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