One good measure of the change in Washington during the last 100 days is the number of false and misleading statements made by the new president. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker review counted 67 of these up to April 26, including thrice-told whoppers like the claim that Republicans in Georgia had passed a law to shorten voting hours. (Another egregious claim was that under Trump federal contracts awarded to foreign companies had risen by almost a third.) What is notable about these lies, mistakes and gaffes is that only two of them warranted the Post’s “Four-Pinocchio” label. By contrast, the first 100 days of the Trump administration was littered with more than 500 false or misleading claims. Biden has also spoken 40 percent fewer words than Trump and tweeted 70 percent less. He has held two press conferences instead of nine and granted six interviews instead of 22.
The hundredth day of a presidency is an arbitrary milestone that harks back to the cyclonic early days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDF passed no fewer than 76 laws in his first three and a half months — no presidency since has been remotely as dynamic, but Biden’s ambitions clearly tend that way. Entering office with multiple crises awaiting him, Biden has made meaningful progress on all of them. Not only did he exceed the goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans, he surpassed the revised target of 200 million. He passed a $2 trillion American Rescue plan that addresses chronic healthcare, housing, food security challenges as well as poverty relief. Not perfectly, by any means, but noticeably better than anything proposed by his recent predecessors. He has even stimulated a modest economic rebound: the US economy is showing an annualized growth rate of almost six and a half percent in its first quarter.
When Biden has failed, he has tried to do so gracefully. His administration was not prepared for the flood of refugees at its southern border and it has sent mixed messages about the crisis. But it has created a task force to reunite children who were separated from their families, and the situation is improving. And although the Republicans have refused to support all of his ambitious plans, his avuncular demeanour towards them has remained unchanged. This is one of Biden’s real strengths, and it has bought him valuable time to make good on other promises. Tackling systemic racism — and in which his appeal to the Democratic base is strongest — remains practically insoluble. But his lack of stridency, his quiet get-the-job-done attitude has created goodwill that Trump never sought nor obtained.
In broad terms, Biden is taking a six trillion-dollar political gamble, pitching ambitious infrastructure, pandemic relief and social welfare programmes to America’s middle-class. He hopes to fund these plans through higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans. Impressive by themselves, Biden’s early initiatives seem even more daunting given the administration’s razor-thin legislative majorities, not to mention the sheer political nastiness bequeathed by Trump’s deeply polarizing presidency. President Obama made little progress chasing far more modest targets in similar circumstances. If Biden can deliver on half of his aspirations, his presidency will be transformative.
For most non-Americans the new president’s greatest achievement has been a change of tone. Biden doesn’t strut and fret like his buffoonish predecessor; he puts science first and tries to follow advice rather than simply impose his will. His first 100 days have been a period of unexpected calm after four stressful years. Whatever else he may do, or fail at, this change of manner will restore America’s dwindling soft power around the world. That alone is a considerable achievement for the first 100 days of any presidency.
