The First 100 Days of an Andy Kim Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Hero photo: Capitol of New Jersey in Trenton — Allen & Ginter cigarette-brands series, via Wikimedia Commons.

01 The scenario

Andy Kim of New Jersey is a first-term Democratic senator, in office since December 2024, and before that a three-term House member and a career diplomat and national-security official. This article asks a hypothetical question: if he were ever sworn in as president, what would the first 100 days look like based on his documented record? This is a scenario analysis, not a prediction that the person will become president and not an endorsement or criticism of the person.

Kim's record has a distinctive shape: a housing-supply bill that became the first housing package to advance in the Senate in nearly two decades, a bipartisan AI-chip export-control bill, and a set of civil-service protections aimed squarely at undoing the 2025 federal workforce purges. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Kim White House would open with unilateral moves it could make alone — export-control tightening at Commerce, faster federal housing reviews by executive order, and restored grant disbursement — while the housing, civil-service, and veterans bills would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

02 The record: who Andy Kim is

Kim is New Jersey's senator, in office since December 2024, and before that represented NJ-03 in the House from 2019 to 2024. He sits on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance), Commerce, Science and Transportation, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the Special Committee on Aging. He is a former career diplomat and policy official — USAID, the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and a civilian advisor to top generals in Afghanistan — and the son of Korean immigrants, raised in South Jersey.

03 Housing supply and cost of living

Kim led the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act package out of Senate Banking Committee markup (committee vote 2025) — described in his release as the first housing legislation package to advance in the Senate in nearly two decades. The package includes his own BUILD Housing Act (Better Use of Intergovernmental & Local Development for Housing Act) and the “Unlocking Housing Supply Through Streamlined and Modernized Reviews Act” with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), to modernize federal housing review processes and boost supply. Kim: “Americans need to see more housing options at prices they can afford.”

The lever split is scenario-defining: the package is statutory, but portions — federal review modernization, HUD and FHA administrative actions — could be advanced through agency directives, and a president could unilaterally speed federal housing reviews by executive order on day one.

04 AI chip export controls: constraining the office he seeks

Kim was an original cosponsor of the bipartisan SAFE Chips Act of 2025 (S. 3374, introduced December 4, 2025 by Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-NE), amending the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to prohibit licenses for export, re-export, or in-country transfer of advanced integrated circuits to or in foreign adversaries — locking in AI chip export controls against loosening (cosponsors include Warren, McCormick, and Banks, verified via GovTrack).

This is the most scenario-relevant item in his record: export-control licensing is currently an executive-branch lever under Commerce. A president could tighten it via agency action — and could also loosen it. Kim's bill would congressionalize the ban precisely to prevent unilateral loosening, meaning it constrains a president who wants to relax controls. Relatedly, he has publicly criticized the Department of Government Efficiency for feeding sensitive federal data into AI systems: “We are doing China's job for them” (MSNBC/Jen Psaki interview, 2025 — a documented public statement from a secondary source).

05 Civil service and the federal workforce

Kim sponsors the Restoring Trust in Public Servants Act (S. 2852, introduced September 17, 2025, referred to Senate Finance) and co-leads the TALENTS Act with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) to revive the Presidential Management Fellows program — 500-plus PMF members and alumni urged passage. Kim is himself a PMF program alumnus.

He also introduced the Protect Veteran Jobs Act with Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) (March 10, 2025) to reinstate veterans fired in the 2025 federal workforce reductions: “At a moment of great distrust and broken politics, we should be uplifting those who embody the value and strength of service, not putting them out of a job.”

Every one of these protections requires statute. The opposite direction — firings and Schedule F-style reclassifications — is the unilateral lever; Kim's record is a congressional check on it.

06 Foreign aid and USAID: the diplomat's issue

Kim publicly opposed the 2025 dismantling of USAID and “stands in solidarity with civil servants forced out of USAID” at the Reagan Building. The position reflects his USAID and diplomatic background: foreign aid and soft power as national-security assets.

Foreign-aid program structure and funding are statutory, but much of USAID's dismantling happened through administrative action — which means a successor president could begin reversing it administratively. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Kim first 100 days would include unilateral foreign-aid restoration directives alongside statutory fixes requiring congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

07 Gateway and infrastructure

Kim issued a joint statement with Sen. Cory Booker condemning the Trump administration's termination of congressionally approved Gateway Tunnel Project funding: “Threatening to cut funding for Gateway is a direct attack on New Jersey... We will fight to keep this funding, we will fight to keep the thousands of union jobs it supports.”

The lever fact is stark: a president controls DOT/FRA grant disbursement unilaterally — Kim could only fight the termination through appropriations riders and litigation pressure, which is exactly what he did. As president, the same lever would be his: Gateway-type grant decisions are day-one executive territory.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out in specific places. No documented Kim position was found on immigration reform specifics, tax policy beyond general cost-of-living framing, healthcare beyond his Aging Committee membership, or agriculture — there is not enough public evidence to determine those positions in this pass, and none is inferred. Specific bill numbers for the BUILD Housing Act and the TALENTS Act were not verified on congress.gov (they are referenced via official press releases). Committee sub-assignments beyond the Banking ranking-member role are not fully enumerated. His Intelligence-adjacent national-security views from his diplomat years are biography, not current legislative positions, and are treated as background only.

Disclaimer: this article is a scenario analysis based on the documented public record as of September 21, 2026. It is not a prediction that Andy Kim will become president, nor an endorsement or criticism of him or his positions. Where evidence is incomplete, that is stated rather than filled in.