10 key numbers that sum up Trump's first 100 days

This week marks the 100th day of President Trump's second term, a benchmark that's widely considered the first impression of any administration.

The artificial yet enduring milestone has its roots in the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Within months of taking office in 1933, he signed dozens of bills and executive orders that helped alleviate the nation's financial crisis and set the New Deal in motion.

Roosevelt's first 100 days were so productive that presidents have been evaluated at that point ever since, for their early accomplishments as well as missteps. But there's only so much the first 100 days can tell us.

"Look at Abraham Lincoln … the union literally collapsed during that period and he is today considered one of our greatest presidents," Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, told NPR's Here & Now in 2021.

While the first 100 days don't necessarily determine the rest of a president's term, they may foreshadow priorities, achievements and problems to come. And it can be a useful check-in point to see how a president's early actions compare to his predecessors' — and to his own campaign promises.

Trump has hit multiple records for his first 100 days in office, but the rapidity of his actions also highlights the fragility of relying on presidential action to cement core policies.

One hundred days in, here's a look at where the second Trump administration stands on 10 key benchmarks.

President Trump has signed 142 executive orders since Jan. 20, according to the Federal Register and American Presidency Project.

Trump hit the ground running, signing 37 executive orders in his first week in office alone (not including other executive actions like memorandum and proclamations). He issued his 100th order in late March, surpassing Roosevelt's record of 99 in 100 days.

Most of Trump's orders fall into several main categories, according to the American Presidency Project: shrinking the federal government, foreign policy and defense, immigration and border security, energy and natural resources, and tariffs.

Several of Trump's executive orders — including those freezing foreign aid and banning transgender troops from military service — are temporarily blocked by courts as lawsuits play out. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in May about his order seeking to revoke birthright citizenship.

Executive orders can be overturned or modified by future presidents. Many of Trump's early executive actions focused on undoing those of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

Within hours of his inauguration, Trump had rescinded 78 of Biden's executive actions, largely related to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and diversity, equity and inclusion. He has since revoked additional Biden orders on voter registration and census apportionment, among others.

According to the American Presidency Project, as of mid-April, Trump had ordered 111 prior presidential orders revoked, all but five of those from the Biden years.

That's notable because Biden was prolific in overturning orders from the first Trump administration — the project said at Biden's 100-day mark in 2021 that "no recent president has reversed a predecessor's orders as often as Biden has reversed Trump," counting 76 such examples.

"Biden's record-setting has been easily surpassed by Trump 2.0," it writes, adding that the pattern of reversals points to the "fragility of relying on Presidential directives to institutionalize core policy objectives."

It's harder for a future president to overturn legislation as opposed to executive orders, meaning it's one way to measure a president's longer-term impact on the country.

Trump has signed just five bills into law, starting with the Laken Riley Act, which Congress passed just before he took office. The others were a stopgap funding bill and three Congressional Review Act resolutions overturning Biden-era rules.

He broke George W. Bush's record low of seven in 2001, according to History.com.

In contrast, Trump signed 28 laws in the first 100 days of his first term in 2017. Biden signed 11 bills into law within his first 100 days, most notably his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

Many of the Trump administration's actions — not just executive orders — have been challenged in court, particularly those related to its crackdown on immigration and efforts to shrink the federal workforce.

Many are in limbo as rulings and appeals play out, making it difficult to supply a definitive case count.

A litigation tracker from Just Security counts 210 legal challenges, including four that are closed, while a LawFare database lists at least 258.

Trump's approval rating sits at 42%, down from 45% in March, according to a NPR/PBS/Marist survey released Tuesday.

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During his first term, Trump's approval rating never rose higher than 44%. He left office in 2021 with an approval rate of 38%, according to a NPR/PBS/Marist survey. Nearly half of respondents — 47% — said Trump would be remembered as one of the worst presidents in history.

Biden, in contrast, capped off his first 100 days with an approval rating of 53%, his highest since taking office.

But that support was entirely along partisan lines — 93% of Democrats approved of his performance, compared to just 12% of Republicans — and dwindled throughout his presidency. Biden left office with an approval rating of 42%, according to a January 2025 NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

Trump has issued pardons for 39 named individuals and entities since taking office, according to the Department of Justice.

One of Trump's very first acts as president was to issue a "full, complete and unconditional pardon" to anyone convicted of offenses related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

The move pardoned some 1,500 defendants, dozens of whom had prior criminal records.

That proclamation also commuted the sentences of 14 individuals charged in connection with Jan. 6 — all of whom were linked to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, extremist groups that planned elements of the attack.

That pardon came hours into Trump's second term. In his first term, Trump did not issue a pardon until August 2017, about half a year after taking office. Biden issued his first pardon more than a year into his presidency, in April 2022.

One hallmark of Trump's second term has been his focus on streamlining the federal workforce by creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The Elon Musk-led White House office has effectively dismantled multiple agencies, granted itself access to multiple sensitive data systems and engineered the firings of tens of thousands of federal workers.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in February that 75,000 federal workers took the first of two "Fork in the Road" buyout offers.

But it's hard to pinpoint just how many federal workers have left their jobs, either through layoffs or by choice.

Mass layoffs were conducted so haphazardly that some employees were later reinstated, or had their terminations reversed through various legal challenges. And, 100 days in, there's little evidence to support officials' claims that DOGE is saving agencies significant money, as NPR reports.

Trump's crackdown on immigration has been another defining feature of his term so far, as he ramps up border enforcement and mass deportations.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the month of March recorded just 7,180 southwest border crossings, the lowest number in history and a dramatic drop compared to the monthly average of the previous four years, 155,000.

Southwest border crossings were already on a downward trend when Trump took office in January, having declined throughout 2024 after a surge in 2023.

Immigration was a major focus of Trump's campaign, in which he vowed to carry out the largest deportation program in U.S. history. His administration has since arrested, detained and deported immigrants with and without legal status — though not without pushback, including from the Supreme Court.

Trump has also threatened, enacted and delayed a series of tariffs on goods from countries worldwide, with the ensuing uncertainty jolting global markets and sparking fears of a recession at home.

The Trump administration enacted a baseline 10% tariff on all imported goods, and 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum, cars and car parts. It also put country-specific tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, and has until early July to negotiate "reciprocal" tariffs with dozens of other countries.

As of mid-April, the Yale Budget Lab says, U.S. consumers face an average effective tariff rate of 28% — the highest it's been since 1901.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to "end inflation" starting on Day 1. It had been an issue throughout the Biden administration, reaching a 40-year high of 9% in June 2022, exacerbated by supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

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One hundred days in, however, inflation remains an issue. The annual inflation rate dropped to 2.4% in March, hitting a six-month low. But economists warn that relief could be short-lived, as fallout from Trump's trade war is expected to drive prices up in the coming months.

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