4 things to know about executive orders

Donald Trump signed 26 executive orders Monday, a record for a first day in office.

By comparison, Joe Biden signed 9 executive orders on his first day back in 2021. On day one of Trump’s first term, in 2017, he signed just one executive order. There are other ‘executive’ actions the president authorized Monday but which are not considered executive orders.

WHAT AN EXECUTIVE ORDER IS (AND ISN’T) 

An executive order, according to the American Bar Association, is a signed, written, and published directive from the President of the United States that manages the operations of the federal government. Some take effect immediately (like President Trump‘s pardoning of 1500 January 6 rioters), while others take longer to implement (like Trump‘s directive to agency heads to "deliver emergency price relief”). Other presidential documents may be similar to executive orders in their format, formality, and issue, but have different purposes. Proclamations communicate information on holidays, commemorations, federal observances, and trade. Administrative orders—e.g. memos, notices, letters, and messages—are used to manage administrative matters of the federal government. All three types of presidential documents—executive orders, proclamations, and certain administrative orders—are published in the Federal Register, the daily journal of the federal government that is published to inform the public about federal regulations and actions.

CAN EXECUTIVE ORDERS BE REVERSED?

Yes. Although executive orders, as long as they are used appropriately (legal challenges may slow their implementation), carry the force of law, they are not necessarily permanent. In his first term, President Trump signed 220 executive orders. By the end of his successor Joe Biden’s term, about a third of those had been rescinded. Biden, in his four years, signed 162 executive orders; on Monday, Trump rescinded 78 of them with the stroke of a pen.

EO LEADERS

As much as candidate Trump criticized President Biden for using executive orders, rather than legislation, to accomplish policy goals, Biden’s actual use of executive orders was historically low. His 162 EOs is slightly below average for recent 4-year terms. The last president to have more executive orders than Trump’s 220 in his first term was Jimmy Carter, who signed 320 between 1977 and 1981. But the all-time leader in EOs was Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a total of 3,721. Having served three full terms and part of a fourth, it may seem logical that FDR would have the greatest total, but he also easily has the highest average per year: 307.