FactualSince arriving at the White House, Joe Biden has signed more than thirty executive orders – many more than previous presidents.
This was Joe Biden’s project from the start of the American presidential campaign: to turn the page on four populist and conservative years of Donald Trump’s presidency. And he was quick to put it into practice. From his first day at the White House, January 20, 2021, the 46e US president signed fifteen executive orders, including thirteen to repeal provisions made by his predecessor. He then continued the momentum and signed more than thirty decrees and other texts in the first week.
This frenzy breaks with the rhythm of previous American presidents. Joe Biden is doing much faster than his four predecessors – and even faster than Barack Obama and George W. Bush during their first 100 days.
The graph below shows the detailed content of the decrees signed by each of the presidents at the start of their mandate.
“Break” the policy of his predecessor or lay the foundations of his own
The decrees, memoranda or proclamations signed by the new presidents can be placed in two categories: those which break provisions made under the previous mandate and those which impose a vision of the policy for the years to come.
Donald Trump had never ceased from his arrival, in the name of “America first”, to try to go back over the eight years of Obama’s presidency – starting with health coverage for the poorest people, Obamacare. This offensive had had limited effectiveness because it had been slowed down by Congress. He had had more success when it came to twisting Obama’s environmental legislation to authorize, for example, drilling in protected areas in the far north of Alaska. On the other hand, Trump had had all the trouble in the world to pass one of the symbolic decrees he had signed on his arrival, and which prohibited the entry into American soil of nationals of Muslim countries: he had had to do it. three times to stop being censored by federal justice.
Joe Biden also began by unraveling Donald Trump’s political legacy through decrees, before being able to do so through law: the return of the United States to the WHO and the agreement of Paris on the climate, cancellation of the construction of the wall on the southern border and the pipeline project between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, etc. But the Democratic president’s team announced that it was necessary to move quickly, both on environmental issues and in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 400,000 victims in the country. Now having a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Mr Biden has a free hand to act until at least November 2022’s midterm elections.
