The First 100 Days of an Eric Schmitt Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Hero photo: 2019 Missouri State Capitol — File:2019 Missouri State Capitol 01.jpg, via Wikimedia Commons.

01 The scenario

Eric Schmitt of Missouri is a first-term senator who arrived from the state attorney general's office in 2023, and whose 2026 record is a case study in Congressional Review Act strategy. 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.

The premise rests on a specific 2025-2026 record: CRA resolutions against California emissions waivers, letters demanding agencies enforce existing law on birth certificates and foreign-worker rules, a floor fight over ICE detention capacity, and a college-sports antitrust bill. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Schmitt White House would open by directing HHS, EPA, and Labor to do administratively what he currently asks them to do by letter and resolution — his record is largely requests to the executive to implement his preferences, which a president could simply implement.

02 The record: who Eric Schmitt is

Schmitt has been Missouri's junior senator since January 3, 2023. Before that he was Missouri Attorney General (2019-2023), Missouri State Treasurer (2017-2019), a Missouri state senator (2009-2017), and a Glendale alderman. He is an attorney with a J.D. from Saint Louis University.

His committee portfolio spans the jurisdictions his record touches: Armed Services (Airland; Cybersecurity; Emerging Threats and Capabilities; Readiness and Management Support), Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Aviation, Space, and Innovation; Telecommunications and Media, among others), Judiciary — where he chairs the Subcommittee on the Constitution — and the Joint Economic Committee as vice chairman. The Constitution subcommittee chairmanship is his platform for federal-courts and agency-action oversight.

03 Immigration, citizenship and ICE detention

On August 7, 2026 Schmitt wrote to HHS Secretary RFK Jr. and CDC Director Schwartz urging regulations to close a “loophole” under which children of foreign diplomats born in the U.S. obtain standard birth certificates and, in his words, “illegally claim American citizenship” — invoking the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004's birth-certificate standards: “We cannot allow our medical records system to become a vector for national security threats.” The digest records this as his stated legal position, not an independent legal determination.

The same day he took the Senate floor to block the Delaney Hall Closure Act, defending ICE detention capacity: “That is abolition with a short title.” The lever analysis is the key one: his letter asks the executive to implement existing law — the 2004 statute already mandates the standards — so no Congress is needed; a Schmitt-aligned president could direct HHS/CDC to promulgate the regulations on day one. Detention-capacity questions, by contrast, run through appropriations and authorizations.

04 Deregulation: the California emissions CRAs

On August 6, 2026 Schmitt led a Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal EPA's 2009 waiver letting California set its own motor-vehicle emissions standards, and joined three more CRAs (with Lummis, Ricketts, and Husted) targeting CARB's Small Off-Road Engine mandate and Advanced Clean Cars I waivers. His quote: “One state should not have the power to set national policy... Overturning these climate alarmist rules will not only restore common sense, but also prevent a future administration from attempting to grant similar waivers.”

The digest draws out the asymmetry: a president could direct EPA to rescind the waivers administratively, but his CRA strategy is explicitly designed to be more durable — to bar future administrations from re-instituting the rules. CRAs need only a simple majority in both chambers plus a signature, but they are legislation, not executive action. This would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

05 College sports: the Protect College Sports Act

Schmitt is lead cosponsor of the Protect College Sports Act (with Sens. Cruz and Cantwell), granting the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption to establish and enforce rules. In his September 15, 2026 floor speech — the evening the bill passed its first procedural vote — he said: “The time has come for the United States Senate to do something that it actually rarely does, which is to meet the moment.” He listed endorsements from “every conference, all the schools, the NFL Players Association... HBCUs, the SWAC conference, the SEC, the Big 10.”

An antitrust exemption is a statute — there is no executive shortcut; the digest notes a 60-vote threshold unless negotiated.

06 Labor and foreign workers

On August 7, 2026 Schmitt wrote to the Acting Labor Secretary urging closure of a “loophole allowing employers to prioritize foreign workers over Americans.” The digest classifies the statute version as Congress-required, but a rule reinterpretation at the Labor Department is a unilateral lever — the letter is effectively a presidential memo in waiting.

07 Judiciary, crypto and the bipartisan record

Schmitt chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution — a platform for federal-courts and agency-action oversight — and on August 24, 2026 celebrated the nomination of Jesus Osete, his former Missouri Deputy Solicitor General, to the Western District of Missouri. On digital assets, he voted for the GENIUS Act (S.1582), the stablecoin regulatory framework signed into law on July 18, 2025.

His bipartisan record is also documented: the EMS Professionals Memorial reauthorization bill passed the Senate on August 13, 2026 and was signed into law by President Trump on September 18, 2026, and on August 6, 2026 he passed a Senate resolution recognizing Missouri's 1960 college football national championship claim. A president's judicial-nomination strategy is unilateral; the GENIUS Act framework, already law, would fall to an administration to implement.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out in specific places. There is not enough public evidence to determine Schmitt's positions on tariffs and trade, healthcare, and defense-appropriations specifics in this research pass — his press pages reviewed emphasize immigration, deregulation, college sports, and oversight.

Two more caveats are documented: his Missouri attorney-general record (COVID litigation, suits against China) is well documented historically but was not re-verified with primary sources here, and his “Sunrise with Schmitt” state tour and youth council appear on his site without policy content drawn from them. The birthright-citizenship legal position is his stated position, not an independent legal determination. This article treats all of these as open questions rather than filling them in.

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