Donald Trump Is Most Successful President After Six Months Since FDR

Newsweek

19-07-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The first six months of Donald Trump's second presidency have been the most "successful" of any American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to an analysis conducted by Newsweek using AI.
The model defines success in terms of legislative accomplishments, taking into account what degree of control over Congress each president's party enjoyed over the relevant period. Speaking with Newsweek, one political scientist said Trump's legislative accomplishments—such as his flagship One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a tax and spending package—are "reflective of the partisan support in Congress."
Why It Matters
Trump was inaugurated as president for the second time on January 20 after winning the 2024 presidential election on pledges to crack down on illegal immigration, fight "woke" culture and slash certain taxes.
The model indicates that Trump has been successful at getting many of his priorities passed into law, greatly aided by the slim majority Republicans enjoy in both chambers of Congress and by relatively little impediment from the conservative-dominated Supreme Court.
What To Know
Newsweek asked ChatGPT to rank the accomplishments of 20th and 21st century U.S. presidents in their first six months, taking account of the level of support they enjoyed in Congress.
The model gave Trump an overall score of "very high," thanks to legislation such as the One Big Beautiful Bill and Laken Riley Acts.
On July 4, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law after it narrowly passed both the House and Senate. The legislation slashed certain taxes, including extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts; raised the U.S. debt ceiling; increased spending on the military and border control; and cut some funding from Medicare and other welfare programs. According to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the package will add $3.3 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade.
President Donald Trump speaking to the media outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 15.
President Donald Trump speaking to the media outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 15.
Anna Moneymaker/GETTY
Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on January 29, with the bill taking its name from a Georgia college student who was murdered by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant in February 2024. The legislation requires noncitizens charged or convicted of a range of offenses, including theft and assaulting a police officer, to be held without bond. It also gives states more freedom to sue the Department of Homeland Security over immigration enforcement.
The AI analysis concluded that the first six months of Trump's second term were the most productive since Roosevelt's first term in 1933. In his first 100 days, Roosevelt passed 15 New Deal statutes, including the Emergency Banking Act.
Third in the AI's calculation was Biden's first 100 days, which saw the package of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan designed to combat the economic effects of coronavirus, along with the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. This package was passed despite the Democrats and Republicans being tied in terms of 50 affiliated Senators each, giving then-Vice President Kamala Harris a tiebreaking vote.
At the other end of the spectrum, the AI gave the worst score for the first six months to Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, arguing that he passed "no major statue before March 1902."
Bill Clinton was also ranked poorly, with the AI saying his only major legislative reform during his first six months was the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act.
What People Are Saying
Dafydd Townley, an American politics expert at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K., told Newsweek: "While Donald Trump has achieved some legislative successes, they are more reflective of the partisan support in Congress. Not every president in the modern era has had such a one-dimensional party to support his legislative agenda. The Democratic Party has long been a coalition of diverse voices, making it difficult to appease every member of Congress. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama found this out during their first term in office.
"Until the George W. Bush era, Republicans failed to hold both House and Senate majorities in the modern era, apart from two years in the first Eisenhower administration. Even during the Bush years, control of the Senate shifted back and forth on several occasions, making legislative efforts difficult, if not impossible. Reagan's ability to bridge the partisan divide and work with congressional Democrats on specific bills, such as Social Security reform and immigration policies, suggests a White House capable of achieving ideological success despite congressional barriers. The same applies to Richard Nixon, who gained considerable legislative success despite having a Democrat-controlled House and Senate when he entered office.
"Democrat presidents of the early Cold War had to contend with conservative Southern Democrats in Congress, despite Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. These long-serving members dominated congressional committees, thereby limiting the legislative success of John F. Kennedy, for example. The successful passage of a huge number of bills as part of his Great Society program is a testimony to Lyndon Johnson's management of Congress.
"Trump has been much more reliant on the use of executive orders to implement Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for Trump's second term in office. The Trump-inspired legislation in this Congress is more likely to consolidate power within the executive branch and lead to less congressional interference in the president's management of the White House and its agencies."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen how successful the second Trump administration will be in passing legislation through Congress beyond its first six months.
If Republicans lose control of either the Senate or House in the 2026 midterm elections, it will make it significantly harder to get the party's bills approved by Congress.