BIDEN'S FIRST 100 DAYS: Charts show how they compare with Trump's, Obama's, Bush's, and Clinton's
By Oma Seddiq , John L. Dorman , Andy Kiersz , Shayanne Gal , and Joanna Lin Su
Presidents have been judged by their performance in their first 100 days for nine decades.
Whether through approval ratings or executive orders, there's a lot to judge them by.
Insider compared Biden's first 100 days to those of his recent predecessors.
Presidents have been judged by their performance in their first 100 days for nearly nine decades. Although an arbitrary milestone, the tradition dates back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in his first 100 days enacted sweeping measures to recover from the Great Depression and laid out the foundation of the New Deal.
Roosevelt raised the bar for how much a president could accomplish early in their tenure, which each president since has tried to live up to.
President Joe Biden is no FDR, but those comparisons have arisen in his first 100 days. Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, signed into law on day 50, included a plethora of comprehensive policies to blunt the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, prompting debate about a new progressive era.
For Biden's 100th day in office, Insider looked at what his approval ratings were, how many laws he enacted, how many executive orders he issued, how many of his Cabinet members were confirmed, how the economy performed, how many press conferences he held, and for fun, how often he golfed, stacking his performance against presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.
Biden secured the support of more than half the country by his first 100 days in office.
Presidents typically benefit from a post-election high in their first 100 days, enjoying greater public support than they might later in their term.
Biden took his oath of office in the wake of a tumultuous 2020 presidential race and a deadly Capitol insurrection, not to mention the still-raging coronavirus pandemic coupled with a weakened economy.
Still, he managed to secure an average approval rating of 53.8% by his 100th day, meaning more than half of Americans think he's doing a good job as president so far, according to polling data compiled by FiveThirtyEight.
By comparison, Trump's average approval rating over the same period was at a historic low of 42%.
Biden peaked on his 62nd day in office with a 55.1% average approval rating, just around his announcement that 100 million stimulus checks had been sent to Americans as part of his COVID-19 relief package.
His biggest piece of legislation so far was the latest COVID-19 relief bill.
So far, Biden's biggest legislative achievement is the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill known as the American Rescue Plan, which he signed into law in March after the Democratic-controlled Congress passed it through the budget reconciliation process.
During his first 100 days, the president has signed 10 bills into law, which varied from the COVID-19 bill and a waiver that allowed for the confirmation of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as Defense Secretary to legislation that added sesame to the list of major allergens for food labeling.
Biden has signed fewer bills into law compared to Trump at this stage of his presidency, but the legislation passed has significantly more pages and words, which can be attributed to the 242-page coronavirus-relief bill, which contains more than 100,000 words.
Biden quickly took steps to reverse Trump-era executive actions on issues like energy production and border security.
Biden has issued 41 executive orders in his first 100 days, more than each of his four immediate predecessors at this stage of their presidencies.
Republicans have criticized Biden for the pace of actions that he's taken so far, but during Trump's first 100 days in office, he issued 32 executive orders.
Nineteen of Biden's executive orders included revocations of prior orders, according to The American Presidency Project. As of April 23, Biden had reversed 62 of Trump's orders, including revoking the permit to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline and canceling two of Trump's actions on refugees.
Biden also took other executive actions to rejoin the Paris climate accord, halt construction on the US-Mexico border wall, and prevent the US's withdrawal from the World Health Organization — all of which reversed Trump actions.
Biden has had close Senate votes for a few of his Cabinet picks and will end his 100 first days with two vacancies.
After Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia won their respective runoff elections in January, it paved the way for Democratic control of the Senate and a smoother path for most of Biden's Cabinet-level nominees.
But Biden will still end his first 100 days with two vacancies out of 23 Cabinet-level positions, with the top roles at the Office of Management and Budget and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy unfilled.
Neera Tanden, Biden's pick to lead the OMB, withdrew from consideration after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senate Republicans declined to support her nomination, leaving her with no pathway to confirmation.
Eric Lander, who was tapped to lead the OSTP, only recently had his confirmation hearing on April 29.
