Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Chait
“Shortly before taking office, Donald Trump promised his supporters that he’d have ‘the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history.’ And, well, it certainly hasn’t been ordinary. Historians tend to rate presidencies by the breadth of their accomplishments, on a scale ranging from ineffectual to transformative. The classic measuring stick for hundred-day achievements is the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The frenetic first stretch of the New Deal featured a raft of major legislation that established new financial regulations and ambitious public-works projects, helping the economy begin to recover from the Great Depression. Judged against Roosevelt’s record, the first 100 days of the second Trump term would be deemed a miserable failure. The president has passed no major legislation, and his economic interventions have had the opposite effect of Roosevelt’s, injecting uncertainty into a healthy recovery and seeding an economic crisis.” (04/29/25)