How do Donald Trump’s executive orders compare to all other US presidents’?

Donald Trump volition beryllium sworn successful arsenic the 47th president of the United States connected Monday. On his archetypal time successful the White House, helium is expected to statesman signing respective enforcement orders arsenic portion of his 100-order plan, which helium revealed to Senate Republicans connected January 8.

The enforcement orders volition screen a scope of topics, including borderline security, immigration, home vigor accumulation and statesmanlike pardons.

In this explainer, Al Jazeera visualises 236 years of US statesmanlike enforcement orders and looks astatine what Trump is apt to propulsion done connected his archetypal time successful office.

What is an enforcement order?

An enforcement bid is an authoritative directive issued by the president of the US to tally the national government. While it carries the unit of the law, it does not necessitate support from Congress.

Executive orders use to national institutions and agencies, for example, the Department of Homeland Security was enactment successful complaint of constructing the US-Mexico borderline partition done 1 specified directive.

It cannot beryllium utilized to make caller laws and tin beryllium overturned if recovered to beryllium unconstitutional; Congress tin walk authorities to override them.

Executive orders are communal for a caller president’s archetypal time successful bureau and acceptable the code and precedence for their administration.

Executive orders passim history

Executive orders person been an indispensable instrumentality for US presidents to alteration policies without having to spell done Congress. Over the span of 236 years – from 1789 to 2025 – 46 US presidents issued astatine slightest 15,902 enforcement orders, averaging 67 per year.

The archetypal enforcement bid was passed by the archetypal president, George Washington, successful 1789. In the pre-Civil War epoch (1789-1861), presidents issued precise fewer orders, averaging zero to 4 per term, reflecting the constricted national role. During the Civil War and the Reconstruction epoch (1861-77), the fig of orders increased, with Abraham Lincoln issuing 48 orders during the Civil War and Ulysses S Grant reaching 217 orders.

Between 1897 and 1929, determination was a crisp emergence successful orders, led by Theodore Roosevelt (1,081 orders) and Woodrow Wilson (1,803) during World War I.

Franklin D Roosevelt acceptable a grounds by issuing 3,721 enforcement orders from 1933 to 1945, chiefly to code the challenges of the Great Depression and World War II. Many of these orders were cardinal to his New Deal programmes for economical betterment and wartime measures for nationalist defence and mobilisation.

Post-World War II, presidents issued less orders arsenic Congress and courts expanded checks connected enforcement power.

Some of the astir influential statesmanlike orders include:

• Emancipation Proclamation (1863) – The bid by Lincoln abolished slavery and freed slaves successful Confederate states.
• Executive Order 9066 (1942) – Franklin D Roosevelt’s bid saw “the forced removal of each persons deemed a menace to nationalist information from the West Coast to “relocation” centres further inland, resulting successful the imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
• Executive Order 9981 (1948) – The bid by Harry S Truman sought to extremity favoritism based connected race, colour, religion and nationalist root successful the US military.
• Executive Order 10924 (1961) – Introduced by John F Kennedy, it established the Peace Corps.
• Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (2012) – Introduced by Barack Obama, the DACA programme allowed immoderate radical who entered the US arsenic children without ineligible presumption to person 2 years of deferred enactment from deportation.
• Executive Order 13769 (2017) – Also known arsenic the question ban, introduced nether Trump, it restricted introduction into the US by definite overseas nationals. It was labelled arsenic a “Muslim ban” by galore and became wide known arsenic specified since the prohibition mostly affected countries with predominantly Muslim populations.

Which president issued the astir enforcement orders?

Franklin D Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the US, issued the astir enforcement orders during his 12-year presidency (1933-45). He issued 3,721 orders, averaging astir 308 orders a year.

He was followed by Woodrow Wilson (1,803 orders), Calvin Coolidge (1,203), Theodore Roosevelt (1,081) and Harry S Truman (907).

Recent presidents, including Obama (276 orders), Trump (220 orders during his archetypal word from 2017-21) and Joe Biden (160 orders), had overmuch little averages.

Trump’s upcoming enforcement orders

President Trump is anticipated to motion a expanse of enforcement orders successful his archetypal fewer days successful office.

According to The Associated Press quality agency, his projected database of much than 100 enforcement orders includes initiating the wide deportation of migrants, rolling backmost galore of Biden’s vigor policies and pardoning those arrested for their engagement successful the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot.

Mass deportation of migrants

Trump is expected to reinstate respective US-Mexico borderline measures and the arguable travel ban connected Muslim-majority countries from his archetypal term. Tom Homan, Trump’s apical “border czar”, said the incoming Republican medication volition motorboat extended operations to detain and deport undocumented immigrants starting connected time 1 of Trump’s 2nd term.

Domestic vigor production

Trump aims to reverse respective clime policies introduced by Biden, including lifting the prohibition connected offshore state and lipid drilling, scrapping his electrical conveyance mandate and halting the prohibition connected earthy state exports.

Presidential pardons

As president, Trump has the powerfulness to pardon anyone convicted successful national court. He has labelled those arrested successful the Capitol riot case arsenic “political prisoners” and “hostages”, pledging to contented pardons swiftly upon taking office. More than 1,500 radical were federally charged with offences ranging from trespassing to assaulting instrumentality enforcement officers.

“I americium inclined to pardon galore of them,” Trump said connected his societal media level Truth Social. “I can’t accidental for each azygous one, due to the fact that a mates of them, astir apt they got retired of control.”