Franklin D. Roosevelt got more done in his first 100 days in office than any president before him or any since. He took office in the depths of the Great Depression, enacting a dizzying number of laws and signing executive orders to stabilize the economy with the New Deal.Roosevelt is the reason people focus on the first 100 days. When presidents take office, they have the most political capital to enact their agenda. Studies have found that it's the most productive time for legislative action.Of course, presidents don't have total control over their time in office. Ronald Reagan was shot during his first 100 days and spent the last month in the hospital. Bill Clinton's first months were distracted by the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" military policy, then the fatal raid in Waco, Texas. George W. Bush bombed Iraq, and Barack Obama had to save Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates.Donald Trump's 100th day in office is Saturday. How has his tenure compared with that of the last three presidents'We looked at how many executive orders they signed, how many laws they enacted, how the economy performed, where they traveled, what their approval ratings were, and, for fun, how often they golfed.Here's how they stack up:SEE ALSO:Trump signed 78 executive actions in 100 days ' here's what each one doesDON'T MISS:MEET THE NEW EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Here's who Trump has chosen for senior leadership positionsMore laws, fewer wordsThe number of bills signed into law is just part of the story. The vast differences between the number of pages or words those bills contained start to reveal what types of laws they were and what effects they ultimately had.According to Josh Tauberer, founder of the legislative database GovTrack, bills with more words generally create government programs, and those with fewer are often rolling back regulations or programs. Obama's stimulus package to keep the government funded had 358,113, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act had 294,307.Trump signed a NASA bill to send humans to Mars, and a resolution to keep the government funded and prevent a shutdown for another week. The bill tied to his effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) failed to get a vote in the House."Either way, it helps to keep in mind that neither Trump nor Obama wrote the laws they signed," Tauberer told Business Insider. "They can only sign the bills that Congress gives them, and although presidents like to take lots of credit, they actually have an insignificant role in the passage of most of them."(The White House's press release touting Trump's accomplishments in 100 days versus those of his predecessors cited the wrong number of laws for Obama and Clinton. It may have relied on a FiveThirtyEight article that used data from a study that measured laws passed during Congress's first 100 days, not the presidents'.)A heavy use of executive powerTrump said Obama was abusing his power by signing so many executive orders. But in just 100 days, Trump has signed nearly as many as Obama averaged in a year.Most of Trump's executive actions have reversed Obama-era regulations and efforts to protect the environment.Scholars have typically used the number of executive orders per term to measure how much presidents have exercised their power. George Washington signed only eight in his entire time in office, according to the American Presidency Project, while FDR penned over 3,700.Here's a quick guide to every executive order Trump signed in his first 100 days A nearly full CabinetWhile Trump complained on Twitter in February that "obstruction by Democrats" had left his Cabinet unfilled, he has more members confirmed than Clinton did at 100 days.But Trump hasn't nominated 465 of the 556executive-branch jobs that require Senate confirmation, leaving acting officials in those posts. The Senate can't vote to confirm his officials until Trump appoints them, and experts warnthat Trump may not be able to enact his agenda until he has his appointees in place.Here's who Trump has chosen for senior leadership positionsSee the roles still left unfilled hereSee the rest of the story at Business Insider
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