Donald Trump Sets First-Year Records For Most Golfing Trips, Lowest Approval Rating, Fewest Bills Signed

Donald Trump has set a number of records during his first year in office, though not in the way the real estate magnate likely would have hoped.

With the first calendar year of Trump’s presidency coming to an end as the page turns from 2017 to 2018, the president remains mired in controversy. He has made a series of decisions that earned criticism, from pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord to firing FBI Director James Comey to an ultimately failed attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Through that first year, Trump has set marks for the lowest overall approval rating for a new president, the least legislation signed for a first year in the White House, and one more controversial title — the most days spent golfing.

In the final weeks of 2017, Trump often bragged that he had signed the most legislation of any president in their first year in office. But as ABC News pointed out, the exact opposite is true. The report cited analysis by the nonpartisan GovTrack.us, which keeps track of legislation signed by presidents. It found that Trump has signed the fewest bills of any president dating back to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The report noted that Trump may be stretching the definition of legislation to include signings other than bills, but the White House has not responded to a request clarifying.

That could be because Trump has been away from the White House for more than a week to end the year, traveling to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where he has spent five days golfing. It ends a year where Donald Trump spent one out of every four days of his presidency on the golf course, the site Trump Golf Count noted.

That has put Trump on top of the list for most golfing trips among modern presidents and drawn quite a bit of controversy. While it is not out of the norm for presidents to take golf trips, Trump spent years criticizing Barack Obama for his golf trips and said during his presidential campaign that he would not be going golfing at all, instead staying in the White House to work. After his first year, Trump has gone to the golf course more than three times as much as Obama did.

Trump claims he's signed more laws in year one than any president since Truman.

Reality: He has signed fewer bills to this point in his presidency than any elected president in 64 years. https://t.co/4ZoARGddHY

— PEN America (@PENamerica) December 31, 2017

These have helped lead to another low mark for Trump in his first year. Through the end of his first year, Trump has reached the lowest approval rating of any new president, Newsweek noted. Trump did not enjoy the “honeymoon phase” that most presidents find after first taking office, failing to top 50 percent in many polls at any point during his first year. It has continued to sink through Trump’s controversial and unpopular decisions.

CNN POLL
Presidential Approval Rating
Dec of First Year

Bush, 2001 86%
Kennedy, 1961 77%
Bush, 1989 71%
Eisenhower, 1953 69%
Nixon, 1969 59%
Carter, 1977 57%
Obama, 2009 54%
Clinton, 1993 54%
Reagan, 1981 49%
Trump, now 35%

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2017

Donald Trump’s approval does not show signs of rebounding as 2018 begins, with an aggregate of polls from FiveThirtyEight showing his approval rating at 37.7 percent, close to the lowest point of his presidency.