| President Biden marked his 99th day in office with his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday, a speech that both recounted what Biden described as early victories in vaccine distribution efforts and a jolt to the economy and served as a platform to pitch Congress and the nation on his other legislative priorities. In a way, it marked the end of the first chapter of the Biden era. And by comparing that period to that of his predecessors, we can begin to get an idea of the kind of president Biden will be over the next three-plus years. The 100-day mark isn't anything official; it's just a nice big, round number that has, for decades, seemed like a decent starting point for evaluating how a president's first term is going. It's also increasingly a time period cite while making pledges of swift action — promises that they often struggle to keep. Below are four key measures by which to judge it. Biden's approval is higher than Trump's — but lower than other recent predecessors' So far, Biden has proved more popular than Donald Trump was in his first 100 days — but still less popular than any of his other recent predecessors. Just before the end of his first 100 days in office, Biden had the approval of a slight majority of Americans — 52 percent — compared to 42 percent who disapproved in a Washington Post-ABC News poll. That's significantly better than Trump. Flip Biden's number's and you're in the ballpark of Trump's early popularity: 42 percent approved, while 53 percent disapproved. So what does that 52 percent approval actually mean? It's increasingly clear that the country is becoming more and more polarized — and the days when a president of either party can skyrocket, as George W. Bush's did after the 9/11 attacks or even just into the 70s or 60s seem long gone. Indeed, no president has hit the 60 percent approval mark since Barack Obama did early in his first term. For example, in a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 78 percent of Republicans said they strongly disapproved of the way Biden has handled his job, and just 13 percent said they approve of his work so far. But 90 percent of Democrats said they approve of Biden's work as president. That huge gap has been relatively constant over the past decade plus, leaving the relatively small number of voters in the middle to decide whether a president has an approval in the 40s or the 50s. Biden is outpacing his predecessors on executive orders Executive orders and other more-limited executive actions have become a bigger part of the presidential tool kit in recent administrations, particularly as Congress has descended into gridlock. While often limited in scope, executive actions are a quick and easy way for a president to show voters they're following through on campaign promises. But legally speaking, they have to act within existing laws rather than create new ones. Biden issued a round of executive actions on his first day in office, including measures to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, stop the United States' withdrawal from the World Health Organization, and protect "Dreamers," undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children — among other measures. He quickly issued other orders forming commissions to study issues like immigration and potential changes to the Supreme Court — both issues he promised Democrats he'd quickly address during the 2020 election. Executive actions are sometimes more statements of intent than real policy changes. The kind of comprehensive immigration reform lawmakers have sought for years, but been unable to reach an agreement on, can't get done through executive action (and like most other issues, Democrats don't have the 60 votes they need in the Senate to pass most bills). The same is true of other priorities like raising the national minimum wage. But through executive actions, presidents can put their intent on paper and work around the margins — and Biden hasn't been shy about issuing that kind of order either. Republicans have said Biden's use of executive actions amounts to breaking his promise to seek unity. But those same Republicans said little when Trump used similar actions as president to advance very significant portions of his agenda, albeit over a longer period of time. In addition, many of Biden's earliest executive actions were largely undoing things Trump had already done by the same means. All of which reinforces the centrality of actually passing bills. Without them, your successor can just revert to what was in place previously. Biden's confirmations are going a little slower than Democratic predecessors One of any president's biggest early tasks is hiring the people who will help run their administration and the executive branch agencies. That includes about 1,200 jobs that require Senate confirmation — and The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service are tracking 792 of those positions here. Biden actually filled his Cabinet remarkably quickly, given how delayed the transition process was by Trump's refusal to concede. He beat his two most recent predecessors, Trump and Obama by more than a month in filling Cabinet-level positions. That includes getting past the hurdle of having one of his nominees (Neera Tanden) rejected by members of his own party, forcing him to find a replacement nominee. Biden remains behind the pace Obama set overall, though he's well ahead of Trump, whose wait for his major Cabinet picks was nearly the longest in three decades. In total, 44 Biden nominees of the 792 being tracked have been Senate confirmed, while 147 are somewhere in the confirmation process, six have been named but not formally nominated, and 352 still have no nominee. A big difference in communication style Biden and his most immediate predecessor, Trump, have completely different communication styles. And that's easy to see when looking at the number of public appearances they made in their early time in office. In contrast to the bombastic and self-promoting Trump, Biden has a much more calculated communication style. He's less off-the-cuff. He has done far fewer interviews (just seven, compared to Trump's 22 in 100 days), and far fewer speeches and news conferences. Biden does win the category of informal gaggles with reporters — but that's just over Trump's first 100 days, and that kind of informal question-and-answer session would later become a signature of the daily Trump news cycle. And with those differences in style come, very notably, different levels of commitment to facts. The Fact Checker tracked the number of false or misleading claims Trump made through his entire presidency — and marked down 511 such claims in his first 100 days, an average of more than five per day. Biden, by contrast, made just 78 false or misleading claims, fewer than one per day. Today's 5-Minute Fix was a little different than usual — tell us what you thought with this short survey. | 
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