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

Donald Trump will be to swear on Monday as the 47th President of the United States. It is expected that on his first day at the White House, he will begin signing several executive orders as part of his Plan of 100 orderswhich 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 visualizes 236 years of US presidential executive orders and looks at what Trump is likely to push through on his first day in office.

What is an executive order?

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

Executive orders apply to federal institutions and agencies, for example, the Department of Homeland Security is in charge of construction USA-Mexico border wall through one such directive.

It cannot be used to create new laws and can be struck down if found to be unconstitutional; Congress can pass legislation to override them.

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

Executive orders throughout history

Executive orders have been the US president’s key tool for changing policy without going through Congress. In a span of 236 years – from 1789 to 2025 – 46 US 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. In the period before the Civil War (1789-1861), presidents issued very few executive orders, averaging zero to four per term, reflecting the limited federal role. During the Civil War and Reconstruction Era (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 the First World War.

Franklin D. Roosevelt set a record by issuing 3,721 executive orders from 1933 to 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 wartime measures for national defense and mobilization.

After World War II, presidents issued fewer executive orders as Congress and the courts expanded control of the executive branch.

Some of the most influential presidential orders include:

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

Which president issued the most executive orders?

Franklin D Roosevelt, the 32nd US President, issued the most executive orders during his 12-year presidency (1933-45). He issued 3,721 orders, an average of about 308 orders per year.

He is followed by Woodrow Wilson (1803 orders), Calvin Coolidge (1203), Theodore Roosevelt (1081) and Harry S Truman (907).

Recent presidents, including Obama (276 warrants), Trump (220 warrants during his first term from 2017 to 2021), and Joe Biden (160 warrants), had much lower averages.

Trump’s upcoming executive orders

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

According to The Associated Press, his proposed list of more than 100 executive orders includes initiating mass deportations of migrants, reversing many of Biden’s energy policies and pardoning those arrested for their involvement in the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

Mass deportation of migrants

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

Domestic energy production

Trump intends to reverse several climate policies introduced by Biden, including lifting a ban on offshore gas and oil drilling, repealing the electric vehicle mandate and ending a ban on natural gas exports.

Presidential pardons

As president, Trump has the power to pardon anyone convicted in federal court. He marked the arrested in The case of the rebellion in the Capitol as “political prisoners” and “hostages”, pledging to grant pardons immediately upon assuming office. More than 1,500 people have been federally charged with crimes ranging from trespassing to assaulting law enforcement officers.

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