The first 100 days of the first Trump presidency began on January 20, 2017, the day Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. The first 100 days of a presidency took on symbolic significance during Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term in office, and the period is considered a benchmark to measure the early success of a president. The 100th day of Trump's first presidency was April 30, 2017.
Institutionally, President Trump had the advantage of a Republican Party majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, but was unable to fulfill his major pledges in his first 100 days, with some approval rating polls reporting around 40%. He reversed his position on a number of issues including labeling China as a currency manipulator, NATO, launching the 2017 Shayrat missile strike, renomination of Janet Yellen as Chair of the Federal Reserve, and the nomination of Export-Import Bank directors. Trump's approval among his base was high, with 96% of those who voted for him saying in an April 2017 poll that they would vote for him again. Near the end of the 100 days, the Trump administration introduced a broad outline of a sweeping tax reform focusing on deep tax cuts. Although Trump had to concede to delay funding for the U.S.–Mexico border wall he had promised, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown a few days before the end of the first 100 days.
Trump signed 24 executive orders in his first 100 days. He signed 22 presidential memoranda, 20 presidential proclamations, and 28 bills. About a dozen of those bills roll-back regulations finalized during the last months of his immediate predecessor Barack Obama's presidency using the Congressional Review Act. Most of the other bills are "small-scale measures that appoint personnel, name federal facilities or modify existing programs." None of Trump's bills are considered to be "major bills"—based on a "longstanding political-science standard for 'major bills'". Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said that "based on a legislative standard"—which is what the first 100 days has been judged on since the tenure of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who enacted 76 laws in 100 days including nine that were "major".
Pledges
Trump pledged to do the following in the first 100 days of his first presidency:
Appoint judges who will "uphold the Constitution" and "defend the Second Amendment" Construct a wall on the southern U.S. border and limit illegal immigration "to give unemployed Americans an opportunity to fill good-paying jobs" Reassess trade agreements with other nations and "crack down" on companies that send jobs overseas
Repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare) Remove federal restrictions on energy production Push for an amendment to the United States Constitution imposing term limits on Congress Eliminate gun-free zones Formulate a rule on regulations "that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated" Instruct the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to "develop a comprehensive plan to protect America's vital infrastructure from cyberattacks, and all other form of attacks" Label China a "currency manipulator"Wilbur Ross, Andy Puzder & Peter Navarro, Economic Analysis of Donald Trump's Contract with the American Voter , Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., October 30, 2016 Enforce rules and regulations for China's unfair subsidy behavior, instructing the U.S. trade representative to bring trade cases against China, both in U.S. and at the WTO Use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes, including the application of 45% tariffs consistent with Section 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, to stop China's illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets
Inauguration
The first inauguration of Donald Trump was the 58th presidential inauguration and it marked the completion of Trump's first presidential transition which began the morning of November 9, 2016 after his victory in the 2016 presidential election and concluded at noon of January 20, 2017. Donald Trump and Mike Pence were formally inaugurated as the 45th President and 48th Vice President of the United States at noon on January 20, 2017, at the Capitol, marking the start of the first 100 days of the First Trump presidency.
Presidential Communications The content of Whitehouse.gov was switched from the Obama Administration version to the First Trump Administration version, while the prior was archived as ObamaWhiteHouse This was the third time the presidential website had switched between administrations and the first time switching control of social media accounts such as Twitter. As Trump took the oath of office, the official @POTUS Twitter account switched to President Trump and Barack Obama's previous tweets were moved to @POTUS44Archive. Members of the First Trump administration assumed control of numerous social media accounts while former Obama Administration accounts were similarly archived such as Melania Trump assuming @FLOTUS, Mike Pence assuming @VP, Karen Pence assuming @SLOTUS, Sean Spicer assuming @PressSec, along with others. Trump's cabinet members were given new social media accounts as previous administrations had done and new executive branch websites were created while previous administration websites reside in the National Archives.
Administration and Cabinet
On February 8, when Trump formally announced his 24-member-cabinet—the largest cabinet of any President so far—fewer cabinet nominees had been confirmed than any other president except George Washington by the same length of time into his presidency. Trump's reorganization of the cabinet removed the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers that President Obama had added in 2009. The Director of National Intelligence and Director of the CIA were elevated to cabinet-level. During the transition period, Trump had named a full slate of Cabinet and Cabinet-level nominees, all of which require Senate confirmation except for White House Chief of Staff and the vice presidency.
By April 29, almost all of his nominated cabinet members had been confirmed, including Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson, Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Defense James Mattis, Justice Jeff Sessions, the Interior Ryan Zinke, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, Health and Human Services Tom Price, Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Transportation Elaine Chao, Energy Rick Perry, Education Betsy DeVos, Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, Homeland Security John Kelly, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Mike Pompeo, UN Ambassador Nikki R. Haley, Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, Small Business Administration Linda McMahon, Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. Only two were awaiting confirmation — Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett.
James Mattis was confirmed on January 20 as Secretary of Defense by a vote of 98–1. Mattis had previously received a waiver of the National Security Act of 1947, which requires a seven-year waiting period before retired military personnel can assume the role of Secretary of Defense. John Kelly was confirmed as United States Secretary of Homeland Security on the first day by a vote of 88–11. Former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson was sworn in as Secretary of State by Vice-President Mike Pence on February 1. Trump nominated Tillerson for the position as top U.S. diplomat (the equivalent of a foreign minister) on December 13, 2016. He was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 23, 2017, and by the full Senate in a 56–43 vote. Nikki Haley was confirmed as UN Ambassador by a vote of 96-4.
On January 26, 2017, when Tillerson visited the United States State Department, Undersecretaries Joyce Anne Barr, Patrick F. Kennedy, Michele Bond, and Gentry O. Smith all simultaneously resigned from the department. Former State Department chief of staff David Wade called the resignations "the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember." The Trump administration told CNN the officials had been fired and the Chicago Tribune reported that several senior state department career diplomats left the State Department, claiming they "had been willing to remain at their posts but had no expectation of staying."
On February 10, Tom Price was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, a "$1 trillion government department". The Department of HHS includes National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. Price, who is a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, claimed he would "oversee its repeal and replacement." He has published articles in the "small, conservative medical association", the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, to which he belongs, that opposes mandatory vaccination and continued to argue that vaccines cause autism, a "discredited conspiracy theory that Trump has long espoused". In response to questions from Senators at the hearing as to whether he believes autism is caused by vaccines, he responded, "I think the science in that instance is that it does not".
Steve Mnuchin, who was nominated by Trump in November 2016, was finally confirmed on February 13, 2017, as Secretary of the Treasury department after lengthy confirmation hearings.
On February 16, the Senate voted 54-46 to advance Scott Pruitt's nomination as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. On February 16, a District Court Judge in Oklahoma, Aletia Timmons, ordered Pruitt to "turn over thousands of emails related to his communication with the oil, gas and coal industry" in a case brought to court by the Center for Media and Democracy. Lawmakers had criticized Pruitt who sued the EPA 14 times on behalf of the State of Oklahoma.
Trump nominated Alexander Acosta as Secretary of Labor on February 16, when his first nominee Andrew Puzder stepped down after a wave of criticism for having employed an illegal immigrant as a former housekeeper, his "remarks on women and employees at his restaurants", and for his "rancorous 1980s divorce".
Notable non-Cabinet positions
According to a database compiled by The Washington Post in collaboration with the Partnership for Public Service, as of April 27, 473 of the 554 key executive branch nominations that require Presidential nomination and Senate confirmation, had not yet been appointed, including "Cabinet secretaries, deputy and assistant secretaries, chief financial officers, general counsel, heads of agencies, ambassadors and other critical leadership positions." in collaboration with Partnership for Public Service Only 3 of the 119 Department of State executive branch positions had been filled and only one position in the Department of Defense—the Secretary of Defense, James Mattis—had been filled out of 53 key positions. Trump had not yet nominated anyone for 49 of these positions. On February 28, in an exclusive interview Tuesday with Fox & Friends, Trump said, "a lot of those jobs, I don't want to appoint, because they're unnecessary to have.... You know, we have so many people in government, even me. I look at some of the jobs and it's people over people over people. I say, 'What do all these people do?' You don't need all those jobs... Many of those jobs I don't want to fill. I say, isn't that a good thing? That's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. We're running a very good, efficient government."