A president’s place in history often emerges beyond the 100-day mark, through marquee achievements (healthcare, Barack Obama, day 428) or defining events (September 11 attacks, George W Bush, day 235).

But the 100 days rubric has proven irresistible, ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt used it to frame the intense hustle of his administration in the face of global economic catastrophe. Roosevelt signed 15 major laws in his honeymoon period, scrapped the gold standard, set up multiple major jobs programs and saved the banking system. “Congress doesn’t pass legislation any more – they just wave at the bills as they go by,” Will Rogers, the cowboy cutup, is said to have joked at the time.

Not to be outdone, Donald Trump suggested last week that he was a step ahead of FDR – indeed of all his predecessors. “No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days,” Trump told a rally in Wisconsin. That was a month after he made the excuse, for the failed effort to undo “Obamacare”: “I never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days.”

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

Trump does not appear to be at the helm of the most accomplished presidency in history, so far, at all. But would Trump rate better if the field were restricted to more recent entries? We’ve taken a quick look at how the first 100 days have played out going back five presidents – at major events, legislative achievements and the public response.

Whatever you think of Trump’s performance, it’s undeniable that past “honeymoon hundreds” have been packed with action by comparison. For assassination attempts, oil spills, pirates and a hellish inferno outside Waco, Texas – read on.

Ronald Reagan waving to well-wishers on the White House Lawn in 1986. Photograph: taken from picture library

Ronald Reagan

Inaugurated 20 January 1981

In short



He smiled at TV cameras; he courted Congress, Democrats and all; he issued a bracingly radical tax and budget scheme – and he survived an assassination attempt.

Highs and lows

Reagan’s presidency began with the release, as he took the oath of office, of hostages in Iran, and he was quickly engaged on multiple foreign fronts, warning the Soviets away from Poland and declaring a prototypical war on “terror” against leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.

Within a month, the new president had sent Congress a radical budget and taxation plan. To push his plan through, Reagan embarked on personal meetings with hundreds of members of Congress and began an aggressive courtship of the Democratic House speaker, Tip O’Neill, who cooperated with the president in an example of bipartisanship that is still held up as ideal.



Then came the would-be assassin’s bullet outside the Washington Hilton hotel on 30 March (day 70). In the hospital the day after the attempt on his life, the president signed his first bill, cutting dairy subsidies. He was out recuperating for a month.

Public approval

The assassination attempt sent Reagan’s approval rating through the roof, briefly into the low 70s. Overall, Reagan’s approval rating rose 17 points in his first 100 days, from 51% approval to 68%, according to Gallup.



Key quote

“The remarkable thing about Mr Reagan’s presidency has been his ability to keep it focused single-mindedly on his economic strategy. To be sure, there’s been an element of luck in it. No distracting blowups have come along abroad, or serious political diversions at home.” – Washington Post editorial

George Bush in 1991. Photograph: Sportsphoto/Allstar

George HW Bush

Inaugurated 20 January 1989

In short

A relative snooze-a-thon, with a lot of talk about runaway military spending and budget deficits (thank you, Mr Reagan) and one gigantic oil spill.

High and lows



In a year that would later see history made in Tiananmen and Berlin, as Japan’s economy swelled and Saddam Hussein eyed Kuwait, George HW Bush began his presidency with a promise to rein in military spending and close Reagan’s deficit.

Bush suffered a significant political defeat on 10 March (day 50), when the Senate rejected John Tower, the defense secretary nominee, in the first such setback for a president in 30 years.

But the worst news of Bush’s first 100 days – though its scope did not immediately become clear – came on 24 March (day 64), when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit a reef in Alaska and began leaking what would be more than 10m gallons of crude oil, sending shocking images of coated and dying waterfowl, spoiled shorelines and mountains of trash bags around the world.

The rest was a grab-bag: drug policy, acid rain, homelessness, abortion, the savings-and-loan crisis. Bush marked his 100 days with a barnstorming tour of six states in four days to tout his achievements.

Public approval

Bush’s approval rating rose five points in his first 100 days, from 51% approval to 56%, according to Gallup.



Key quote

“These adjustments to the Reagan legacy did not result from the sort of grand plan so favored by students of the Presidency. This has been an improvisational 100 days.” – New York Times editorial

President Clinton in 1998. Photograph: Morry Gash/AP

Bill Clinton

Inaugurated 20 January 1993

In short

He jogged into office with a lot of big ideas and delivered a budget outline in record time, but then stumbled on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and watched Waco go up in flames.

Highs and lows



Clinton got off to a fast start, policy-wise, meeting Russian leader Boris Yeltsin at a summit in Vancouver and pledging him $1bn in aid, and then sending Congress a detailed $1.5tn budget outline in early April – record speed.

But only nine days into his administration, Clinton found himself at a press conference explaining “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, an awkward (and many thought pusillanimous) compromise to permit gays and lesbians to serve in the military.

Another early controversy: less than a week into his presidency, Clinton announced that his wife, Hillary Clinton, would be in charge of a healthcare taskforce. “We have a first lady of many talents,” Clinton said. Cue 25 years of grumbling.

Clinton’s 100 days closed in tragedy. On 19 April (day 90), federal agents raided a compound housing the Branch Davidian end-times sect outside Waco, Texas, where four agents had been killed in a gunfight in February. Multiple fires broke out and 76 members of the group were killed.

Public approval



Clinton’s approval rating dropped three points in his first 100 days, from 58% approval to 55%, according to Gallup.

Key quote

“It’s still early, and a hundred days really don’t mean all that much, but one lesson he can learn from his slump in Washington and at the polls is not to confuse motion with progress. – New York Times editorial

George W Bush in 1999. Photograph: John Althouse/EPA

George W Bush

Inaugurated 20 January 2001

In short

Entering office under the cloud of the 2000 recount fiasco, Bush got in a couple of foreign policy skirmishes and teed up major tax cuts and education reform, and won a reputation for showing up for meetings on time.

Highs and lows

High marks for punctuality? Seriously, Bush got high marks for punctuality, as the pre-9/11 era dwindled to its clueless conclusion. Given that epochal schism, the continuity between Bush’s first 100 days and the rest of his presidency is notable. In that early period, the 43rd president both unleashed airstrikes to enforce a no-fly zone in Iraq and cheered giant, $1tn-plus tax cuts through both houses of Congress.

The most visibly dramatic event of the period came on 1 April (day 72), when an American spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet and had to make an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan. Bush apologized for the death of the Chinese pilot and for violating Chinese airspace. The American crew returned home after 11 days.

Three days after taking office, Bush proposed the No Child Left Behind education reform bill, which chugged steadily to passage about a year later.

Public approval



Bush’s approval rating rose five points in his first 100 days, from 57% approval to 62%, according to Gallup.

Key quote



“I feel free and relaxed. I feel comfortable; perhaps that’s because I’m on bended knee every morning, asking for guidance and for comfort. Whatever the reasons, I’m enjoying myself.” – George W Bush

Barack Obama in 2007. Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP

Barack Obama

20 January 2009

In short

Entering on a wave of optimism, he faced a collapsing economy, a failing auto industry and the deployment of 80,000 troops in two theaters of war – and then a pirate attack.

Highs and lows

“When we took office, the country was facing its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Obama loved to say on the 2016 campaign trail. In retrospect, that was true, with the economy losing 800,000 jobs in January 2009, the banking system in crisis, the housing collapse ongoing and confidence in a turnaround scant.

The new president signed a $787bn stimulus bill (17 February, day 29), an auto bailout (30 March, day 70), an extension of the children’s health insurance program and a $410bn spending bill. He began to lay the groundwork for a healthcare reform law that would take another year to pass.

Domestic duties were interrupted when, on 8 April (day 79), Somali pirates hijacked an American cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, and took its captain hostage on a covered lifeboat. Four days later, navy marksmen shot the abductors dead and the president won plaudits.

Public approval

Obama’s approval rating dropped three points in his first 100 days, from 68% approval to 65%, according to Gallup. That 65% is still quite high, on par with Reagan post-assassination attempt.

Key quote

“We were meeting all day, every day, including weekends. And I started to realize that although we had extraordinary experience, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner … Paul Volcker, Warren Buffett … that nobody knew exactly how to fix the financial system. We were making best guesses in terms of what would work.” – Barack Obama

Donald Trump

Inaugurated 20 January 2017

In short

Mileage may vary. Either he is an unapologetic populist whose efforts to drain the swamp of Washington have been met, all too predictably, by powerful resistance. Or he is a buffoonish con whose every gesture showcases his gross incompetence, plus he golfs too much, and he’s probably bad at that, too.

Highs and lows

Empirical analysis has found that presidents enjoy a “honeymoon hundred” with Congress, during which time legislation that a president backs is more likely to pass. If that’s true for Trump, he’s in trouble. His effort to broker a deal on healthcare reform turned out to be as ineffectual as it was ostentatious. His promise to pull off tax reform is equally in doubt. The one spending bill he has managed to sign thus far, a $19.5bn reauthorization of Nasa, was both small potatoes and peripheral. He has struck down at least 10 important Obama regulations, pertaining to clean streams, internet privacy and gun purchases by the mentally ill, but not everyone considers those accomplishments.

Many Americans – more than half, in most polls – believe that Trump is underperforming as president. Strikes against him include his divisive and failed travel bans, his blatant and insulting duplicity when it comes to voter fraud or crowd size, his impulsive conduct of foreign policy, his failure to divest from the Trump Organization, his embrace of Wall Street and of foreign dictators, his addiction to cable news, and a lack of policy seriousness which leads him to confuse Iraq and Syria, confuse which direction the navy is sailing in and to say things like, “Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated.”

Trump supporters see his presidency differently. He is praised for responding to a chemical attack in Syria with airstrikes, for generally projecting strength in foreign policy, for undoing Obama-era regulations on the environment and business, for installing a conservative supreme court justice, for protecting American jobs, and for not letting people tell him what he can’t do. It was also cool when he climbed into that truck and honked the horn.



Public approval



Trump’s approval rating has dropped about four points in his first 100 days, from 45.5% approval to 41.7%, according to a FiveThirtyEight model.

Key quote

“No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days.” – Donald Trump