by Ezinne Ajoku

Today, Donald Trump, POTUS 45,  marks his first 100 days in office. What is so special about the Presidency’s first 100 days in office? This is a tradition that dates back to the Franklin Roosevelt’s first year in office, March 1933, during the Great Depression. “With banks caving in and jobs vanishing, FDR set to work passing laws and establishing new government bureaus to curb the economic suffering. He swore in his entire Cabinet at once, signed 76 bills into law, and began rolling out the New Deal in his first 100 days in office — a frenzy of activity that, ever since, all presidents have been matched against.”

Some presidents balk against the comparison (including Bill Clinton, Obama and lastly, Trump who swiftly changed gears as the end of his first 100 days drew near) because Roosevelt had a clear pass with Congress during the Great Depression.

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

However, they’ve been presidents like Ronald Reagan who, despite being shot in the chest on his 69th day in office, had to sign his first bill into law over a breakfast tray at the George Washington University hospital and afterwards delivered an address to a joint session of Congress on the eve of his 100th day mark, making an argument for cutting taxes and curbing inflation. These presidents showed they took the 100th-day mark seriously, for themselves and the people they governed.

Whether or not US presidents decide to pay attention to the 100 days as a yardstick for success or failure, the American media certainly holds them up to it, without remorse.

This time around, the media and the American people have been especially brutal about Trump’s massive lack of achievement during his first 100 days.

'Disastrous', 'fantastic', 'orange'… 100 people pick one word to describe @POTUS @realDonaldTrump's first 100 days pic.twitter.com/BXz632yyS4

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 28, 2017

He’s been issued an ‘F’ grade for failing to keep to his ‘terms of contract’, such as getting Obamacare repealed and upholding his Executive order banning immigrants from seven countries, but is this the whole picture?

[Did you miss]: “Americans react to Trump’s 100 days in office with spite”

These are the successes Donald Trump has recorded during his first 100 days.

1 Legislation

Trump has signed more pieces of legislation than his immediate predecessors.

Thirteen of the laws he signed repeal Obama-era regulations, dispensing with them quickly under the Congressional Review Act; a rarely used federal law which allows members of Congress to override an outgoing administration’s recently issued federal regulations with a simple majority vote and the president’s signature.  Some of these include requiring federal contractors disclose and correct serious safety violations, requiring internet service providers get permission from customers before sharing personal data like their web-browsing history, blocking some people with mental illnesses from buying guns, issuing a permit for Keystone XL pipeline.

Two of the laws name VA clinics —  one in Pago Pago and another in Pennsylvania; five are personnel appointments. Trump also moved on his pledge to sign a requirement that for every new regulation, two be eliminated, claiming that many regulations are wasteful and hinder businesses’ growth.

But this pales in comparison with the number of legislations older ex-presidents signed:

• FDR: 76 laws in first 100 days
• Truman: 55 laws in first 100 days

Also, none of Trump’s legislation is a major law.

 

2. Tax cuts

On Wednesday, Trump’s administration unveiled its tax plan. Although details were sparse, the plan shows huge tax rate cuts for businesses, from 35 percent to 15 percent for corporations, reduced individual rates; and elimination of the estate and the alternative minimum levies.

“With growth in GDP inching up at 2 percent or less annually for years (it went up a mere 1.6 percent in 2016), Mr Trump has called for 5 percent expansions. That level, seldom seen since the late 1990s the tech boom, may be too ambitious, given sluggish U.S. productivity increases.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reckons 3 percent is more realistic.

Regardless, the administration faces a lot of obstacles, one of which is Liberal opposition. Thomas Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman. believe Trump’s latest proposal is another gift to corporations and billionaires like himself.”

According to CBS “the plan is highly likely to drive up budget deficits, and a strong cohort of fiscal-minded Republicans with a lot of influence in Congress is leery about that prospect.” However, there is the option of plugging that deficit through border tax, which will tax imports only and is projected to raise over $1 trillion dollars over 10 years.

 

3. Supreme Court nomination

Pat Roberts, one of the oldest serving members of Congress points to Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court as one of the longest lasting and most important successes of Trump’s presidency.

“That was probably the biggest thing he’s done, or probably will be the biggest thing he’ll do in the first year at least, Robert said.”

When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in early 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper chamber would not fill his seat until a new president took office. To reassure conservatives, Trump released two lists of potential Supreme Court nominees.” Less than two weeks into his presidency, Trump chose 49-year-old Neil Gorsuch, a federal judge in Colorado. Due to opposition from Democrats still smarting over McConnell’s blocking of Obama’s choice for the seat, Republicans ultimately had to invoke the “nuclear option” and change Senate rules to allow confirmation by a simple majority.”

Gorsuch confirmation helped cement a conservative majority on the court, and could serve for decades, while the rule change will make future Supreme Court nominations easier, Time reports.

Trump has earned his bragging rights.

.@POTUS: "For the first time in the modern political era, we have confirmed a new justice in the first 100 days." #NRAAM2017 pic.twitter.com/77CPenFqxF

— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) April 28, 2017

4. Jobs.

Trump has consistently touted job creation as one of his successes. His focus is on manufacturing jobs, which dwindled to 5 million since 1998. At least, 882,000 of these jobs have come back since February 2010, as the nation crawled out of the Great Recession, the manufacturing employment picture is still grim. The president pins the blame on unfair foreign competition, although many economists say rising automation is at least an equal villain.

Trump has been able to box employers like Ford Motor and Lockheed Martin into increasing their domestic headcounts. In January, Ford scrapped plans for a new plant in Mexico and said it would add 700 jobs in Michigan for hybrid and electric cars. The same month, aerospace company Lockheed said it would increase its workforce in Texas by 1,800.

 

5. Withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Another campaign pledge has been met by formally leaving the TPP, a huge trade deal between the US and 11 Pacific Rim countries.

6. Illegal border crossings

The number of undocumented immigrants caught crossing the border into the US dropped significantly in the month after Mr Trump took power. The fall of 36 per cent, compared with a year earlier, was taken by the Trump administration to indicate that its hard line on illegal immigration was having an impact.

7. National security

Another win for Trump’s early presidency has been his foreign policy and national security decisions. His move to launch 59 cruise missiles against Syria in the wake of a chemical attack was widely applauded for setting firm red lines, with minimal risk to US personnel or of being sucked into to a Middle East conflict. After bold threats, North Korea marked its founder Kim Il-sung’s birthday with a botched missile launch and without testing a nuclear device. Trump has also been able to retain  America’s friendship with China, by speaking up against North Korea’s missile launch.

[Read also]: China pleased as Trump puts phone call from Taiwan’s president on hold

President Trump was also able to secure the freedom of Aya Hijazi, a U.S. citizen who had been incarcerated in Egypt since 2014. Egypt also freed Hijazi’s husband and four other international charity workers who had been imprisoned with her. These are just a few of the things Trump has done so far.

Whatever his current approval ratings, what Trump is not is a total failure and he has 3 years, 8 months and 3 weeks to prove it.