are not going as well, such as launching a trade war with the globe. And I think some of the foreign policy that I think is very different from the first administration - that appears far weaker than the stances that the first Trump administration took toward Russia or toward Iran or, in some cases, I think, the trade agenda, pushing allies into the hands of our greatest adversary, China. So I think those could have more longer-lasting impacts for us.
INSKEEP: Now, this is really interesting, Marc, because the president has imposed tariffs, changed the tariffs, changed them almost daily. It seems you could change them again and again, that a successor could change them back. But you seem to think this will have lasting impacts. Why?
SHORT: Well, I think that the impacts take a little bit of time to begin to have their impact on the American economy. So you've seen it immediately in markets and people's 401(k)s. But now you're beginning to see dramatic impacts in shipping channels and trucking deliveries and perhaps, you know, soon merchandise in stores.
But I think globally, as well, in the first administration, the president used tariffs fairly selectively to isolate China and rallied allies against some of China's unfair trade practices. When you launch a global war against everybody, including your closest allies, in many cases, they're now looking for trading partners. And they're looking - you're sort of pushing them into the hands of China and, in many cases, into socialist countries in Europe. And so in some cases, those countries are benefiting more from trade today than we will be.
INSKEEP: As a conservative, how do you view the president's approach to the courts in this term?
SHORT: I think it's a little bit of a mixed bag. I think that, you know, what we've seen in recent days is even some of his picks at the district court level or appeals court or even Supreme Court rule against him. So I think that in many cases, I think it's been - he's launched fair attacks that I think, from an executive position, he's expanding the authority under the executive branch. And I think he's looking for the courts to see what are those limits. And in some cases, he's winning, but in some cases, he's not.
INSKEEP: Well, there's also the case of the man who was taken to El Salvador, and the Supreme Court agreed that he should facilitate returning the man. And the president says, I'm following court orders, and the Supreme Court ruled for me. He just decided that the Supreme Court ruled for him, even though they seem to have ruled against him, for the most part.
SHORT: Yeah. I think that, ultimately, certainly he should be following the court's ruling. I think that that's not going to benefit well to him if he looks to pick more fights with the Supreme Court. Having said that, from a sheer political perspective, I do think that the border crisis was something that a lot of Americans wanted Donald Trump to fix, and he's come in and made a dramatic impact on the border.
And I think that rallying behind the one individual who certainly was accused by his spouse of domestic abuse and had been tried before 17 different judges, you know - I think that the Democrats have tried to make an argument he never received due process, where I think in reality, he received a lot more due process in immigration courts than a lot of people who have come to our country illegally and basically avoided immigration for eight years before he was first apprehended with a large group of MS-13 individuals. So I'm not sure he's the most sympathetic case for Democrats, politically.
INSKEEP: Understood. Very briefly, we're going to hear next from the governor of Massachusetts, which is where Harvard is. The administration demanded sweeping control over big parts of the university and cut off billions of dollars in contracts and research grants, and Harvard sued. In about 15 seconds, how do you view that?
SHORT: I think for a lot of Americans, it's hard to understand a school with a $53 billion endowment having much sympathy when they argue for additional federal taxpayer dollars. I think there's a lot of schools who didn't promote the same DEI programs and promoted antisemitic programs that made Jewish students uncomfortable, where the federal government could provide grants for other research. And so I'm not sure this is one Americans feel sympathetic.
INSKEEP: Marc Short, adviser to former Vice President Pence, thanks so much.
SHORT: Thanks, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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