“Executive Orders”
This instrument gives the US President enormous power
Updated 01/21/2025 – 09:00 amReading time: 1 min.
They are not laws, but they have a great impact: presidential decrees are among the preferred instruments of power of a US president.
Donald Trump has announced a “record number” of decrees for his first day in office with which he wants to push through his radical political plans. The presidential decrees (“Executive Orders”) contain binding orders from the President for employees of the executive branch; they can specify or further develop existing laws or also order a national emergency.
The decrees do not go through the legislative process in the US Congress and may also contain instructions for internal security or defense. They must be backed by the Constitution. The president himself or his successor can revoke the decrees at any time.
Courts can overturn a decree if its content is considered unconstitutional. Congress has the option to replace the presidential decree with a new law or to stop funds for its implementation. A president can veto this, which can only be overruled by a two-thirds majority in Congress.
In his first term in office (2017 to 2021), Trump issued 220 decrees, of which his successor Joe Biden repealed around a third. Biden himself issued 154 decrees. Critics see the danger of misusing the decrees to circumvent Congress or to reinterpret laws that originally had a different meaning.