President Donald Trump's first three weeks in office were filled with a flurry of action, and he's just getting started.
The 45th president has signed 25 executive actions so far, with far-reaching effects on Americans' lives.
While many of them have been billed as executive orders in the popular vernacular, most of them were technically presidential memoranda or proclamations.
The three types of executive actions have different authority and effects, with executive orders holding the most prestige:
- Executive orders are assigned numbers and published in the federal register, similar to laws passed by Congress, and typically direct members of the executive branch to follow a new policy or directive.
- Presidential memoranda do not have to be published or numbered (though they can be), and usually delegate tasks that Congress has already assigned the president to members of the executive branch.
- Finally, while some proclamations— like President Abraham Lincoln's emancipation proclamation — have carried enormous weight, most are ceremonial observances of federal holidays or awareness months.
Scholars have typically used the number of executive orders per term to measure how much presidents have exercised their power. George Washington only signed eight his entire time in office, according to the American Presidency Project, while FDR penned over 3,700.
In his two terms, President Barack Obama issued 277 executive orders, a total number on par with his modern predecessors, but the lowest per year average in 120 years. Trump, so far, has signed 11 executive orders.
Here's a quick guide to the executive actions Trump has made so far, what they do, and how Americans have reacted to them:
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Executive Order, February 9: Combating criminal organizations
The order is intended to "thwart" criminal organizations, including "criminal gangs, cartels, racketeering organizations, and other groups engaged in illicit activities."
The action directs law enforcement to apprehend and prosecute citizens, and deport non-citizens involved in criminal activities including "the illegal smuggling and trafficking of humans, drugs or other substances, wildlife, and weapons,""corruption, cybercrime, fraud, financial crimes, and intellectual-property theft," and money laundering
The Secretary of State, Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Director of National Intelligence will co-chair a Threat Mitigation Working Group that will identify ways that local, state, federal, and international law enforcement can work together in order to eradicate organized crime.
It also instructs the co-chairs to present the president with a report within 120 days outlining the penetration of criminal organizations into the United States, and recommendations for how to eradicate them.
Read the full text of the order here »
Executive Order, February 9: Reducing crime
Following up on his promise to restore "law and order" in America, Trump signed an executive order intended to reduce violent crime in the US, and "comprehensively address illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and violent crime."
The action directs Attorney General Jeff Sessions to assemble a task force in order to identify new strategies and laws to reduce crime, and to evaluate how well crime data is being collected and leveraged across the country.
Trump has come under fire recently for claiming the national murder rate was at an all-time high, when it has in fact dropped to one of the lowest rates ever, with 2015 merely experiencing a slight uptick from the previous year.
Read the full text of the order here »
Executive Order, February 9: Protecting law enforcement
The order seeks to create new laws that will protect law enforcement, and increase the penalties for crimes committed against them.
It also directs the attorney general to review existing federal grant funding programs to law enforcement agencies, and recommend changes to the programs if they don't adequately protect law enforcement.
The action is likely in response to multiple high-profile police killings over the past year, including a sniper attack that killed five Dallas police officers in July.
Read the full text of the order here »
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