April 29, 2017, will mark President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. Like all presidents before him since the time of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), Trump had promised to accomplish some pretty lofty goals within his first 100 days.
But how does he measure up to the accomplishments of President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in 2009?
Trump is a long-standing critic of former President Barack Obama and to this day, still takes jabs at the previous administration. However, since taking office, Trump has shown an obsessive propensity for jealousy whenever people make comparisons between his and Obama’s administration. This behavior was never more apparent than after inauguration day when people started comparing inauguration crowd sizes between the two presidents.
Trump’s obsession over this picture carries on to present day. In fact, for weeks after his inauguration, he used virtually every opportunity and media platform to complain about the “dishonest” media and “fake news” coverage of his inauguration crowd size.
Now it would seem Trump is focused on tearing down a new, more consequential comparison between him and his more beloved predecessor. On Friday, Trump tweeted:
No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2017
It now appears that America’s first “Commander-in-Diapers” is starting to feel the pressure as April 29 looms closer. And while he will argue that he accomplished “a lot more” than previous presidents within his first 100 days, he’s likely to reference his numerous executive orders.
However, any president can issue as many executive orders as he or she pleases. But, as Trump quickly learned regarding his Muslim (travel) ban, the courts will ultimately decide if those orders shall fall or stand based on the U.S. Constitution. In the case of the Muslim ban, both of Trump’s executive orders crashed and burned gloriously as numerous federal judges tore them apart.
Legislative success is the real measurement of a president’s first 100 days in office because it usually involves getting both political parties to come to a consensus or at the very least keeping your party unified to roll over the minority party’s opposition. So let us take a look at some of Trump’s legislative goals. According to Heavy magazine, Trump had at least ten major legislative goals that he promised and failed to accomplish within his first 100 days in office.
- Middle-Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act
- End the Offshoring Act
- American Energy and Infrastructure Act
- School Choice and Education Opportunity Act
- Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act
- Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act
- End Illegal Immigration Act
- Restoring Community Safety Act
- Restoring National Security Act
- Clean Up Corruption in Washington Act
However, he did numerically sign more bills into law than Obama did within 100 days into his first term. A few of the bills Trump signed into law include:
- Two bills naming VA clinics.
- Two bills that promote women in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) fields.
- A legislative exemption that allowed him to appoint General Jim Mathis as his Defense Secretary.
Trump also signed legislation which rolls back many regulations issued by President Obama’s administration. These rollbacks accounted for 10 out of 20 of Trump’s legislative signatures through April 3. Here are what some of those rollbacks actually do. From The Washington Post:
- Make it easier for certain mentally ill people to purchase guns;
- Make it easier to shoot sleeping bears in their dens or from helicopters;
- Remove certain waterway protections from coal mining waste;
- Allow Internet service providers to track and sell customers’ web browser history without requiring permission;
- And make it easier to drug test people receiving unemployment benefits.
According to Trump’s Senior Adviser Stephen Miller:
“The President of the United States has accomplished more in just a few weeks than many Presidents do in an entire administration.”
While it’s unclear as to the state of Mr. Miller’s sobriety when he made that statement, here are some facts about why President Obama’s first 100 days dwarf Trump’s about 100 times over.
First, it’s important to remember that when President Obama took office, the country was undergoing a massive economic downturn thanks to Wall Street and their Republican friends on Capitol Hill.
And while President Obama only signed ten bills compared to Trump’s 20, many argue that the impact of the legislative policies he signed may have saved the U.S. economy. Within Obama’s first couple of weeks as president, he:
- Signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment.
- Extended federal funding for Children’s health insurance.
- Opened up millions of acres of new public wilderness areas.
- Expanded women’s access to file suit against employers for pay discrimination.
- And authorized a $410 billion omnibus spending bill.
So as you can see, comparing the differences between Trump and Obama’s positive impact on America within their first 100 days in office is a lot like comparing the depth of a YMCA swimming pool to the Atlantic ocean. Once again Trump has been weighed, measured, and found wanting.
First 100 days featured image via YouTube and YouTube.
