How do Trump’s executive orders compare to all other US presidents? 

Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday. On his first day in the White House, he is expected to begin signing several executive orders as part of his 100-order plan, which 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 visualises 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 US to run the federal government. While it carries the force of the law, it does not require approval from Congress.

Executive orders apply to federal institutions and agencies, for example, the Department of Homeland Security was put in charge of constructing the US-Mexico border wall through one such directive.

It cannot be used to create new laws and can be overturned 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 priority for their administration.

Executive orders throughout history

Executive orders have been an essential tool for US presidents to change policies without having to go through Congress. Over the span of 236 years – from 1789 to 2025 – 46 US presidents issued at least 15,902 executive orders, averaging 67 per year.

The first executive order was passed by the first president, George Washington, in 1789. In the pre-Civil War era (1789-1861), presidents issued very few orders, averaging zero to four per term, reflecting the limited federal role. During the Civil War and the 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 rise in orders, led by Theodore Roosevelt (1,081 orders) and Woodrow Wilson (1,803) during World War I.

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 programmes for economic recovery and wartime measures for national defence and mobilisation.

Post-World War II, presidents issued fewer orders as Congress and courts expanded checks on executive power.

Some of the most influential presidential orders include:

• Emancipation Proclamation (1863) – The order by Lincoln abolished slavery and freed slaves in Confederate states.
• Executive Order 9066 (1942) – Franklin D Roosevelt’s order saw “the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to “relocation” centres further inland, resulting in the imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
• Executive Order 9981 (1948) – The order by Harry S Truman sought to end discrimination based on race, colour, religion and national origin in the US military.
• Executive Order 10924 (1961) – Introduced by John F Kennedy, it established the Peace Corps.
• Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (2012) – Introduced by Barack Obama, the DACA programme allowed some people who entered the US as children without legal status to receive two years of deferred action from deportation.
• Executive Order 13769 (2017) – Also known as the travel ban, introduced under Trump, it restricted entry into the US by certain foreign nationals. It was labelled as a “Muslim ban” by many and became widely known as such since the ban mostly affected countries with predominantly Muslim populations.

Which president issued the most executive orders?

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

He was followed by Woodrow Wilson (1,803 orders), Calvin Coolidge (1,203), Theodore Roosevelt (1,081) and Harry S Truman (907).

Recent presidents, including Obama (276 orders), Trump (220 orders during his first term from 2017-21) and Joe Biden (160 orders), had much lower averages.

Trump’s upcoming executive orders

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

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

Mass deportation of migrants

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

Domestic energy production

Trump aims to reverse several climate policies introduced by Biden, including lifting the ban on offshore gas and oil drilling, scrapping his electric vehicle mandate and halting the ban on natural gas exports.

Presidential pardons

As president, Trump has the power to pardon anyone convicted in federal court. He has labelled those arrested in the Capitol riot case as “political prisoners” and “hostages”, pledging to issue pardons swiftly upon taking office. More than 1,500 people were federally charged with offences ranging from trespassing to assaulting law enforcement officers.

“I am inclined to pardon many of them,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social. “I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control.”