The First 100 Days
The first 100 days is a test of the president’s ability to quickly fulfill campaign promises and policy goals. While each president’s first 100 days is unique, there are also similarities between them. This section explores similarities and differences between the directives presidents issue in their first 100 days.
What is the First 100 Days?
The first 100 days of a president’s administration is a time when presidents look like leaders. Using directives, presidents wield power and control over the executive branch. Presidents hit the ground running using their directives to fulfill campaign promises and set policy in motion.
Fulfilling Campaign Promises
Presidents want to quickly deliver on their campaign promises as they get their new administration up and running. Legislation can take time for Congress to approve but presidents can act alone relying on existing authority to issue executive orders, proclamations, memoranda, determinations, and national security directives to get the ball rolling.
Nixon
promised the public he would address urban blight, rising inflation, and decentralize the federal government and on the recommendation from his transition team, he issued directives soon after his inauguration to fulfill them. On January 23, 1969 he issued EO 11452 creating an interagency cabinet-level Council for Urban Affairs to address urban blight. He issued EO 11453 creating an interagency Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy was created on January 24, 1969. The Office of Intergovernmental Relations (OGR) was established in EO 11455 which he issued on February 14, 1969.
Obama
During his 2008 campaign, President Obama stated his opposition to prisoner torture and imprisonment promising to adhere to the Geneva Convention and close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. On January 22, 2009, two days after his inauguration, President Obama signed three executive orders in quick succession to keep his promises. He issued EO 13491 to ensure lawful interrogation consistent with the Geneva Convention; EO 13492 to arrange for the closing and disposition of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base; and EO 13493 to review detention policy options for closing Guantanamo Bay and changing the government’s detainee and interrogation policies.
Revoking the Directives of Prior Presidents
Revoking the directives of the prior president is a necessary and vital step when incoming presidents of the opposing party seek to fulfill their campaign promises. In recent times, the transitions from the Trump-Biden-Trump administrations reveals the pattern that has developed. President Trump’s directives emphasized immigration enforcement and deemphasized racial equity. The newly inaugurated President Biden revoked President Trump’s directives to expand immigration and promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Reelected for a second non-consecutive term, President Trump revoked President Biden’s immigration and DEI policy and reinstated and reinforced policy from his first administration.
This pattern is not unique. When President Obama sought to reform interrogation techniques and close detention facilities, he overturned the policy adopted by President George W. Bush. EO 13491 which ensured lawful interrogation consistent with the Geneva Convention revoked the policy and directives of EO 13440 of July 20, 2007 as well as all executive directives, orders, and regulations inconsistent with this order, including but not limited to those issued to or by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from September 11, 2001, to January 20, 2009, concerning detention or the interrogation of detained individuals, are revoked to the extent of their inconsistency with this order. administration by begins with overturning the prior president’s policy.
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Proclamation 4667—National Energy Supply Shortage July 10, 1979 The temperature restrictions provoked an uproar from retailers and other businesses when President Carter first imposed them on a nine month emergency basis because of the fuel shortage that caused long gasoline lines in April 1979. He extended the restrictions last May and again Jan. 16 on the Energy Department's recommendation. Proclamation 4813—Second Continuation of Emergency Building Temperature Restrictions January 13, 1981.
In the Presidential campaign Mr. Reagan had said that the restriction had resulted in buildings being ''too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.'' Although restrictions on building temperatures may result in reduced consumption of fuel, I have concluded that the regulatory scheme designed to accomplish that objective imposes an excessive regulatory burden and that voluntary restraint and market incentives will achieve substantially the same benefit without the regulatory cost.
Proclamation 4820—Rescission of Emergency Building Temperature Restrictions February 17, 1981 Emergency Building Temperature Restrictions were first implemented on July 16, 1979, by Proclamation No. 4667. They were twice extended, first by Proclamation No. 4750 and second by Proclamation No. 4813. Those restrictions set forth in Energy Conservation Contingency Plan No. 2 (44 FR 12911, March 8, 1979) are effective until October 16, 1981, unless earlier rescinded.
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Example
Controlling Government Spending
Trump 2.0
An important starting point of the President’s administration is gaining control of government spending. President Trump’s novel approach in at the start of his second non-consecutive term was to issue EO 14151 and EO 14169 to effectively freeze all federal assistance until the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and agency heads could assess their consistency with the administration’s goals. A January 27, 2025 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which was later rescinded, reinforced that approach. President Trump however was not the first to issue directives at the start of their administration to initiate ways to reduce the the prior administration’s budget.
Nixon
President Nixon issued a Memorandum on January 27, 1969 ordering the heads of executive departments and agencies to promptly conduct a review of the budget requests sent to the Congress by the outgoing administration which he used to revise the fiscal 1970 budget proposed by the Johnson administration.
Carter
President Carter took immediate action by reforming the method for determining agency budgets in the Memorandum he issued on February 14, 1977 requiring the heads of executive departments and agencies to zero-base budgeting (ZBB) for Fiscal Year 1979. ZBB required them to justify every expense starting from a “zero base” rather than simply adjusting previous spending from the prior administration. Although a key goal of ZBB was to force agencies to justify every dollar, it was difficult to implement and offered only modest benefits.
Downsizing the Federal Workforce
Trump 2.0
Another way of controlling government is by reducing the size of government. President Trump’s Memorandum of January 20, 2025 to the heads of executive departments and agencies ordering a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees throughout the executive branch was only the first step in an effort to downsize the federal government. It was a step that President Trump had taken during his first administration by using a Memorandum on January 25, 2017, initiating a federal civilian hiring freeze throughout the federal government. However, 2025 looked much different and as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sought to carry out the President’s mission to reduce the size of government, agencies were disbanded, there were massive firings, layoffs, and voluntary departures. President Trump’s EO 14210 of February 11, 2025, sanctioned the implementation of DOGE’s workforce optimization initiative and showed what presidents can do using executive power.
Reagan
While President Trump’s hiring freeze may have been the most dramatic to date, it was not the first. In 1981, President Reagan instituted a hiring freeze on Inauguration Day issuing a Memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies ordering a strict freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees throughout the executive branch. The hiring freeze was a first step towards controlling the growth and size of government and stopping the drain on the economy by the public sector and gaining control of a national budget that was out of control.
Clinton
President Clinton’s Memorandum of January 20, 2025 to the heads of executive departments and agencies ordering a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees throughout the executive branch was only the first step in an effort to downsize the federal government. It was a step that President Trump had taken during his first administration by using a Memorandum on January 25, 2017, initiating a federal civilian hiring freeze throughout the federal government. However, 2025 looked much different and as DOGE sought to carry out the President’s mission to reduce the size of government, agencies were disbanded, there were massive firings, layoffs, and voluntary departures. President Trump’s EO 14210 of February 11, 2025, sanctioned the implementation of DOGE’s workforce optimization initiative and showed what presidents can do using executive power.