So, it’s official: more than 100 days have passed since President Trump’s second term, an important milestone as far as the first impression of the administration goes. This enduring milestone originated from the days of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency.
Within a few months of taking office in 1933, he managed to sign dozens of bills and executive orders that alleviated the nation’s financial crisis, while setting the New Deal in motion. Roosevelt’s first 100 days were so incredibly productive, so much so that all the other presidents have been evaluated for their first 100 days ever since.
But not everyone was Roosevelt, and for all the other ones, there’s only so much you can do in the first 100 days.
“Just look at Abraham Lincoln: the Union collapsed throughout his period, and he is now seen as one of our greatest presidents.” Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, declared to NPR.
Even if the first 100 days don’t automatically establish the rest of a president’s term, they might still foreshadow some priorities, achievements, and issues to come. It can be quite useful to check in and see how a president’s early actions compare to his predecessors’ and to his own campaign promises.
Trump has hit many records for his first 100 days in office, but the fast pace of his actions can also highlight the fragility of relying on presidential action to cement other core policies. One hundred days down the line, here’s a broader look at where the second Trump administration stands on 10 important benchmarks.
142 executive orders
President Trump signed no less than 142 executive orders since January 20, according to the Federal Register and the American Presidency Project. President Trump hit the ground running fast, signing no less than 37 executive orders in his first week in office alone (obviously not including other types of executive actions such as memoranda and proclamations).
He also issued his 100th order in late March, surpassing Roosevelt’s record of 99 in 100 days. The vast majority of Trump’s orders fall more or less into specific categories, listed by the American Presidency Project: shrinking the federal government, foreign policy and defense, immigration and border security, energy and natural resources, and tariffs.
Many of Trump’s executive orders, such as those freezing foreign aid and banning transgender troops from military service, are blocked at the moment by courts as lawsuits advance. The Supreme Court might hear arguments in May about this order, looking to revoke birthright citizenship.
Over 100 Biden orders reversed
Executive orders can be modified by future presidents. In fact, the vast majority of Trump’s early executive actions primarily focused on undoing those of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
Within only a few hours of his inauguration, Trump rescinded no less than 78 of Biden’s executive actions, mainly related to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and diversity, as well as equity and inclusion.
Ever since, he has revoked other Biden orders on voter registration, as well as census apportionment, among other things. The American Presidency Project has stated that, starting with mid-April, Trump ordered over 111 prior presidential orders revoked.
That’s quite notable, especially since Biden was extremely prolific in overturning a series of orders from the first Trump administration. In fact, the project showed how at Biden’s 100-day mark in 2021, “no recent president reversed a predecessor’s orders as much as Biden did to Trump’s,” counting 76 examples of their kind.
Biden definitely set a record, which seems to be easy to surpass by Trump 2.0.
5 bills signed into law
It’s quite difficult for a future president to overturn legislation, especially as opposed to executive orders, which means that it’s one way to effectively measure a president’s longer-term impact on our country. Trump only signed five bills into law, including the Laken Riley Act, which Congress passed right before he took office. The others were somehow different: a stopgap funding bill, and three Congressional Review Act resolutions overturn other Biden-era rules.
He also broke George W. Bush’s record low of seven back in 2001. For the sake of comparison, Trump signed 28 laws in the first 100 days of his first term back in 2017. Biden also signed 11 bills into law within his first 100 days, especially his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
Over 200 lawsuits
Way too many of Trump’s administrative actions, not just the executive orders, have been perpetually challenged in court, especially those that are closely related to his crackdown on immigration, as well as his ongoing efforts to shrink the federal workforce.
Many are still in limbo, since rulings and appeals play out, making it difficult to supply a definitive case count. A litigation tracker coming from Just Security counts no less than 210 legal challenges, which also include those that are closed, while a Lawfare database lists at least 258.
Approval rating: 42%
Trump’s approval rating sits at 42%, down from 45% in March, according to a NPR/PBS/Marist survey. During his first term, Trump’s approval rating didn’t surpass 44%. He left office in 2021, with a lower approval rate of 38%, according to an NPR/PBS/Marist survey.
Almost half of the respondents, 47%, declared that Trump would be remembered as one of the worst presidents in history. Biden, on the other side, capped off his first 100 days with a whopping approval rating of 53%, which is his highest since taking office.
However, that support was completely along partisan lines, meaning 93% of Democrats approved his performance, compared to only 12% of Republicans, and dwindled throughout his presidency. Biden left the Oval Office with an approval of 42%, according to the most recent NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.
39 pardons alongside hundreds of January 6 defendants
Trump issued pardons for 39 named individuals and entities since taking office, as the Department of Justice claimed. One of POTUS’ very first acts as president was to sign a “full, complete, and unconditional pardon” to anyone convicted of offenses related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
The move ultimately pardoned a wide majority of the 1,500 defendants, dozens of whom had prior criminal records. This proclamation also commuted the sentences of 14 individuals who were involved in the January 6 attack, all of whom were linked to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, extremist groups that also planned the attack.
The pardon came only a few hours into Trump’s second term. In his first one, he did not issue a pardon until August 2017, half a year after taking office. At the same time, Biden issued his first pardon more than a year into his presidency, in April 2022.
Federal layoffs: tens of thousands
Another important hallmark of Trump’s second term has been his increased focus on streamlining the federal workforce by making the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Elon Musk-led White House office has quite effectively dismantled plenty of agencies, granting itself access to many sensitive data systems and engineered the firings of tens of thousands of federal workers.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared in February that 75,000 federal workers took the first of two “Fork in the Road” buyout offers. However, it’s quite hard to know exactly how many federal workers have left their jobs, either due to layoffs or by choice.
Mass layoffs, as we know them, were mainly conducted quite haphazardly, so much so that some employees were ultimately reinstated or had their terminations reversed due to legal issues. 100 days in, there’s still little evidence to fully support official claims that DOGE actually saves agencies a lot of money.
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