How many executive orders has each president signed?

The latest archive count

EO Explained currently indexes 1,603 executive orders across six presidential-term collections, from Bill Clinton’s administration through Donald Trump’s second term. These are this archive’s records as of October 8, 2026; they should not be described as every executive order ever issued. A White House signature and Federal Register publication can fall on different days, and recent signed documents may enter indexes at different times.

Counts in the tables below come from this site's 1,603-record archive, checked October 17, 2026. A research-stage label describes the site's review, not the current legal force of an order. Compare the Federal Register’s published-order index.

Every collection since 1993

The two Trump terms are shown separately. The current term’s number will change as new orders are indexed; the table is generated from the same records as the archive and presidential profiles.

Before 1993

Franklin D. Roosevelt signed far more orders than recent presidents during his unusually long tenure and the New Deal and war years. Comparisons over a century need context: administrations lasted different lengths, the federal government changed in size, and the practice of recording written presidential directions evolved. The American Presidency Project term table supplies historical counts; it is separate from this site’s 1993-onward inventory.

Every president, from Washington to Trump

The American Presidency Project (APP) reports the totals below by presidential term. The Federal Register provides the published numbered-order record and agrees with the APP on many modern administrations, but not every historical total. The numbered Trump second-term sequence contains 288 orders through Executive Order 14434, signed September 29, 2026. This site also includes the unnumbered October 5, 2026 diesel order, making 289 signed-order guides. Its Federal Register number and publication were not verified on October 8, 2026.

The sources do not count every period in exactly the same way. APP explains that its 1789–1945 historical figures include numbered and unnumbered orders; from Truman onward, its totals count numbered orders, including letter-designated entries. The Federal Register’s searchable series is built around published presidential documents, and its modern list reports 277 for Obama where APP reports 276, and 906 for Truman where APP reports 907. Numbering gaps, later discoveries, lettered orders, publication cutoffs, and historical compilation choices can produce small differences. Use a source’s stated method and cutoff instead of treating a count as a timeless exact figure.

Sources: American Presidency Project, Executive Orders statistics; Federal Register, Executive Orders; historical method described by the National Archives.

Year-by-year within each term

A calendar year is not a year of office. A president’s first and last years may be partial; dividing totals by years in office is more informative than reading a raw count alone.

The first day and first hundred days

The archive identifies 26 orders signed on January 20, 2025. The day-one guide lists each numbered record and its dated editorial status. “First 100 days” totals can differ by whether the inauguration day is included, whether signed-but-unpublished documents are counted, and whether proclamations or memoranda are mixed in. State the window and document types before comparing totals.

Why trackers disagree

The Federal Register focuses on published numbered orders. White House pages can post signed text before official publication; our archive also tracks those signed documents. Other databases may group by presidency or calendar year, lag updates, count amendments separately or include other types of presidential actions. A snapshot date and inclusion rule matter more than a bare number.

Signing more orders does not by itself prove a president exercised more power. Scope, legal authority, implementation, duration and court review vary enormously—from a one-day office closure to a nationwide program. Read a few order examples before drawing a conclusion from the chart.

What the archive count measures

The number on this page is a count of records in EO Explained's archive, not a claim that every record is currently in force, legally significant, or equally comparable. Each row represents one executive-order record assigned to a presidential collection. The archive currently covers the six presidential-term collections listed above, from Bill Clinton through Donald Trump's second term, and the table is generated from the site's order index rather than copied from a changing headline.

That scope matters. An executive order is only one kind of presidential action. Presidential memoranda, proclamations, determinations, national-emergency notices, and signing statements are not automatically added to an executive-order count. An amendment order normally has its own number and therefore its own record, even if its main purpose is to revise an earlier order. A single policy can thus involve several numbered orders, agency rules, and court cases without being one “order” in every database.

The National Archives explains that executive orders receive consecutive numbers through the Office of the Federal Register and are published as presidential documents. Its disposition tables track whether identified earlier orders have been amended or revoked. Those are two separate questions: the count asks how many documents were issued within the archive's scope; a status review asks what later law or action did to each document. See the National Archives overview and disposition tables.

A record count also depends on the cutoff date. A signed text may be announced before the Federal Register assigns its number or publishes it. If a database captures signed text promptly and another waits for formal publication, their totals can differ temporarily. EO Explained labels its research stage and links to the official text so a reader can see whether the page is based on a signed text, a Federal Register publication, or a later record.

How to compare presidents fairly

First compare the same unit. Use executive orders with executive orders, not one president's orders against another president's full set of memoranda and proclamations. Check whether the source counts documents by signing date, publication date, or calendar year. The Federal Register's numbering is sequential across administrations, while a website may group those documents by the President who signed them. Differences in grouping can make a familiar count look inconsistent without either source having made an arithmetic mistake.

Next account for time. A one-term President has fewer days in office than a two-term President; a full calendar year can include part of two administrations; an inauguration date can shift a year-by-year comparison. A raw total should be paired with the number of days or years covered, and even a per-year average can conceal a burst of orders during a crisis or a transition. The archive's presidential-term rows are therefore more useful for browsing than as a scorecard.

Then look at subject and legal function. One President may use orders for routine board appointments, federal-office closures, and internal delegations; another may use more orders to revoke predecessors' policies, direct regulatory reviews, or address a declared emergency. Those documents have very different effects. Counting a short holiday-closure order and a nationwide policy order as one each is correct for document inventory, but not a measure of the public impact of either administration.

Finally, distinguish an order's issuance from its implementation. An order can require reports and planning while leaving later policy decisions to an agency. Another may make an immediate instruction to officials but still face litigation or statutory limits. The total alone does not tell you how many directives became operational rules, how long they lasted, how many people they affected, or whether a court upheld them.

Why official and private trackers may disagree

Sources can use different date fields, update schedules, and inclusion rules. The Federal Register is the official publication source for numbered executive orders; the White House may publish a signed document earlier. The National Archives' historical disposition materials have coverage boundaries, and some current records are maintained through FederalRegister.gov. A private archive may add a page as soon as an official signed copy is available, while another system waits for a Federal Register citation or uses a later annual compilation.

There are also edge cases: an order may be signed at the end of one day and published later; a document may be titled a memorandum even though it contains agency instructions; an amendment may list several earlier orders; a rescission may preserve completed actions; and one presidential action may be revised before formal publication. Good sources disclose how they handle those cases. When they do not, ask what was counted before comparing totals.

This page's totals update from the site's indexed records. They should be read with the displayed date and collection scope. For an independent check, use the Federal Register's executive-order index and the National Archives index. A count that changes after a document is numbered is normal; it is not evidence that the underlying text or the President's legal power changed.

What a total cannot tell you

A higher number does not, by itself, show that a President governed more effectively, claimed more power, or made more policy. It may reflect different priorities, the number of amendments and administrative housekeeping documents, a response to events, or choices by the archive about its cutoff. To evaluate an order, read its text, identify the authority it cites, check whether Congress supplied or restricted that authority, and follow the agency action and litigation that came later.

For a closer comparison, select a subject such as immigration, trade, workforce policy, or energy, then compare orders that address the same legal task. The site's topic directory and comparison tool help locate that material. Use the date and evidence on each page; do not assume two similarly titled orders have the same scope or current status.

What the year-by-year comparison shows

The year rows are useful for seeing when an administration issued documents, but a year is not always a complete term. January includes days from the outgoing and incoming administrations; the President's term begins at the inauguration, not on January 1. A document signed near midnight may be assigned a different publication date. Compare the signing-date field and administration label before drawing a conclusion about a calendar year's pace.

Order numbers are also not a within-term tally. Executive-order numbers continue from one President to the next, and they are not reset at inauguration. The difference between two EO numbers is therefore not automatically the number of orders signed during that interval: proclamations and other presidential documents have different numbering, and an order may be signed but not yet numbered when a snapshot is taken. Use the archive table, which counts records by signer and signing date, rather than subtracting EO numbers.

A presidential total combines orders with different purposes. The archive includes actions on national security, agency management, federal employment, trade, public lands, regulatory reviews, emergency powers, and ceremonial closings. Some are short or administrative; others establish a policy framework that triggers years of agency work and litigation. To compare policy choices, sort by topic and read the individual text. The site's topic directory supports that subject-by-subject approach.

Changes in Congress and the wider world also affect the mix of documents. A new administration may use orders to reverse prior executive-branch directions, implement an enacted statute, respond to an emergency, or set a management process. The same issue may also be addressed through a bill, a rulemaking, an appropriations rider, or a court judgment. The order count records signed documents, not all governmental activity on that issue.

For a reproducible comparison, record the source, its cutoff date, whether it counts by signature or publication, the document type, and the President or term grouping. Then compare like with like and check the primary texts. This archive provides those details in the order guides and official-source links; it does not infer legal impact from the size of a bar in a chart.