Donald Trump has issued more executive orders at this point in his term of office than any other president in the last half century.
So notes a new study published by the Pew Research Center that put the total Trump count, thus far into only the first year of his second term, at 221 executive orders.
The study notes that Trump has actually now issued more executive orders than he did during the entire four years of his first term when that number totaled 220.
By contrast, Barack Obama issued only 147 executive orders in his first term and 129 in his second. Putting the figures from both of Obama’s terms together comes to 276, far less than the 441 Trump signed, combining his first and second term.
Far fewer executive orders were signed by Joseph Biden in his full four years, at 162; and George W. Bush, who signed 173 in his first term and 118 in his second.
But the all-time executive order record-holder, according to the Pew study, is still Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed 2018 such documents. FDR, however, had plenty of time to amass that record, having served 12 years as president.
The remarkable thing about Trump’s most recent 221 executive orders is that they have been issued in the short span of 11 months. Even more, Trump issued 26 orders on just his first day back in office last January.
Notes the Pew study: “Trump’s second term executive orders have often focused on topics including government operations, foreign relations and defense, energy, and immigration.”
Many of those orders, continues the study, have since “been challenged in the courts, raising questions about the legal bounds of presidential power.” By way of example, the Supreme Court is currently trying to determine the legality of the President’s executive orders relating to global tariffs.
The smallest number of executive orders signed by presidents in the last century include Gerald Ford’s 169 during his not quite two-and-a-half-year term from 1974 to 1977, and George H.W. Bush with 166 orders during his single term from 1989 to 1993.
December 29, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Roosevelt campaign poster from 1936
