https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/16/trump-executive-orders-second-term/President Donald Trump has signed more executive orders in less than a year of his presidency than he did in his entire first term — repeatedly bypassing Congress and forcing the courts to grapple with the constitutional bounds of his power.Trump on Monday signed an order instructing fentanyl to be designated as a “weapon of mass destruction,” the 221st executive order of his second term. Since his inauguration, Trump has used the orders to impose sweeping tariffs, seek retribution against his perceived enemies and weigh in on cultural issues big and small, from challenging immigration laws to regulating water pressure from showerheads.One third of Trump’s executive orders have been explicitly challenged in court as of Dec. 12, a Washington Post analysis of data from nonprofits CourtListener and JustSecurity found.American presidents have consolidated executive power to skirt Congress since the beginning of the 20th century. But Trump has accelerated the trend that intensified in recent decades amid a decline in legislative activity and rising partisan brinkmanship.Trump supercharged that trajectory by repeatedly bypassing a Congress that his party controls. The approach has allowed for swift results in a way legislating rarely affords, but it has also left some of his most prized achievements vulnerable to court challenges and potential reversals by future administrations.Among the 11 orders aimed at punishing Trump’s political enemies, almost three-quarters have been challenged.“While President Trump brilliantly took immediate action to quickly reverse Joe Biden’s catastrophe causing Americans four years of pain, many of these policies are expected to be codified by Congress, ensuring the President’s popular policies keep America great for future generations,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.
Almost a quarter of Trump’s executive orders have targeted trade or broader economic policy. Other major categories of executive orders include the U.S. DOGE Service and the federal bureaucracy; changes to the military and foreign policy; and issues related to race and culture.The pace of Trump’s actions has strained the administration’s capacity to follow through in some cases, said Mike Howell, who was a Homeland Security official during Trump’s first term.“Implementation is the issue,” said Howell, who now leads the Oversight Project, which began as a research arm of the Heritage Foundation. “The volume [of executive orders] makes it difficult to caretake every one of them.”Rogers, in response, said, “In record time, President Trump has delivered on more promises than any other president in modern history.”Courts have at least halted Trump from unilaterally changing federal election-registration rules, banning care for transgender people and punishing law firms who have represented causes or clients that he opposes. A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Trump’s tariffs during oral arguments last month, and the high court said it would hear a case examining Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship.“It’s important to differentiate that some of his EOs are messaging vehicles,” said Marc Short, a longtime top adviser to former vice president Mike Pence. “He learned that he can control a narrative by inviting the press corps into the Oval Office, discussing an issue and signing an executive order.”Last summer, Trump muscled Congress into passing his signature policy bill, which codified tax cuts, increased the child tax credit and added funding for border security and the military.As only the second president to serve nonconsecutive terms, Trump had four years to learn from the missteps of his first presidency and prepare for his second.
>>1466099>As only the second president to serve nonconsecutive terms, Trump had four years to learn from the missteps of his first presidency and prepare for his second.He didn't learn shit. The only thing that's different now is all the competent people have fled his administration and the void was filled with Project2025 apparatchiks and neoreactionary broligarchs.
A share of his executive orders were drafted in the years between his administrations, when staff now in his cabinet worked at organizations such as the Heritage Foundation and America First Policy Institute (AFPI). Will Scharf, the president’s staff secretary, and Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, are also known to have major influence over the orders.A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal processes said that every executive order is “fully vetted and reviewed” by the White House Counsel, Scharf’s office and Miller.Executive orders aren’t explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, but presidents have relied on similar unilateral actions since the country’s founding. George Washington issued directives that would qualify as executive orders today, and Abraham Lincoln used one to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation, said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University. By the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt was wielding executive orders to bypass Congress and broaden presidential authority.Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who governed during multiple national emergencies, signed more than 3,700 executive orders during his tenure — embracing executive actions to stabilize the economy during the Great Depression, expand federal government programs and mobilize the military during World War II.“In a time of war, you know you can do extraordinary things,” Brinkley said. “So Trump wants to create a wartime atmosphere with what he considers an invasion of undocumented workers.”Trump’s embrace of executive orders represents a dramatic evolution. As a candidate, he repeatedly criticized former president Barack Obama for relying on the executive tool.
“We have a president that can’t get anything done,” Trump told an interviewer in January 2016, “so he just keeps signing executive orders all over the place.”While many presidents reserved signing ceremonies for legislation, Trump often will invite the news media to the Oval Office for the signing of executive orders multiple times a week — relishing the spotlight and often seizing the opportunity to make norm-breaking statements and attack his critics.Trump began the first day of his second term with a dramatic ceremony onstage in the Capital One Arena, where he signed orders to rescind dozens of former president Joe Biden’s executive actions, freeze federal hiring and grant TikTok a reprieve from an expected ban.
>>1466106>“We have a president that can’t get anything done,” Trump told an interviewer in January 2016, “so he just keeps signing executive orders all over the place.”kek
Good thing about all these presidential Executive Orders is: they are can be all taken back by the next president without any hassle.
>>1466099he was way too soft in his first term.>>1466102>all the incompetent people fledftfu
>>1466110Every accusation is a confession with the pedophile in chief
>>1466117Way to soft by not being an authoritarian who has enriched himself with billions of dollars in back room deals? Did you vote Trump in to make himself rich? Because that is all he has done.
>>1466123>democrats commiting mass wide spread crime is fine thoughTrump enriched himself with a rugpull crypto coin and a worthless DJT meme stock.democrats enriched themselves through human trafficking and embezzlement, but glad to see you support criminals scumbag
>>1466099Stop distracting us Trump, release the Epstein files like you promised!
>>1466152How many of them are still in effect though?
How many are autopenned and written by people who aren't Trump himself?
>>1466130>democrats enriched themselves through human trafficking and embezzlemen>My source: My gaping asshole
>>1466130>Every accusation is a confession
>>1466115Yep. But then, that's what Trump has always beenLots of noise for the cameras, but when it's all said and done absolutely nothing of any lasting substance
>>1466170ikr every leftist is just self -projecting onto trump its so retarded.>>1466167leftists are the biggest embezzle and fraud in the system. that's why they were so against doge for investigating their finances.https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/19/florida-democrat-indicted-on-federal-fraud-charges-00661162can't stop stealing from the people can you but go ahead and bury your head in the sand some more
>>1466179>Florida>fraud caseThat reminds me of the time current Republican Senator of Florida Rick Scott oversaw the largest defrauding of Medicare IN US HISTORY when he was CEO of HCAhttps://business.unm.edu/ethics/pdf/hca.pdf
>>1466179>Drops the human trafficking thing entirelyNice concession retard.
>>1466099Auto-signed, you mean.
>>1466182Imagine knowing what happened in this case and supporting ACA subsidies and wanting universal Medicare.
>>1466204Imagine knowing what happened in this case and supporting the party that made the ringleader of this criminal enterprise a governor and then a United States Senator
>>1466206To be fair, Medicare and Medcaid fraud are usually committed by Democrats.But let's ignore that and I won't even bother asking why you'd ignore the massive amount of Democrat fraud.It's simply because you don't care about anything but power and having power and you will do anything to achieve power.Perhaps you think it's for the greater good that you lie and subvert? Who knows.
>>1466223Why do you personally support Rick Scott and the party that made him a US Senator after he stole billions from Medicare?
>>1466227If you want that answer that's fine. It's specifically because I'm forced to advocate for the lesser of two evils. I've never once voted for Rick Scott though. And by lesser of two evils, Democrats are literally evil. Liar, thieves and bullies. Just like (You).
>>1466228>And by lesser of two evils, Democrats are literally evil. Liar, thieves and bullies.I'm glad you clarified that you clarified that you meant Democrats, because it sounds like you're describing MAGA.
>>1466228>Rick Scott, literally the greatest evil in this scenario seeing as he stole the most money, is actually the lesser evil compared to Dems!
>>1466228You're the one that brought up politicians committing fraud in Florida to derail this thread about Trump's historically unprecedented use of executive ordersThe fact that even in the narrow parameters you set we can not only find a very high profile case of a Republican being even more corrupt than your example, but even being rewarded for it by the party you shill for, isn't my fault
>>1466233It worked.
