How do Donald Trump’s executive orders compare to those of all other US presidents? | Donald Trump News

Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday. On his first day in the White House, he is expected to begin signing several executive orders as part of his 100 plan, which he revealed to Senate Republicans on January 8.

The executive orders will cover a range of topics, including border security, immigration, domestic energy production and presidential pardons.

In this explainer, Al Jazeera views 236 years of US presidential executive orders and examines what Trump is likely to pass on his first day in office.

What is a decree?

An executive order is an official directive issued by the President of the United States to direct the federal government. Although it has the force of law, it does not require Congressional approval.

The executive orders apply to federal institutions and agencies; for example, the Department of Homeland Security was tasked with building the US-Mexico border wall through one of these directives.

It cannot be used to create new laws and can be overturned if found unconstitutional; Congress can pass a law to circumvent them.

Executive orders are common on a new president’s first day in office and set the tone and priorities for his or her administration.

Decrees throughout history

Executive orders have been an essential tool for U.S. presidents to change policies without having to go through Congress. Over a period of 236 years – from 1789 to 2025 – 46 American presidents issued at least 15,902 executive orders, an average of 67 per year.

The first executive order was issued by the first president, George Washington, in 1789. Before the Civil War (1789–1861), presidents issued very few executive orders, averaging zero to four per term, reflecting the role limited by the federal government. During the Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-77), the number of orders increased, with Abraham Lincoln issuing 48 orders during the Civil War and Ulysses S Grant reaching 217 orders.

Between 1897 and 1929 there was a sharp increase in orders, led by Theodore Roosevelt (1,081 orders) and Woodrow Wilson (1,803) during World War I.

Franklin D. Roosevelt set a record by issuing 3,721 executive orders between 1933 and 1945, primarily to address the challenges of the Great Depression and World War II. Many of these orders were central to his New Deal programs for economic recovery and war measures for national defense and mobilization.

After World War II, presidents issued fewer orders as Congress and the courts strengthened checks on executive power.

Some of the most influential presidential orders include:

• Emancipation Proclamation (1863) – Lincoln’s order abolished slavery and freed slaves in the Confederate States.
• Executive Order 9066 (1942) – Franklin D. Roosevelt’s order called for “the forcible removal of all persons considered a threat to national security from the West Coast to ‘relocation’ centers further inland, resulting in the imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
• Executive Order 9981 (1948) – Harry S. Truman’s order aimed to end discrimination based on race, color, religion and national origin in the United States military.
• Executive Order 10924 (1961) – Introduced by John F. Kennedy, he created the Peace Corps.
• Deferred action for child arrivals (2012) – Introduced by Barack Obama, the DACA program allowed certain people who entered the United States as children without legal status to benefit from a two-year deportation period.
• Executive Order 13769 (2017) – Also known as the travel ban, introduced under Trump, it restricted certain foreign nationals from entering the United States. It was called the “Muslim ban” by many and became widely known as such since the ban primarily affected countries with majority Muslim populations.

Which president has issued the most executive orders?

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, issued the most executive orders during his 12-year presidency (1933-45). It issued 3,721 orders, an average of approximately 308 orders per 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 first term from 2017 to 2021), and Joe Biden (160 orders), had much lower averages.

Trump’s next executive orders

President Trump is expected to sign a series of executive orders during his first days in office.

According to the Associated Press news agency, his proposed list of more than 100 executive orders includes launching the mass expulsion of migrants, rolling back many of Biden’s energy policies and pardoning those arrested for their involvement in the riot on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol.

Mass expulsion of migrants

Trump is expected to reinstate several U.S.-Mexico border measures and the controversial travel ban on Muslim-majority countries in his first term. Tom Homan, Trump’s top “border czar,” said the new Republican administration would launch broad operations to detain and deport undocumented immigrants starting on the first day of Trump’s second term.

Domestic energy production

Trump aims to reverse several climate policies introduced by Biden, including lifting the ban on offshore gas and oil drilling, dropping his mandate on electric vehicles and ending the ban on natural gas exports.

Presidential pardons

As president, Trump has the authority to pardon anyone found guilty in federal court. He called those arrested in the Capitol riots case “political prisoners” and “hostages,” pledging to quickly grant pardons upon taking office. More than 1,500 people have been federally charged with offenses ranging from trespassing to assaulting law enforcement officers.

“I’m inclined to pardon a lot of them,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social. “I can’t say for all of them, because a few of them probably got out of hand.”