How do Trump's first 100 days stack up to past presidents?

Let's review their records

Is Trump the toughest president of them all?
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

"The first 100 days constitute a magic number in the life of a new national administration." So begins a 1974 letter from the White House that would go on to list the early accomplishments of President Gerald Ford, who had unexpectedly taken office after the resignation of Richard Nixon. Indeed, it may well have been the grim circumstances of his ascension that made Ford so keenly aware of the "magic" period of time between a new president's inauguration and the fizzling out of the "honeymoon period" at the end of month four.

The symbolic 100-day benchmark actually dates back to Napoleon Bonaparte's return from exile. And it has been used to judge American presidents ever since Franklin Roosevelt's flurry of early activity in 1933. When President Lyndon Johnson entered the White House in 1965, he reportedly told a strategist to "jerk out every damn little bill you can. Put out that propaganda ... that [we've] done more than they did in Roosevelt's 100 days."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.