WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tuesday marks President Donald Trump’s one hundred days in office. Political scientists describe his first one hundred days as “political shock and awe”. For the most part, congressional Republicans will say the President is doing a good job, but the Democrats will disagree.
Dr. Todd Belt, a professor and director of Political management at George Washington University said the idea of measuring a president in the first one hundred days came from FDR who brought in congress for one hundred straight days to pass 15 bills to recovery from the Great Depression.
“Since that time, we’ve been using that as a marker to see how much presidents get done,” said Dr. Belt. “The reason why the first one hundred days are important is because there hasn’t been much resistance over time. The president also loses power over time because he becomes less popular because it’s simply not possible for the president to fulfill all the promises he makes in order to become president.”
This week the White House is touting President Donald Trump’s first one hundred days. Polls recently show a dip in the President’s popularity due to tariffs but the White House has maintained he is keeping a lot of campaign promises, like mass deportations, gutting the size of the federal workforce, shaking up global relations and issuing a flurry of executive orders. According to political scientists, in Trump’s 100 days, he has issued almost as many of executive orders as President Joe Biden did during his whole term.
“This President has done a lot of executive actions which can be undone by his successor,” said Dr. Belt. “We’re really looking for legislation to see if that will be passed and so far it’s been really light for Donald Trump.”
Here’s what congressional members have to say about Trump’s one hundred days:
“The first 100 days, the Trump administration have been characterized by chaos, cruelty and corruption,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) Minority Leader.
“When I campaigned across Pennsylvania with the President he promised change, change, change,” said Sen. Dave McCormick. “And he was promising a number of specific things he was gonna do. At the top of the list was the border. Secure the border where he has been unbelievably successful”
The Senator also says the President is focused on expanding the energy sector which is important for national security and less self-reliance on other countries.
“And a personal thing was Marc Fogel,” said Sen. McCormick. “He and his team negotiated the release of Marc Fogel who was a Pittsburgher who was held in a Russian gulag. That was something I had promised to his mom [Fogel’s mom] we would work on and to see Marc come home and to greet him at the White House was a big deal.”
The President held a rally outside of Detroit to celebrate the first one hundred days.
