Donald Trump by the numbers
It’s day 375 of Donald Trump’s presidency. (It seems two or three times longer than that.)
Even for his most ardent supporters, it hasn’t exactly been a joyride.
But is the tale-of-the-tape for Mr. Trump’s first 365 days in office.
48,000,000: That’s the number of Americans who tuned into his first joint speech to Congress last February 28th. Much smaller than Barack Obama’s first speech (52 million), and much, much smaller than Bill Clinton’s 66.7 million.
36 percent — That’s the lowest first year job approval in Gallup polling of every president going back to the presidency of Harry S. Truman.
By comparison, Barack Obama’s first year job approval was a respectable 50%.
One — That’s the number of scheduled news conferences Trump held during his first year in office.
By contrast, every president since Richard Nixon held more first-year news conferences than our current president. Barack Obama held seven of them.
2,569 — That’s the number of tweets Trump posted starting on the day he was sworn-in.
That’s roughly seven tweets a day.
28 — That’s the number of times Trump used the word “collusion” in those 2,569 tweets.
Zero! That’s how many times he bothered to visit combat troops during his first 365 days in office.
That’s a rarity for a first-year president. Especially for one who claims to care so much about the troops.
President Obama made his first visit to a warzone (Iraq) just three months after he took office – in April of 2009.
Trump might be continuing his tradition of artfully avoiding places where American troops are in harm’s way, like he did in the 1960’s, when he somehow got a handful of deferments that helped him get out of being drafted.
2,140 — That, according to the Washington Post, is the number of lies, half-truths or misleading statements Trump made from inauguration day until his one-year anniversary in office.
That’s, on average, 5.8 lies-per-day.
Here’s two notable examples: “We have signed more legislation than anybody. We broke the record of Harry Truman,” he claimed last month.
Not true.
First, he only signed one major piece of legislation into law — the tax reform bill on December 22.
Second, when he signed it, he boasted that it was “the biggest tax, the biggest reform of all time.”
That’s not true either.
In fact, the 94 (less consequential) bills Trump did sign were fewer than were signed by every president in their first year going back to the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower.
77 — According to the web site trumpgolfcount.com, that’s how many times Trump golfed in his first year.
That’s nearly three times the number of golf excursions Obama made in his first year.
That’s significant since Mr. Trump attacked Obama 27 times on Twitter about his golf trips.
“Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter,” Trump tweeted on October 13th, 2014.
Sorry, but I couldn’t begin to count the number of misguided, hypocritical statements Trump made like that in his first year. But I’m sure the number is astronomical.
2 and 2 — Two people have been indicted – Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Advisor and George Papadopoulos, Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, while two people (Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager, and Rick Gates, ex-White House advisor) have pleaded guilty because of the Special Counsel’s inquiry into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
11 — (at least) That’s the number of Trump associates who’ve spoken to the Special Counsel’s office regarding the Russian probe.
33 — That’s the number of cabinet members, advisors or appointees who left the Trump administration – and for a variety of reasons.
Three people set some sort of record for the short times they served a presidential administration.
Anthony Scaramucci only served as the Director of Communications for 10 days; Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired after 10 days, and Michael Flynn resigned under pressure after 22 days.
And if the current climate continues, they might be the lucky ones.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.