[Column] 100 days into his term, Yoon is acting more like Trump than ever

Posted on : 2022-08-18 16:31 KST Modified on : 2022-08-18 16:31 KST
From unilateral decrees to slow appointments and unclear foreign policy, Yoon appears to have taken a page from Trump’s book when it comes to running a country
President Yoon Suk-yeol’s press conference marking the end of his first 100 days in office plays on a TV in a restaurant in Seoul’s Dongjak District on Aug. 17. (Yonhap News)
President Yoon Suk-yeol’s press conference marking the end of his first 100 days in office plays on a TV in a restaurant in Seoul’s Dongjak District on Aug. 17. (Yonhap News)
Park Chan-su
Park Chan-su
By Park Chan-su, editorial writer

It’s widely known that a president’s “first 100 days” in office came to prominence under US President Franklin Roosevelt.

After taking office on March 4, 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression, Roosevelt called for a special session of Congress and passed 73 laws, which became the foundation of his New Deal policy, in just over 100 days. Those were the laws that established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided assistance to the unemployed, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, a development project that came to symbolize the New Deal.

Roosevelt also did his best to fire the passions of the American people to help energize his government program. Just eight days after his inauguration, he began his famous “fireside chats,” a series of radio addresses broadcast directly to the public. More than half of American adults tuned in.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the cornerstone of Roosevelt’s unparalleled four terms in office was laid during his first 100 days in office.

Roosevelt’s remarkable achievements have served as a model for all subsequent presidents. There was no better time for him to nail down his agenda than in the first months of his presidency, when the public was energized and excited, the press sympathetic, and Congress most amenable to his influence.

Not all presidents have had such an easy time in their first 100 days in office.

On his 100th day in office, on April 28, 2017, Donald Trump said that the first 100 days were a poor milestone but that no previous administration had done as good a job as his during that period.

Despite Trump’s boasting, the New York Times said his first 100 days had been, in several respects, abysmal — he hadn’t made progress on major legislative initiatives; his appointments to high office had gone slower than any other administration; his foreign policy was unclear; and he’d been exposed to the political risk of the Russia scandal since his inauguration.

On top of that, Trump issued 32 executive orders, which are without legal binding, during those first 100 days. Many of those orders were potentially unconstitutional or aroused fierce controversy, such as his ban on travel from largely Muslim countries.

If South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s first 100 days in office are assessed on the same terms, the judgment would probably be much the same. The National Assembly hasn’t passed any major bills to support Yoon’s efforts to tackle the economic crisis.

And that can’t be blamed on the opposition Democratic Party, which holds a majority of seats, because neither the ruling People Power Party (PPP) nor Yoon’s presidential office has shown much interest in passing bills.

About the only thing the ruling party has done over the past three months has been to pursue internecine strife that resulted in ousting its own leader. There’s little for the public to recall aside from Yoon’s colorful reference to a “circular firing squad.”

The vacancy of the key positions of education minister and health and welfare minister is also a rare sight in Korean administrations. While it’s normal for a few candidates for a ministership or prime minister to bow out during the formation of an initial Cabinet, it’s unusual for no fewer than five ministerial candidates to withdraw their bid and for major posts to remain unfilled 100 days into a presidency.

What about foreign policy and unification policy? The Yoon administration is floundering, beleaguered on all sides by pressure from Washington, threats from Beijing, a cold shoulder from Tokyo, and harassment from Pyongyang. Yoon may not have anything equivalent to Trump’s Russia scandal, but the suspicion that shamans are shaping his decisions — including the abrupt relocation of the presidential office — will have political ramifications down the road.

While Korea doesn’t have the concept of executive orders, the government’s enforcement decrees are capable of neutralizing laws passed by the National Assembly. The Ministry of Interior and Safety’s establishment of a police bureau through an enforcement decree and Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon’s reinstatement of prosecutors’ powers of investigation through the revision of the Prosecutors’ Office Act enforcement decree are little different from Trump’s unilateral use of executive orders.

After 100 days in office, Trump’s approval rating stood at 40%, according to Gallup. Yoon’s approval has dropped much lower, to 28%, according to a poll by KBS and Hankook Research. What they have in common is their refusal to let the polls get them down: Trump said he didn’t trust opinion polls, and Yoon said he doesn’t take them to heart.

Yoon trumpeted his achievements over the past 100 days in a press conference on Wednesday, without showing any signs of willingness to reflect or adjust. His boasts about rolling back the previous administration’s poor economic policy, normalizing economic fundamentals, restoring common sense, and defending the universal values of liberty, human rights, and the rule of law seem to be an echo of Trump’s arrogant and self-righteous declaration that no previous administration had done as well as his.

And we hardly need to be reminded how that turned out.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories