Blog Post

Trump just trails record opening pace for executive orders

February 15, 2017 | by Scott Bomboy

President Donald Trump’s series of executive orders have made headlines, but their pace in the administration’s first 30 days may not break a record set by his predecessor.

According to data on The American Presidency Project website at the University of California, Santa Barbara, President Trump has issued 12 executive orders since January 20, 2017, the third-most issued by a President since 1829 in the first month of a new administration. With a week left in President Trump’s first month in office, he could tie Harry Truman at 13 orders if Trump issues a revised immigration order this week. Barack Obama issued 16 executive orders by the end of his first month in office back in 2009, the most issued by a President during his first month in office.

Overall, Trump and Obama have proclaimed executive orders at a faster rate – almost twice as fast – as their 10 prior predecessors. On average, Presidents starting in the Eisenhower era and ending in the George W. Bush administration issued about six executive orders in the first month of a new administration.

Obama broke that pattern with a spate of orders in 2009 that pertained to the interrogation and treatment of detainees related to terrorism; and guidelines about government procurement, contracts and labor laws. Trump’s orders in the past three weeks have focused on immigration policies and enforcement; crime reduction and public safety; broad directives about health-care insurance policy; infrastructure construction; and the reduction of government regulations.

In historical terms, with the exception of President Truman, who assumed the presidency at the end of World War II in 1945, there isn’t a precedent for the volume of opening-month executive orders issued by Trump and Obama. In 1865, President Andrew Johnson proclaimed nine executive orders after President Lincoln’s assassination, including several related to the military commission that dealt with the assassination conspiracy. Four years later, President Ulysses S. Grant issued six orders as he reorganized command of the Army.

Two Presidents associated with executive powers in times of national crisis, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, combined to issue a total of five executive orders in their first months in the White House. Roosevelt issued all five of those orders, including one that ended a national bank holiday. Lincoln’s order to start the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in rebellious areas came just after his first month in office in 1861; Roosevelt’s orders to form the National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration came in the summer of 1933.

President Truman’s orders after Roosevelt’s death included provisions for war-crime trials and for his administration to take possession of coal mines, an engineering company, and several oil refineries that he felt were threatened by labor difficulties.

Other noteworthy executive orders in modern times by new Presidents included Lyndon Johnson’s establishment of the Warren Commission to investigate the Kennedy assassination; Jimmy Carter’s provisions for Selective Service amnesty; and Ronald Reagan’s efforts to deal with economic controls as the nation faced a recession.

Executive Orders, First Month Of New Administration
Year President Orders Notes
1829 Andrew Jackson 1 Army pensions
1837 Martin Van Buren 1 Surgeon General to accompany ex-President Jackson
1841 William Henry Harrison 0
1841 Martin Van Buren 0
1845 James Polk 0
1849 Zachary Taylor 0
1850 Millard Fillmore 1 Funeral closures for President Taylor
1853 Franklin Pierce 1 Construction of White House wings
1857 James Buchanan 0
1861 Abraham Lincoln 0 Writ suspension came after six weeks in office
1865 Andrew Johnson 9 Lincoln's murder trial, lifting commerce restrictions
1869 Ulysses S Grant 6 Army command assignments
1877 Rutherford Hayes 0
1881 James Garfield 0
1881 Chester Arthur 1 Flag salute of British flag
1885 Grover Cleveland 1 Civil service rules
1889 Benjamin Harrison 1 Railway service rules
1893 Grover Cleveland 0
1897 William McKinley 0
1901 Theodore Roosevelt 3 Public land use, naval pay rates
1909 William Taft 0
1913 Woodrow Wilson 0
1921 Warren Harding 0
1923 Calvin Coolidge 0
1929 Herbert Hoover 2 Tax refund inspections
1933 Franklin Roosevelt 5 Ended bank holiday, farm agencies, veterans benefits
1945 Harry Truman 13 Nazi war crimes trials, post-war administration measures
1953 Dwight Eisenhower 6 Wage and salary controls lifted, efficiency measures
1961 John Kennedy 7 Food to needy families, Labor-Management committee
1963 Lyndon Johnson 7 Warren Commission, JFK Space Center, airline dispute
1969 Richard Nixon 5 Urban Affiars, Economic policy
1974 Gerald Ford 5 Export controls
1977 Jimmy Carter 7 Selective Service Act pardons
1981 Ronald Reagan 5 Petroleum price controls, wage and price controls, export regulations
1989 George H.W. Bush 2 Ethics reform
1993 Bill Clinton 6 National Economic Council, eliminated federal positions
2001 George W. Bush 7 Faith-based and community initiatives
2009 Barack Obama 16 Lawful interrogations,  economic councils
2017 Donald Trump 12 Immigration controls,  Obamacare repeal,  regulations reform

Source: The American Presidency Project website


 
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