Executive Orders
Plain words
An executive order is a written command from the President that tells the federal government how to act within existing laws. It is not a new law passed by Congress, but it can still have big effects on people’s lives.
Compare years in office, executive-order totals, and selected examples. Coverage includes all 47 presidencies, from George Washington through Donald Trump’s second presidency.
On smaller screens, scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
| President | Party | Years in office | Total executive orders | Selected examples |
|---|
Sources and counting notes
- Totals link to the Federal Register, National Archives, or American Presidency Project. Examples link to the order or an official explanation.
- Totals count executive orders, including later-revoked orders. Presidential memoranda and proclamations are not included. Historical records are less uniform; Pre-1945 historical totals include numbered and unnumbered orders.
- Examples describe what an order did when issued, not whether it remains in force. They are selected illustrations, not a ranking of importance.
- Separate rows distinguish Cleveland’s and Trump’s nonconsecutive presidencies. Era filters include any presidency overlapping the selected years.
- Every presidency has a sourced total. For John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, no verified executive-order example is included here; their totals are not missing or zero. Current-presidency totals are a dated snapshot, not a live count.