With a Chorus of Tweets, Administration Officials Mark Trump’s 500 Days

WASHINGTON — It started, like so many things do in the age of Trump, with a morning tweet.

The president of the United States took to Twitter on Monday to tout all that he had accomplished in his first 500 days in office, “many believe more than any president in his first 500 days,” he tweeted.

Before long, many of those believers felt compelled to publicly agree, and, as it happened, many of them were from inside President Donald Trump’s own administration. Cabinet secretaries and federal agencies from across the government flooded social media with messages congratulating Trump on his milestone and his accomplishments, some thanking the president personally and noting, they said, that he had delivered on his promises.

“Today marks @POTUS’ 500th Day in office, and just as he promised, the border wall has begun construction,” the official Department of Homeland Security Twitter account said in a posting that was soon recirculated by the White House. “After 500 days in office, U.S. leadership is back on the world stage as the result of @POTUS’s policies,” the State Department proclaimed.

“From ensuring clean air and water to reducing burdensome regulations, EPA celebrates @POTUS President Trump’s 500th day in office,” the Environmental Protection Agency declared, adopting the White House phrase on the occasion: “500 Days of American Greatness.” Scott Pruitt, the agency’s administrator who has been mired in scandals but is a personal favorite of Trump’s, posted a 500-day news release from his official account that concluded: “THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!” underneath an aerial photograph of the president in the Rose Garden.

Other administration officials got into the act, as well. Linda McMahon, the head of the Small Business Administration, praised Trump for cutting 22 regulations for every one created, while Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, said that the president in his first 500 days “has made America SAFER & STRONGER,” through increased energy production.

There is nothing uncommon about the White House starting a coordinated effort to call attention to a president’s accomplishments at a major milestone, such as the 100-day mark or the end of a year, when top officials there often assemble and circulate talking points to federal agencies and communicators on Capitol Hill. What was striking on Monday was the over-the-top nature of some of the praise, which recalled a Cabinet meeting last year in which the top officials on Trump’s team took turns offering worshipful statements about the president in front of news cameras.

“What’s unusual is the thanking of the president, which just kind of seems a little obsequious, but it’s entirely in keeping with the ‘Dear Leader’ tone of that meeting last year,” said Chris Lu, who managed the Cabinet during President Barack Obama’s first term and is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “You almost wonder whether this is orchestrated from the White House, or Cabinet members themselves know by now that this is what the president wants to hear.”

It may have been a bit of both. White House officials circulated talking points to federal agencies and to Capitol Hill on Monday noting that they would be calling attention to Trump’s 500th day, and that they would like their allies to do the same.

“As always, we appreciate you flagging any statements or social media posts your offices may issue regarding 500 Days of American Greatness,” said one such note, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times. “Thank you for your help amplifying the message.”

In the past, Trump has ridiculed the traditional scorekeeping measures of presidential accomplishment, pooh-poohing the 100-day mark last year only to launch a full-fledged campaign — complete with briefings, receptions and even a website — to portray his own first 100 days as the most successful ever.

On Monday, the White House staff rolled out an elaborate raft of social media-friendly content, including a special GIF and several watermarked images bearing facts and figures, to celebrate 500 days, a milestone that few presidents have highlighted.

The 100-day obsession has its roots in the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in the Great Depression and quickly signed 15 major measures into law, a rare feat that his predecessors have struggled to replicate, but Trump has not come close on the legislative front.

On Monday, he touted the $1.5 trillion tax cut he signed into law; the confirmation of federal judges, including Neil M. Gorsuch on the Supreme Court; the repeal of the individual health care mandate — which required people to purchase health insurance or pay a fine — and legislation to make it easier to fire people for misconduct at the Department of Veterans Affairs and expanding veterans’ access to private health care.

On red, white and blue watermarked banners, the White House also listed the creation of 3 million new jobs, withdrawal from “the horrible Iran deal,” denuclearization talks with North Korea and “fighting MS-13 animals” as signature accomplishments.

But 500 days has also passed with its share of frustrations for Trump.

Despite what the Department of Homeland Security’s tweet said, Trump has not been able to secure substantial funding or congressional approval to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico to keep out unauthorized immigrants.

His drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act stalled in Congress, a fact he alluded to in his tweet, writing that it would have passed “except for one person,” a reference to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who voted against the plan and is currently at home because he has brain cancer. The $1 trillion infrastructure plan the president promised will not, the White House recently acknowledged, go anywhere this year.

Trump sounded frustrated at one point on Monday not to be receiving more credit upon the quincentennial of his first day as president, saying the “Fake News Media” was “desperate to distract” from good economic news and instead focus on “the phony Russian Witch Hunt.”

But even as his Cabinet secretaries rushed to tout his successes, the president himself could not focus on his 500 days of greatness for long. Less than 20 minutes after tweeting about his accomplishments, Trump was on to the next thing: declaring that he had the “absolute right” to pardon himself, setting off a day of questions about whether he believes that he is above the law.

And as his 500th day drew to a close, Trump let it be known that he was not about to let his critics mar his celebration. In a terse statement, he announced Monday that he had called off a planned reception for the Philadelphia Eagles on Tuesday at the White House, after some team members said they would stay away because of Trump’s insistence that NFL players stand for the national anthem. The president said he would be there at 3 p.m. anyway, “to celebrate America.”