The 100-Day Challenge: Biden And Trump Side By Side

Is anyone surprised that, after 100 days in office, President Trump has the lowest job approval rating in 80 years, with only 39% of Americans saying they support the job he’s doing and a staggering 72% saying they think his economic policies will cause a recession?

Maybe not. After all, this is the guy who said he was going to cure inflation on day one and then declared a trade war with the rest of the world as our prices keep going up.

Now, compare that to April 30, 2021, when under President Joe Biden’s leadership, we were emerging from a global pandemic, our economy was growing and nearly two-thirds of Americans said our country was headed in the right direction, giving President Biden a 53% job-approval rating.

Let me repeat that.

100 days after President Biden took office, Biden had a 53% job approval rating and 64% of Americans were optimistic about the future.

100 days after President Trump took office, Trump had a 39% job approval rating and 72% of Americans think he’s going to cause a recession. In addition, 62% say prices are going up on the things they need, 65% say Trump isn’t complying with federal court orders and another 62% say his administration doesn’t respect the rule of law.

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, President Biden helped create over 1.5 million new jobs in his first 100 days, while Trump has laid off at least 121,000 federal workers.

President Biden signed an executive order to better protect students from sexual harassment and discrimination. President Trump and the MAGA “war on woke” has done everything it can to repeal those protections.

President Biden banned the federal government from using private prisons citing inhumane conditions and constitutional violations. President Trump has dropped all pretense of following the constitution and sent folks to prison in El Salvador without so much as a hearing.

President Biden protected students by pausing student loan payments during the pandemic. Trump threatened to lock students up if they protested his administration.

Biden required executive branch appointees to sign an ethics pledge barring them from acting in personal interest and requiring them to uphold the independence of the Department of Justice. Trump rescinded that order on his first day.

President Biden directed FEMA to reimburse states to fully cover the cost for National Guard personnel and emergency supplies. President Trump won’t even send FEMA aid to Arkansas because he doesn’t think a tornado is a natural disaster.

In his first 100 days, President Biden raised the minimum wage for federal contract workers, led the charge to expand voter registration and protect the right to vote, protected free speech and the right to protest, expanded access to healthcare, strengthened the Buy American program and collective bargaining power all while passing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

In his first 100 days, Trump pardoned white supremacists and insurrectionists, ended federal prohibitions of sex discrimination, launched reckless ICE raids which, among other things, have falsely arrested American citizens, and shut down the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. He reversed a 60-year-old, Johnson-era executive order that prohibited federal contractors from engaging in employment discrimination, stopped all Department of Justice civil rights investigations and police reform agreements, including the agreements in Louisville, KY and Minneapolis, MN, reached following the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. He defied orders from federal judges while executing the Project 2025 playbook he claimed to know nothing about…and that’s not all.

That’s a pretty clear comparison if you asked me as well as a clear explanation of why, less than 100 days after taking office, Trump’s approval rating is in the toilet.

Meanwhile, the price of eggs is still going up.

Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @antjuansea.

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