This article is Part II of a two-part series. While Part I focused on the origins of the fabled “First Hundred Days”, Part II will use this historical context and modern comparisons to review President Trump’s First Hundred Days.
Trump’s First Hundred Days came and went on April 29th. Since then we have seen activity with then FBI Director Jim Comey, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, with some drama along the way. And then Trump fired Comey. While this firing is dominating the news cycle now I will complete our analysis of Trump’s First Hundred Days in order to give a full review of the Trump Administrations first major milestone and report card. Plus the Trump-firing-Comey news and Trump-Russia investigations won’t be finishing or disappearing anytime soon.
As I covered in The First Hundred Days: Part I, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first to coin the term after FDR and the 73rd Congress had the most productive period of federal government action outside of war, with many comparing the programs to the government deploying for war against the Great Depression. FDR set a bar that is all but impossible to reach in modern politics outside of grave national crises.
It is nearly impossible for any modern president to get anywhere close to FDR in terms of First Hundred Day accomplishments, so I felt a little bad trying to compare anyone to FDR.
And then Trump made a claim in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that completely eliminated any feeling of guilt. “No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days.”
While he was immediately fact-checked and ruled “False” by PolitiFact, I took personal offense. FDR is my favorite president, Mr. President. I had a portrait of him on my wall, just like folks had during the Great Depression next to their portrait of Jesus. You just insulted three of my favorite things: FDR, history, and empirical facts.
Failed Travel Ban/Muslim Ban Executive Order:
One of the first major actions completed by the Trump Administration was the travel ban, widely seen as his Muslim ban that he frequently touted as an applause line on the campaign trail. While candidate Trump promised to ban all Muslims from entering the country “until we figure out what the hell is going on,” the executive order banned travel from seven “countries of concern” that also just happened to be Muslim-majority countries.
The critiques of this plan began to rain in, ranging from the obvious correlation between Muslim-majority countries being the only countries included, to the fact that Iraq was included, causing strain with our allies in the country and resulting in military translators who served with U.S. armed forces being stopped in airports, to the lack of communication from the administration regarding those who had work visas to legally work in the U.S.
Within days of the chaotic rollout of the travel ban, federal courts blocked the ban and ultimately upheld the stay on the executive order. While Trump responded with “ SEE YOU IN COURT,” vowing to take the case to the Supreme Court, the administration backed down, choosing to revise the language of the travel ban. The revised, new travel ban has also been blocked and continues to be on hold in the court system.
Supreme Court Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch
Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland, who was never given a confirmation hearing, did not fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Antonin Scalia and thus became a large part of the 2016 campaign. Because apparently the last 11 months of a presidential term doesn’t entitle a president to constitutionally entitled duties. What a precedence to set that will surely spiral into further partisanship over the years.
This creation of new Senate-precedence allowed Trump to nominate Neil Gorsuch to fill the Scalia vacancy. While Gorsuch’s career was largely influenced by Scalia, legal analysts placed him a various locations on the political spectrum, from a moderate to being more conservative than Scalia. While he will likely be somewhere in between and was very clearly qualified, Senate Democrats were resolved to send a message to Republicans for refusing to hold hearings for Obama’s nominee by filibustering Gorsuch. This forced the Senate to trigger the “nuclear option,” in which a vote passed to change the rules of the Senate and no longer allow the filibustering of Supreme Court nominees.
With the nuclear option invoked, Gorsuch was confirmed 54-45 and was sworn into the Supreme Court on April 8th, becoming without a doubt Trump’s best achievement.
Signing Bills: Congressional Rollback of Obama Executive Orders and Housekeeping Bills
The Trump White House was able to tout the number of bills that the President was able to sign during his First Hundred Days, with a total of 28 bills signed into law. While this is the most number of bills signed during the first hundred days since 1949, there are a few points worth noting.
First, FDR’s legacy continues to loom large as he holds the record by signing 76 bills in 1933. Second, the Republican Party controlled both chambers of Congress. This was the first time the GOP has had total control over legislation with GOP control of Congress and the White House since 2004. Third, many of these bills were “minor or housekeeping” bills that are more regular functions of government rather than true enactment of new conservative policy. And fourth, none of the 28 bills met the longstanding political-science standard to be considered a “major bill.” While the number of executive orders and bills signed are likely Trump’s strongest facet, the overall progress of legislation signed into law is “below average” at best and “complete legislative ineptitude” at worst.
Failed Repeal and Replacement of Obamacare
While on the campaign trail, Trump promised the full repeal and replacement of Obamacare, sometimes guaranteeing it would happen on Day 1 of his presidency. Note for future presidents: you will only possibly sign an executive order or two after the inauguration. By February Trump has moved from his claims on the campaign trail that repeal and replace “will be so easy,” to, “nobody knew it could be so complicated.” Somewhere at that moment Barack smashed a glass in frustration (only to be handed another margarita.)
It took the Obama administration 14 months to pass the Affordable Care Act. The House GOP tried to pass their version of a repeal and replacement bill before the First Hundred Days deadline of April 29th. They ran into a few problems. The bill wasn’t conservative enough for the House Freedom Caucus because it kept too many of the Obamacare taxes in tact and required those with preexisting conditions to be covered without extreme premiums. Additionally, the bill was too conservative for moderate Republicans, who feared the draconian cuts it would levy on Medicare and the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring that predicted the loss of health insurance coverage for 24 million Americans.
After 17 days of debate in committees and whipping votes, the Republicans ultimately had to pull the bill from being voted on while the House was in full session and in the middle of debating the bill. The failure to pass a repeal and replacement of Obamacare just through the Republican House is widely considered the greatest failure and embarrassment of Trump’s First Hundred Days.
Government Shutdown Avoided
The last hurdle that had to be cleared was avoiding a government shutdown that was slated to begin on Trump’s one-hundredth day, April 29th. The House and Senate had negotiated and come to agreement on a Continuing Resolution that would continue funding the government for a few more weeks, buying time for Congress to cobble together funding for the remainder of the federal fiscal year through September 30th.
At this point Trump thought it would be a good idea to show up and make demands for funding for the Mexican border wall (that would somehow still be funded by Mexico) and for passage of a repeal and replacement of Obamacare. After incredible public backlash and even uproar from the Republicans in Congress for derailing the hard-fought budget negotiations, Trump backed down. The resulted CR included no funding for the wall and essentially none of the Trump Administration’s proposed cuts to domestic programs, with EPA even maintaining 99 percent of its budget.
FDR > Trump
The above five topics really tell the tale of the Trump Administration’s First Hundred Days. However, in terms of covering all of drama and self-inflicted failures of the Trump Administration, I have only covered the tip of the iceberg.
Trump provided his first proposed budget, which included the most potentially devastating cuts to federal programs in U.S. history, including a 31 percent cut to the EPA. Trump’s cabinet is the least diverse and the least experienced in past 20 years if not more. Of the 556 key executive positions requiring appointment that requirement Senate confirmation, he has only confirm 25 positions with 468 not even receiving appointments yet. Trump is the least popular (42% approve, 53% disapprove on his 100th day). He has taken more vacation and golfed more than the previous three presidents combined and has yet to make one visit outside the U.S., of which all his predecessors had by this point. And lastly, Trump has mad 469 misleading or false claims in his First Hundred Days, 89 of which were regarding jobs and the economy. I could continue to go on, I will refer you to this great piece by the Washington Post for further details.
Trump can continue to lie, claim every critique is fake news, lay claim to successes that he is not responsible for. While we’re just past the first hundred days of this rollercoaster of a presidency, the analysis is in, the facts are evident, the history is well-established, and two things are certain:
- Trump’s First Hundred Days were a comedy of self-inflicted errors resulting in an incredible waste of time and opportunity.
- FDR is the greatest modern president with the most successful First Hundred Days
Purple State Progressive 