The Fulcrum strives to approach news stories with an open mind and skepticism, striving to present our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, we remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.
How has Trump's first 100 days compared to previous presidents, with respect to congressional legislation?
In the first 100 days of his second term (2025), President Donald Trump signed only five bills into law, marking the lowest legislative output for a new president in over 70 years. This is a significant decline from his first term in 2017, during which he signed 28 bills within the same period.
Trump's second-term legislative record, so far, is notably sparse compared to his predecessors.
- Joe Biden (2021): Signed 11 bills into law in his first 100 days.
- Barack Obama (2009): Signed 14 bills, including the landmark American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
- George W. Bush (2001): Signed seven bills, including tax cuts and education reforms.
- Bill Clinton (1993): Signed 24 bills, including the Family and Medical Leave Act.
How many executive orders has Trump signed to date in his second term and how does this compare to previous presidents for their first 100 days in office?
While legislative activity was limited, President Trump issued a record-breaking number of executive orders in his first 100 days of the second term, totaling 124. This surpasses the previous record held by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who issued 99 executive orders in his first 100 days, and far surpasses the number of executive orders issued in the first 100 days in both his first administration (which was 33 executive orders) and his predecessor’s term.
- Joe Biden (2021): 42
- Barack Obama (2009): 19
- George W. Bush (2001): 11
- Bill Clinton (1993): 13
The executive orders focused on various areas, including federal budget cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and immigration policies. Notably, President Trump declared multiple national emergencies to implement policies without congressional approval, a move that has raised concerns among legal scholars about the balance of powers.
How many pardons has President Trump issued so far in his second term and how does this compare to previous presidents in their first 100 days?
Trump has issued over 1,500 pardons so far in his second term, including a controversial mass pardon of individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. This is an unprecedented number, compared to previous presidents in their first 100 days. None of the past five administrations (including the first Trump administration) made any pardons or commutations in their first 100 days in office. Note that this is not to say that there have not been many pardons and commutations made throughout their full administrations, just the first 100 days.
Trump's approach to pardons has been far more aggressive than his predecessors, particularly in granting clemency to political allies and controversial figures. His actions have sparked significant debate over the use of presidential pardon power.
How many legal actions have been filed against the Trump administration in the first 100 days and how does this compare to previous administrations?
As of April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump's administration has faced over 200 legal challenges during the first 100 days of his second term. This marks a significant increase when compared to previous administrations; the current number of legal challenges is also largely proportionate to the increased number of executive orders issued by Trump.
- Biden (2021): Approximately 20 lawsuits were initiated by states and organizations, focusing on environmental and public health COVID policies.
- Trump (2017): There were around 50 legal actions, notably against the travel ban and immigration enforcement measures.
- Obama (2009): There were fewer than 10 significant legal challenges, mainly concerning early executive orders and regulatory changes.
- Bush (2001): Minimal legal opposition in the initial 100 days, with most lawsuits emerging later in his term.
How many deportations have there been during the Trump administration so far and how does this compare to previous presidents?
Despite campaign promises of mass deportations, the administration's first-month deportation figures were lower than those during the same period in Biden's final year and the lowest monthly level since 2000. Legal challenges and international resistance have complicated enforcement efforts.
Data on deportations for previous presidential terms during their first 100 days could not be found. However, given the priority President Trump has put on mass deportation, comparisons of the total number of deportations within entire presidential terms are already being made with previous administrations—the numbers are there for those who care to keep track in the next three (plus) years of the Trump administration.
- Biden (2021-2024): 4.6 million deportations
- Trump (2017-2020): 2.1 million deportations
- Obama (2009-2016): 5.3 million deportations (note two terms)
David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
image of U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed on a digital billboard in Times Square in New York on April 8, 2026.
Trump is stuck between two realities. Neither serves the American people
Normally, I worry that events may overtake a column. But not so with the Iran war.
I don’t worry about running afoul of a headline or Truth Social post from the president because what is said about the situation is no longer very relevant to the reality.
On April 8, Nick Catoggio, my Dispatch colleague, dubbed an earlier stoppage with Iran “Schrödinger’s ceasefire.” This was a reference to the famous thought experiment by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who was trying to explain the weirdness of “superpositionality” in quantum physics. A cat in a box is both dead and alive at the same time until you open the box. Schrödinger meant to illustrate the absurdity of the idea that particles aren’t any one thing, but a “cloud of probabilities.”
The Trump administration is stuck in a word cloud of probabilities of his own making. The war is over. The war is on. The war isn’t a war. We have a deal, but we don’t have a deal, but we’re about to have a deal. We destroyed Iran’s military. No, we left it intact. We want regime change. No we don’t. We already accomplished it. We “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program a year ago. We had to go to war in February to prevent nuclear war. The Strait of Hormuz is open, closed, or something in-between. No deal without “unconditional surrender.” Let’s make a deal!
This everything-all-at-once vibe can be disorienting, particularly since most Americans didn’t have a war with Iran on their bingo cards until the shooting had already started. President Trump didn’t prepare the country or consult with Congress beforehand because he thought it would all be a smashing success in a matter of weeks.
The miscalculation that started it all: killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of Iran’s senior leadership, on the first day of the war. To “the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand,” Trump announced on Feb. 28. “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
I support regime change in Iran and shed no tears for Khamenei or his goons. But when you start a war by killing the regime’s top leaders, it’s not unreasonable for the remaining ones to conclude that you really intend regime change.
Khamenei was a murderous fanatic, but he was a fairly cautious one. He liked to threaten closing the Strait of Hormuz or attacking our regional allies, but he was reluctant to actually do it, fearing it would invite a regime change war. The mullahs and IRGC goons believed, not unreasonably, that if they lost their grip on power, they’d be lynched by the Iranian people they’ve brutalized for decades.
By starting with a regime change war, Trump removed any reason for the regime not to go for broke. When you have nothing to lose — particularly when you are a millenarian religious fanatic — a Persian Alamo strategy makes a lot of sense.
So Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and attacked its neighbors.
But it turns out this wasn’t the Alamo. In the contest of wills, Trump blinked. The Iranian regime’s tolerance for punishment proved — so far — to be greater than Trump’s and that of our gulf allies. Militarily we could finish the job, but that would require ground troops and much greater economic turmoil. In a conflict Trump launched unilaterally without the prior support of Congress, NATO or the American people, Trump doesn’t have the political capital for that.
But that’s only half the problem. Trump wants the war over, but he doesn’t want to pay — militarily, economically, politically — what that would cost. So he wants to make a deal that ends it. But there is no deal available that wouldn’t come at an equally undesirable cost. Any deal that looks like what President Obama struck with the Iranians would be too embarrassing to bear. But the Iranians are convinced that they can get just such a deal, and they’re willing to drag things out as long as it takes.
The result: Trump’s in a box of his own making. He thinks he can talk his way out by simply asserting a reality that doesn’t exist. When the financial markets get nervous, he announces a breakthrough that is, at best, a possibility. When the Iranians agree to a deal that looks similar to one Obama might negotiate, Trump goes back to his threats.
It can’t go on forever. But I’m sure it’ll last until long after this column is forgotten.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.