Adam (00:00.833)
Welcome back to “Simplifying the State,” the podcast where we break down politics so you don’t have to pretend to know what a filibuster is. As always, I’m Adam Watson.
Nicholas (00:10.135)
And I’m Nicholas Perrin.
Adam (00:00.833) So Nicholas, what do the Bay of Pigs invasion, the firing on Fort Sumter, and the pardoning of Nixon all have in common?
Nicholas (00:10.135)
And I’m Nicholas Perrin.
Nicholas (00:20.010)
Were they all completed in the first 100 days of a presidency?
Adam (00:23.149)
That is correct, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about this week—the history of the first 100 days in office and how that compares to Trump’s 100 days in office. All right, so Nicholas, you want to give us a history of that?
Nicholas (00:37.226)
Yeah, I can do that. So, typically, the first 100 days of a presidency define how well a president is doing based on their approval ratings. Usually, in the first 100 days, approval ratings are pretty high. Usually during that time, the opposition party, which loses, takes a back seat, licks its wounds, and tries to see what it did wrong and what it can do better.
The 100 days gained significance after FDR, in which he signed a bunch of executive orders and changed the way the U.S. government worked—made it a lot bigger. And I think a good point of comparison, what we’re going to get into, is the first 100 days of Joe Biden’s presidency, in which he signed 42 executive orders, tried to get back to where Barack Obama left off, and pledged to do the following: provide 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, utilize the Defense Production Act to produce personal protective equipment, raise the refugee caps up from Trump, stop construction on the Mexico–United States border wall and travel restrictions for Muslim countries, and rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and involvement in the war in Afghanistan, and stopped drilling on federal lands. He managed to accomplish the vaccines. He rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement and the WHO. He ended the travel restrictions from Muslim countries and used the Defense Production Act to produce personal and personal equipment. He did not completely stop construction on the southern border wall. He did not completely erase the refugee cap,and he did not stop oil drilling, nor did he stop U.S. involvement in Yemen. So, Adam, how does that connect to today?
Adam (02:39.885)
Yeah, okay. So, in his first 100 days, President Trump signed 143 executive orders, the most of any president in this period, including FDR. He has signed 42 proclamations, 42 memorandums, and a couple of pieces of legislation, including the Lakin-Reilly Act, a continuing appropriations act, and other legislation. Trump has used executive orders heavily, especially when it comes to tariffs. He’s used executive orders and the power of the executive branch to enact his tariff policy, which has been a big focal point of his first 100 days in office. As you kind of said, in his first 100 days, a lot of the executive orders he has signed have been to reverse actions taken by the Biden administration.
A couple of these were when he expanded the U.S.–Mexico border wall and declared an emergency on the southern border. He delayed an impending TikTok ban. He defined gender as an immutable male or female binary. He ordered a 90-day pause on most foreign aid. He issued a 90-day hiring freeze and basically did a bunch of stuff like that. He also implemented a ban on federal DEI and pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, which is what he also did in his first term. So in terms of massive, like, sweeping legislation, there has not been a lot that was done in his first 100 days compared to other presidents.
The most notable one was probably the Lakin-Reilly Act. I mean, you could say it was possibly the debt ceiling thing, where he signed a continuing resolution, but that one was less so legislation, more so just keeping the government open. But yeah, the Lakin-Reilly Act was probably the most sweeping piece of legislation he signed in his second hundred days in office. Yeah, I mean, he has done a lot in terms of executive actions, but not much in terms of legislation, which is a big departure from administrations like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or George W. Bush.
Nicholas (05:32.858)
And more recently—which, it’s not his 100 days anymore, sorry—but he has said he will reopen Alcatraz, and he has also stopped providing research grants to Harvard. So…
Adam (05:56.653)
Yeah, no, definitely more executive action, more using the executive branch. I mean, he could possibly have gotten through more legislation. I mean, the Republicans do have a trifecta across the House, the Senate, and the executive branch, and they have majorities in the Senate and the House. They’re not—at least in the House—they’re not sweeping majorities. They have a four-seat majority in the Senate if you count JD Vance.
Adam (06:48.089)
So yeah, they probably could have gotten more legislation done in the first 100 days, but my guess is Trump wanted to do more executive action and then wait to get into the big political fights, which inevitably come when you’re trying to draft big pieces of legislation. He wanted to save that for after the 100 days, most likely is what I assume happened.
Nicholas (07:15.360)
And based on what we saw with a new record being set for the longest filibuster, any action in the legislative branch might have been—well, would have come with a lot of resistance from Democrats.
Adam (07:33.571)
Yeah, I think that would probably have depended upon the legislation that they attempted to pass. Like you said, in most 100 days, the opposition party kind of takes a back seat. That was not the case this time. The Democrats have taken a much more vocal stance on their opposition to the Trump administration than they did in 2016, and other opposition parties have done in the past. So I think it would have depended on the legislation that the Republicans attempted to propose. And the language of that would have probably decided the amount of pushback we saw from the Democrats.
Nicholas (08:22.050)
And based on everything we’ve seen in the past 100 days and even are starting to see now, it doesn’t look like the—I guess a maelstrom of news will really slow down at all. Like, it seems like things are just gonna keep getting, like, quicker and quicker, and it’ll be even harder to—well, not harder—but it’ll still be very difficult to, like, keep up.
Adam (08:47.821)
Yeah, no, definitely. This administration has probably been giving news apps and news websites quite the headache trying to keep it all up. CNN does this thing on their app where they do, like, live updates, and I’m, like, just constantly getting: live update, live update—Trump administration, live update this, live update that. And there’s just, like, a lot that they’ve been trying to keep up with. But yeah, this administration has certainly been doing a lot of stuff, and it’s been doing a lot of stuff in very rapid succession.
Nicholas (09:22.574)
If you were to define—sorry, define the Trump first 100 days of office in the second term, how would you, like, summarize it?
Adam (09:34.909)
I’d say probably kind of chaotic. I’m not sure—I mean, I have my own beliefs about whether it’s chaotic in a good way or chaotic in a bad way. But I think it’s chaotic, simply because of just how much stuff has been happening. So, I mean, the Trump administration proposes something or they do an executive order or they do something like that, and then, you know, then you have
judges saying that this is unconstitutional, or you have lawsuits from the states saying this is unconstitutional. And then you have the Trump administration doing that. Or you have, like, the tariffs—you know, we’re doing tariffs, and then five days later we’re not doing tariffs anymore. But some of the tariffs are staying. It’s just very chaotic, and it
feels very, like, uncertain. I guess “uncertain” possibly would be another word to describe it. But “chaotic,” probably.
All right. Thanks for listening to “Simplifying the State.” We’ll be back next week with our next episode, so stay tuned then. Please make sure if you enjoy the podcast to rate it on Spotify, follow or subscribe—whatever the option is—on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. And we’ll see you next time.
