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What Trump has done in his first 100 days in office

Miriam Valverde
By Miriam Valverde April 26, 2017

President Donald Trump points to declines in illegal immigration, a new Supreme Court justice on the bench and rollbacks of policies set by his predecessor as examples of success within 100 days of his administration.

But he takes issue with the lack of credit he believes the media is giving him for his efforts.

"No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!," Trump tweeted April 21.

While the Trump administration hasn’t accomplished more than past administrations in the first 90 days, as he falsely claimed, it has delivered on some campaign promises.

Here’s an overview of what Trump has done so far and how he fares on PolitiFact’s Trump-O-Meter, which tracks more than 100 promises he made on the campaign trail.

Promises Kept, and a Compromise

One of Trump’s most significant achievements so far has been the nomination and confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as a justice on the Supreme Court. But it did not come easy.

Democrats filibustered debate on Gorsuch’s confirmation, provoking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to invoke the "nuclear option" and change procedural rules so that a simple majority of votes (51) rather than a supermajority (60) would be needed to end debate and move toward a final confirmation vote.

Trump also moved on his pledge to sign a requirement that for every new regulation, two be eliminated, claiming that many regulations are wasteful and hinder businesses’ growth.

On the economic front, Trump directed the United States’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and successfully intervened to keep a Carrier furnace-manufacturing plant in Indiana rather than it relocating to Mexico (though jobs saved were fewer than what Trump claimed).

About a month into his presidency, Trump also nullified Obama-era gun control order that required the Social Security Administration to share records of individuals who get Disability Insurance benefits, information that would eventually show up on their background checks when they sought to buy guns. The Trump administration said it was getting rid of that rule because it "could endanger the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens."

Trump has made good on a campaign promise to place a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying for foreign governments. The ban is for executive branch appointees but includes a provision that would allow the president or a designee to waive the restriction.

We’ve rated as Compromise a similar promise to ban White House and Congressional leaders from lobbying government for five years. As a candidate, Trump said this would be reached through legislation. No such legislation has passed, but he signed an executive order to stop White House officials from lobbying. However, that restriction only applies to their former agency, and congressional officials are still not beholden to the five-year ban.

Promises In the Works

President Donald Trump signs Executive Orders in the Hall of Heroes at the Department of Defense Friday, Jan. 27, 2017 in Arlington, Va. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS) 

Immigration

Through an executive order, Trump pushed forward one of his signature immigration promises: a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump insists Mexico will end up footing the bill, but the money still isn’t there, and the sovereign nation has not agreed to pay. It’s still to be determined if Congress will grant Trump $999 million for the planning, design and construction of the first installment of the wall (his supplemental budget request for fiscal year 2017), or the $2.6 billion requested for fiscal 2018, which would cover costs for the wall and other border security.

Trump also has expanded deportation priorities, giving immigration officials a longer list of categories of people who can be removed from the country. He also directed departments within his administration to enforce existing sanctions against countries that won’t take back their nationals.

Another executive order also paved way for the hiring of an additional 15,000 employees to carry out immigration laws. Trump’s order authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to hire 10,000 more U.S. Customs and Immigration officers and 5,000 more border patrol agents.

Trump has also spoken in favor of a merit-based immigration system and has met with Republican lawmakers who have introduced legislation that mirror his goal to limit legal immigration. A new "Buy American and Hire American" executive order directs his Cabinet to suggest reforms for the H-1B visa program that allows employers to temporarily hire foreign workers, advancing his promise to hire American workers first.

Defense

Before getting to the White House Trump did not want to talk about a plan to defeat ISIS  because he feared it would tip off terrorists. But once he became president, he requested the Defense Department secretary create a preliminary draft of that plan. Trump received a framework in late February.

Trump has also sought money to rebuild what he’s called a "depleted military." His budget proposal for the Defense Department asks for an additional $54 billion above the budget cap, pushing forward his promise to end the defense sequester.

On an international scale, Trump has not backed away from his promise to get NATO allies to increase their defense spending. He’s highlighted this issue in meetings with Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general and with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Other issues

The United States, Mexico and Canada still have not formally sat down for talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, but Trump’s administration is working on procedural steps to get there, his Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has said.

In contrast to the Obama administration that opposed the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline amid environmental concerns, Trump favors the pipeline, saying it would create 28,000 jobs. Within his first week in office, Trump signed a memorandum to allow the operator, TransCanada to re-submit a permit application for the pipeline to cross from Western Canada to the United States and transport more than 800,000 barrels of oil a day. The State Department issued that permit March 24.

Trump is also making headway on promises to scale back the Education Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, as his fiscal year 2018 budget request for both is 13 percent and 31 percent, respectively, below last year’s levels.

We’ll continue to monitor Trump’s actions and how they reflect his campaign promises. Take a look at more promises we’ve rated In the Works and at all the promises we’re tracking.

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What Trump has done in his first 100 days in office