President Donald J. Trump’s second term is off to a historic start — with a new study showing it’s the most legislatively successful beginning to any presidency since Franklin D. Roosevelt's first 100 days.

That’s according to an artificial intelligence analysis commissioned by Newsweek, which measured legislative achievements in the first six months of each modern president’s term, factoring in congressional support and policy impact.

Trump, who returned to the White House on January 20, 2025, after winning a decisive election victory on a platform of restoring law and order, securing the border, and slashing taxes, was rated “very high” in performance. The AI model specifically cited the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Laken Riley Act as standout accomplishments.

Trump’s success has been made possible by a unified Republican Congress and a firm constitutionalist majority on the Supreme Court — a dynamic that has enabled swift action on key parts of the America First agenda.

The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law on July 4, was a sweeping tax and spending reform package. It extended Trump’s landmark 2017 tax cuts, increased funding for the military and border security, and slashed federal welfare programs. Despite criticism from some fiscal watchdogs over its projected $3.3 trillion addition to the debt over the next decade, the bill represents a cornerstone achievement — fulfilling Trump’s promise to unleash the economy and rein in big government.

Another major win was the Laken Riley Act, named in honor of a Georgia college student tragically murdered by a Venezuelan illegal alien in February 2024. The law mandates that illegal immigrants charged or convicted with serious crimes — including theft and assault on law enforcement — be held without bond. It also grants states broader power to sue the Department of Homeland Security for failure to enforce federal immigration laws. Trump signed it into law on January 29, delivering justice for American victims and sending a strong message that lawlessness at the border will no longer be tolerated.

The AI-based research compared Trump’s early record to that of past presidents. It concluded that Trump’s legislative output rivals Roosevelt’s 1933 New Deal blitz, in which 15 major bills were signed into law within 100 days, including the Emergency Banking Act.

Coming in third in the rankings was Joe Biden, whose first six months included the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan — which many conservatives criticized as wasteful — and the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. The Biden-era legislation also included the controversial establishment of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, passed with Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes in a 50-50 Senate.

At the bottom of the AI rankings was Theodore Roosevelt, who the system judged had “no major statute before March 1902.” Bill Clinton also scored poorly, with only the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act considered a meaningful legislative effort in his first half-year.

Commenting on the study, Dafydd Townley, a U.K.-based American politics expert, 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.”

Townley went on to argue that Democratic presidents like Clinton and Obama often struggled to unite their diverse coalitions, while past Republican leaders such as Reagan and Nixon managed bipartisan wins despite having to navigate Democrat-controlled legislatures.

But unlike past presidents who relied on compromise, Trump has wielded a unified conservative government to push through bold, America First reforms — delivering on promises and setting the tone for a transformative second term.