You’ve probably seen the headlines. Every time a new person walks into the Oval Office, there is a flurry of activity that makes it look like the pen is the most powerful tool in Washington. People get really heated about it. Critics scream about "dictatorial overreach" while supporters cheer for "decisive action." But if you actually look at the data on how many executive orders have presidents signed, the reality is a lot weirder than the talking points suggest.
Numbers don't lie, but they do tell a confusing story.
Take the current situation in early 2026. Donald Trump is back for his second term, and he has been moving at a speed that honestly makes past presidents look like they were working in slow motion. In just his first 100 days of this second term, he signed 143 executive orders. That’s a record. It completely blew past the previous 100-day record held by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who "only" signed 99 back in 1933.
The All-Time Heavyweight Champion of the Pen
If you want to talk about raw volume, nobody—and I mean nobody—touches FDR.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 3,721 executive orders. Read that again. Over his twelve years in office, he averaged about 308 per year. He used them for everything from creating the Civilian Conservation Corps to the infamous (and later widely condemned) internment of Japanese Americans.
Why so many?
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Basically, he was governing through the Great Depression and World War II. The country was in a constant state of "emergency," and the federal government was expanding into every corner of American life for the first time. Before the 20th century, presidents barely used this power. George Washington signed eight. Total. James Madison and James Monroe signed just one each.
Modern Presidents and the "Low" Numbers
It’s kinda funny that we think modern presidents are "out of control" when you look at the 1900s. Woodrow Wilson signed 1,803. Even Calvin Coolidge, the guy famous for not talking, signed 1,203.
Compared to those guys, the recent residents of the White House are actually pretty restrained.
- Barack Obama: 276 over two terms.
- Donald Trump (First Term): 220.
- Joe Biden: 162.
Wait, Biden’s number looks low, right? That’s because people often confuse executive orders with other things like "presidential memoranda" or "proclamations." Biden actually used those other tools a lot. If you only look at the official "Executive Order" tally, he looks like a minimalist. But if you count all the directives, the picture changes.
Why How Many Executive Orders Have Presidents Signed Actually Matters
It’s not just about the count. It’s about what they do.
The American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara tracks this stuff religiously, and they’ve noted a shift. In the old days, a lot of orders were boring. We’re talking about "Changing the name of a forest" or "Moving a desk from one department to another."
Today, they are grenades.
When a president signs an order now, it's usually to bypass a Congress that can’t agree on what color the sky is. Trump’s 2025 spree has been focused on what he calls "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government" and "Unleashing American Energy." On his very first day back, January 20, 2025, he signed 26 orders. That is a massive jump from 2017 when he only signed one on day one.
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The Power Struggle with the Courts
There is a huge catch to all this signing. Just because a president puts pen to paper doesn't mean it actually happens.
The courts have become the ultimate "undo" button. For example, Trump’s 2025 order trying to end birthright citizenship (EO 14160) was almost immediately blocked. Same thing happened to parts of Biden’s orders on student loans and vaccine mandates.
Honestly, the "how many" part of the question is often less important than "how many survived the lawsuits."
Breaking Down the Recent Averages
If you look at the last 10 presidents starting with Richard Nixon, the average is about 269 per president. Two-termers usually hit around 328.
Jimmy Carter was actually the "busiest" per year among recent one-termers, averaging 80 orders annually. Obama was the most "efficient" or "restrained" depending on your politics, averaging only 35 per year.
Ronald Reagan sits in the middle with 381. He liked to use them for deregulation, but he also had a more cooperative Congress than we see today. That’s the secret sauce: the less Congress does, the more the President reaches for the pen.
Actionable Insights for Tracking Executive Power
If you want to stay on top of this without getting buried in partisan spin, keep these three things in mind:
- Check the Federal Register: This is the official "diary" of the U.S. government. Every single executive order has to be published here. If it's not in the Register, it’s not an EO.
- Distinguish between Orders and Memoranda: A "Memorandum" has the force of law but doesn't have the same filing requirements. It’s a "stealth" way presidents get things done.
- Watch the "Rescissions": A huge chunk of modern executive orders are just the new guy "deleting" the old guy's orders. For instance, Trump's EO 14148 in 2025 was literally titled "Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders." It was a giant delete button for Biden-era policies.
The trend isn't just about more orders—it's about faster ones. Presidents are now expected to walk into the building and fundamentally change the country's direction by lunch on their first day. Whether that's "efficient" or "dangerous" depends entirely on who you ask, but the data shows the era of the 1,000-order president (like FDR or Wilson) is likely over, replaced by an era of fewer, but much more explosive, directives.
To get the most accurate current count, you should always look at the running totals provided by the National Archives or the Federal Register, as these numbers change weekly. Focus on the substance of the orders rather than the sheer volume, as a single order on trade or immigration often carries more weight than fifty orders regarding civil service administrative tweaks.