Halfway through his first term as Vladimir Putin’s Executive Assistant in Charge of U.S. Operations, Donald Trump claims he has accomplished more than any administration in history, including the highly successful Cash Money Records administration that took over for the ’99 and 2000s.
We wanted to see if this was true. So we sifted through all of the measurables from the first two years of both presidents in an attempt to quantify their presidencies.
Presidential Approval
We used Five Thirty-Eight’s combined poll averages to determine each president’s approval rating after 741 days in office. Here’s what we discovered.
APPROVAL RATING
- Obama: On Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2011, Barack Obama’s approval rating was 50.2 percent.
- Trump: On Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, Donald Trump’s approval rating is 39.6 percent.
DISAPPROVAL RATING
- Obama: 43.3 percent
- Trump: 55.9 percent
NET APPROVAL RATING
- Obama: 6.9 percent
- Trump: -16.3
Winner: Barack Obama was far more popular. Donald Trump’s net approval rating (the numerical difference between the president’s approval rating and his disapproval rating) is lower than any president in modern history.
Economy
We looked at the data for the stock market, unemployment numbers and GDP growth.
Stock Market
- Obama: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5,632.09 points, or 42.78 percent, during Obama’s first 741 days in office.
- Trump: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 7,219.45 points or 28 percent during Trump’s first 741 days in office.
Unemployment rate:
- Obama: Unemployment rate: +1.3 points
- Trump: Unemployment rate: -0.8
Black Unemployment rate:
- Obama: Black unemployment rose 3.1 points during Obama’s first two years in office.
- Trump: Black unemployment fell by 1.1 points during Trump’s first two years in office.
Real Gross Domestic Product Growth:
- Obama: Real GDP dropped during Obama’s first year before surging back to 2.5 percent his second year in office.
- Trump: The real GDP grew both years under Trump but not as much as Obama’s second year in office.
Winner: The economy has remained consistently strong under Trump. Coming out of a recession, the economy struggled under Obama’s first year. While Obama managed to dig his way out of a recession, Trump inherited a strong economy from his predecessor and has managed not to mess it up. Trump wins a close one.
Legislative Accomplishments
Here is a list of Obama’s major legislative and policy accomplishments:
- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Passed $825-billion stimulus that included tax cuts and spending increases.
- Lily Ledbetter Act: Signed law making it easier to sue employers for wage discrimination.
- Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act: Signed hate crimes legislation.
- Dodd-Frank: Signed Wall Street reform law that created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
- Affordable Care Act: Provided health care for millions of Americans.
- New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New Start): Cut nuclear weapons in Russia and U.S.
- Supreme Court Nomination: Eleanor Kagan was nominated and confirmed to the SCOTUS
- Repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”: Signed law that replaced Clinton-era restrictions and basically allowed gays to be out in the military.
Here is a list of Donald Trump’s major legislative and policy accomplishments:
- Tax Cut and Jobs Act: Signed a bill that cut corporate taxes and regressively benefits the wealthiest Americans.
- FIRST STEP ACT: Signed bill with significant criminal justice reform.
- Supreme Court: Nominated and confirmed two Supreme Court justices.
- Federal Judges: Nominated and confirmed more federal judges than any President in recent history.
- Travel Ban: Banned travel from six majority-Muslim countries.
- Transgender Military Ban: Banned transgender soldiers from serving in the military.
Winner: Obama. Trump’s only legislative accomplishment was FIRST STEP and a gift to wealthy citizens. The rest were executive orders or judicial nominations.
Foreign Policy
World Leaders Publicly Insulted
- Obama: N/A
- Trump: Angela Merkel of Germany; Emmanuel Macron of France; Malcolm Turnbull of Australia; Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un; Xi Jinping of China; all of NATO and the entire UN
World Approval
- Obama: According to Gallup, after his first two years in office, 47 percent of people around the world approved of Barack Obama. Obama had a particularly high approval rating in European countries.
- Trump: Trump’s approval rating remains at 30 percent. Trump’s rating is even lower in the stronger EU countries.
Winner: Obama was never laughed at by the entire United Nations, no one ever called him a “dotard,” and he did not back out of a nuclear deal.
Other numbers:
- Nobel Peace Prizes: Obama 1; Trump 0
- White supremacist riot deaths: Obama 0; Trump 1
- Days playing golf: Obama 60; Trump 154
- Number of people fired or quit administration: Obama 2; Trump 42
- Times laughed at on world stage: Obama 0; Trump 2
- Number of times he called someone’s mother a “bitch”: Obama 0; Trump 1
- Paid-off prostitutes: Obama 0; Trump 2 (and counting)
- Number of times accused of being a Muslim Jihadist from Kenya: Obama 1,039,001; Trump: 0
- Number of times Justice Department opened an investigation to ascertain if the president was a foreign operative: Obama 0; Donald Trump: 1,928
- Number of campaign officials indicted by the FBI: Obama 0; Trump 6
- Number of times visited by Kanye West: Obama 0; Trump 1
Overall Winner:
Obama accomplished more legislatively than Trump. Obama was more respected on the world stage. More Americans approved of Obama’s handling of the presidency. Obama was not the subject of a criminal investigation.
The only feather in Trump’s cap is the economy, and even that is questionable due to steady growth during the Obama years. While he still can’t compete with the Cash Money Records administration of the ’99 and 2000, we still must put some respeck on his name.