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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(108,035 posts) Sat Oct 19, 2019, 01:15 PM Oct 2019

Trump outstripping Obama on pace of executive orders

WASHINGTON (AP) — It wasn't too long ago that Donald Trump derided presidential executive orders as "power grabs" and a "basic disaster."

He's switched sides in a big way: In each year of his presidency, he has issued more executive orders than did former President Barack Obama during the same time span. He surpassed Obama's third-year total just recently.

Back in 2012, Trump had tweeted: "Why Is @BarackObama constantly issuing executive orders that are major power grabs of authority?"

That criticism continued once he entered the presidential race.

"The country wasn't based on executive orders," Trump said at a South Carolina campaign stop in February 2016. "Right now, Obama goes around signing executive orders. He can't even get along with the Democrats, and he goes around signing all these executive orders. It's a basic disaster. You can't do it."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-outstripping-obama-on-pace-of-executive-orders/ar-AAJ0Djs?li=BBnbcA1

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Trump outstripping Obama on pace of executive orders (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Oct 2019 OP

But Trump's reversing Obama's legacy. Igel Oct 2019 #1

I wish they would point out that Obama had to resort to executive orders because the GOP-led scarletwoman Oct 2019 #2

Igel

(35,320 posts)

1. But Trump's reversing Obama's legacy.

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2019, 01:34 PM

Oct 2019

Put the two together and the question immediately has to be, "To what extent are the power grabs recission of previous executive orders and to what extent are they actual increases to presidential control??

Ah. I was about to take the author of the MSN piece to task for being really sloppy. He doesn't hit this point, but he covers another caveat--executive orders and proclamations/memoranda are often fungible, and Obama used memoranda more than Trump. (But I suspect Trump has used proclamations more than Obama. "Proclamation" sounds so much more pompous than the understated "memorandum".)

Still, "I, President A, issue executive order #001 declaring Muslims to be personas non-grata" and "I, President Post-A, issue this executive order rescinding President A's executive order #001" do not strike me as equivalent extensions of presidential authority. There have been some really heated posts trashing Trump for undoing something Obama did by EO or memo.

scarletwoman

(31,893 posts)

2. I wish they would point out that Obama had to resort to executive orders because the GOP-led

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2019, 04:54 PM

Oct 2019

legislative branch was determined to thwart him at every turn, and made it impossible for him enact his agenda any other way.

Conversely, Trump uses executive orders because he's in love the power he feels in doing it. He simply doesn't want to be bothered by Congress, he wants to be king.

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