Trump's First 100 Days: What He Delivered, Where He Fell Short, How Markets Reacted

Here's a look at where Trump stands with his election promises, voter polls, signing of laws and executive orders and the stock market after his first 100 days.

Promises Made, Promises Kept?: Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Trump made numerous campaign promises, including some that he said he would ensure were completed within his first 100 days.

Here were some of the larger campaign issues and where Trump stands today.

A scorecard from the Associated Press grades Trump's campaign promises as four kept, 15 in progress and five as "it's complicated. The scorecard above not counting the others category, shows two promises kept and three as in process or not done.

Read Also: Trump Says ‘I Run The Country And The World,’ Yet Polls Plummet

To put the figure into perspective, the report highlights that in the first 100 days of his last presidency, Trump had signed 28 bills into law.

The White House likes to highlight the number of executive orders signed by Trump in the first day closing in on the total number signed by President Joe Biden (162) during his entire presidency, but some presidents don't sign as many executive orders and focus on signing bills into law.

Executive orders are used to tell federal agencies how to enforce laws as long as it does not violate the Constitution or any federal laws, which in some cases have already been tested by the courts.

Voter Polls: Trump won the 2024 presidential election in both the Electoral College vote (312 to 226) and the popular vote (49.8% to 48.3%). Trump also has majority control in both the House and Senate.

While Trump may have been popular with around 50% or more of voters ahead of the 2024 election, he has lost support in the first 100 days. Along with losing support and having lower favorability ratings, Trump is also losing approval in key categories like handling of the economy.

A recent Morning Consult poll found that 49% of voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, which marks his worst net approval rating in the category.

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll uses words like "chaotic" and "scary" to describe Trump's first 100 days in office. In the poll 66% of voters say Trump's second term is "chaotic," while 59% say the second term is "scary."

When asked about specific issues in the poll, voters gave Trump negative ratings across all categories, with his actions on immigration getting the highest approval rating of 47%. Trump's overall approval rating in the poll was 42%.

A newer Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that rising costs and Trump's handling of the economy hurt his overall approval rating.

In the poll, around 60% of voters said they disapproved of Trump's handling of the economy, with nearly 75% predicting that tariffs will increase consumer prices.

Tariffs were negative in the poll, with 52% of voters saying they are against any tariffs and 59% of voters saying Trump took tariffs too far.

Trump didn't win the youth vote, but was able to take a larger percentage than Republican candidates had in recent presidential elections. Those same younger voters (aged 18 to 29) are now speaking out about the future of the country.

A new Harvard Youth Poll found that only 15% of young voters believe the nation is headed in the right direction. Fifty-one percent of the voters said the country is on the wrong track, with 31% currently unsure.

Trump's approval rating in the youth poll recently stood at 31%.

Stock Market Performance: The S&P 500, tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), is down 7.8% from its closing price on January 17, when Biden was still in office, to its current price.

The ETF closed at $597.58 on Jan. 17 before opening at $600.12 on Jan. 21 with optimism from investors for Trump's next term.

The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, is down 9.5% over Trump's first 99 days in office. The ETF and index have fallen on tariff concerns, hurting the technology sector hard.

With Trump's first 100 days nearly complete, the president is setting new milestones, but not in a good way.  

According to CNBC, the 7.9% drop in the S&P 500 through Friday was the worst start to a four-year term since Richard Nixon in 1973, citing data from CFRA Research.

In 1973, the S&P 500 fell 9.9% in the first 100 days of Nixon’s presidency. For comparison, the S&P 500 has an average return of 2.1% in the first 100 days of a presidency, dating back to 1944.

Also, keep in mind that recent presidents had some of the best stock market performances in their first 100 days in office. Here are the recent returns and their rating since 1944:

  • 2009: Barack Obama, +8.4%, fourth best
  • 2013: Barack Obama, +7.5%, sixth best
  • 2017: Donald Trump, +5.0%, seventh best
  • 2021: Joe Biden, +8.5%, third best
  • 2025: Donald Trump, -7.9%, twentieth and second worst

Markets traded higher in November and December on the heels of Trump's win, with some of the largest companies in the world hitting new all-time highs. January and February also saw gains after Trump took office.

Attention shifted towards economic policies and foreign in March and April, with markets diving in April after Trump's tariff announcement.

What's Next: Trump's first 100 days represent a portion of the 1,461 days the president would have under his current term, or roughly 6.8%.

While the time marks only a small portion of Trump's term, the first 100 days are important because they often reveal what the entire four-year term could be about and how things may play out.

Industry experts believe that Trump and his administration have a "high tolerance" for market pain and are mainly focused on resetting the economy.

Trump and his team have oftentimes said there could be short-term pain in consumer prices and stock market gains, which is all a part of a plan to make Americans rich in the future.

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