By the standards of his predecessors, President Donald Trump’s first 100 days back in office falls far short in terms of lasting achievements — and his overall popularity, for that matter. The phenomenon of the first 100 days in office became political legend, and hence, a milestone marker for the modern presidency, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s explosive first term. But this somewhat arbitrary measurement has helped foster a profound misunderstanding of the way the federal government was designed to work.
Without a willing and ready Congress to act in concert with FDR, the New Deal would have been no deal at all.
The mythic air surrounding Roosevelt’s first 100 days established it as a standard for executive prowess, given the speed at which his New Deal program coalesced and helped stem the worst effects of the Great Depression. But the plaudits the White House received for that burst of energy should be at the very least shared with Congress.It was on Capitol Hill that the New Deal went from concept to law, a flexing of legislative muscle and cornerstone for Roosevelt’s success. As we look at Trump’s decidedly unimpressive start, it’s worth remembering that without a willing and ready Congress to act in concert with FDR, the New Deal would have been no deal at all.
When Roosevelt came into office at the start of 1933, the country was no longer in economic free fall but saw little stability or sign of recovery. The ongoing ripples of the stock market crash almost four years prior still left tens of millions of Americans unemployed and banks teetering on the verge of collapse. President Herbert Hoover took much of the political blame for his sclerotic response. His fellow Republican lawmakers also paid the price at the ballot box the previous fall, having passed harsh tariffs that accelerated the economic devastation.
As a result, Democrats held an overwhelming majority of seats in the 73rd Congress when it first convened. The 20th Amendment hadn’t yet taken effect, meaning the newly elected members wouldn’t be seated until December. Rather than wait, Roosevelt called a special session that March, the day after he was inaugurated, to address the economic crisis. Newly elected Speaker Henry T. Rainey of Illinois controlled over two-thirds of the House’s votes, holding 311 seats to the GOP’s 117. Rainey’s Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Joseph Robinson, D-Ark., and his fellow Democrats outnumbered the GOP by 58 to 36.
While Trump’s administration claims to have received an “unprecedented mandate,” the people had delivered Roosevelt a real one, prompting a legislative maelstrom the likes of which the country had never seen before. More than a dozen major laws were passed, including the Emergency Banking Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act and the Federal Emergency Relief Act. “When FDR ran low on measures and found members running out of steam, he prudently dismissed them and from June until December governed with the Congress out of town,” political scientist Richard Neustadt wrote in a 2001 essay critiquing the 100 days metric. “From his call until adjournment, that special session had lasted one hundred days,” establishing a precedent that most future presidents would find unattainable.In fairness, it wasn’t exactly as though Congress was taking the lead in crafting the New Deal. Most of the legislation that passed during the special session was developed on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Once it reached Congress, Rainey and Robinson ensured there was little debate over many of the provisions and fewer changes — the Emergency Banking Act was passed less than seven hours after the special session began. And the Supreme Court would later nullify several of the laws hurried through the chambers as unconstitutional, dulling the pace of the rapid transformations that Roosevelt had sought. But the laws that formed the backbone of Roosevelt’s agenda were still passed by the democratically elected members of Congress. Those members in turn were overwhelmingly sent to Washington by voters clamoring for bold action to staunch the crisis.
Trump has only signed five bills into law so far, fewer than in any new presidency over the last 70 years.
Other presidents have attempted to similarly use their early political capital to varying degrees of success, even when their parties have also held a trifecta in Washington. It took another 40 years for Democrats to hold a large enough majority again to lay the cornerstone of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program in 1965. More often there have been roadblocks and stumbles that have left novice presidents trying to regain their footing. These last few months have been an oddity — Trump has been president before but still tried to reap the political benefits of a new administration. Without the learning curve most new presidents require, and a friendly majority in both chambers of Congress, the stage was set for him to begin a lasting transformation of the country. But there’s been little to show from Congress at this point. Trump has only signed five bills into law so far, fewer than in any new presidency over the last 70 years.
That sluggishness can in part be laid at the feet of the razor-thin margin the GOP holds in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., simply lacks the votes needed for the kinds of sweeping changes to the law that Trump’s agenda would require. In the absence of new legislation, the White House has sought to govern via emergency declaration. And absent the real emergency that FDR faced, the White House has instead tried to manufacture it, attempting to stretch executive actions beyond their bounds in the process.
None of this is to completely write off the prospect of congressional Republicans and Trump working more in concert moving forward. There’s still a chance for major changes to come via the budget reconciliation bill that the House and Senate are now working to craft. But if the first 100 days are meant to be the time when the political winds are blowing in the president’s favor, it’s hard to see how the sailing gets much smoother for Trump from here.
