Trump's executive orders really aren't 'shock and awe' after Biden's overreach | Opinion
Presidents should be able to set the tone for their administrations, but the escalating pingpong of executive orders isn't sustainable – and it's not good for the country.
Before Monday’s inauguration of President Donald Trump, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming promised an incoming “shock and awe with executive orders.”
“A blizzard of executive orders on the economy as well as on the border,” Barrasso said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” earlier this month.
Trump did not disappoint.
On his first day, the president issued about 200 executive actions. While this may seem extreme and perhaps an abuse of his office, what Trump did isn’t shocking at all given prior precedent.
Our modern-day presidents are increasingly leaning on their executive authority to enact their agenda. And former President Joe Biden really upped the ante. In his first 100 days, Biden issued a slew of orders and actions that pushed (and exceeded) the limits of his power. Much of what he did, especially in his first days, was overturning Trump’s orders from his first term – many of them centered on the border and immigration.
So it’s no surprise that Trump returned the favor, rescinding nearly 80 of Biden’s edicts as his first matter of business.
Why the increased reliance on executive power?
“This country is so split on so many issues, and that includes representation in Congress, that it is extremely difficult to get anything through Congress these days,” said Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “The second reason is because the executive branch has gotten so big and not only has it gotten so big, but it has vastly expanded its reach into so many aspects of Americans’ personal lives, their businesses, their professions.”
Presidents should be able to set the tone for their administrations, but this escalating pingpong of executive orders isn’t sustainable – and it’s not good for the country.
Trump needs to work with Congress
Trump starts his second term with Republican control of Congress. Even though the GOP has a slim majority, the president has the ability to enact long-lasting change by asking lawmakers to cement many of his initial executive actions into law.
And that’s what he should do.
Presidents do have broad authority, granted by either the Constitution or Congress, to set executive branch policy. But as we’ve seen the past eight years, these presidential orders are as easy to undo as they are to enact.
For instance, in his “Initial Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders And Actions,” Trump defended his nixing of Biden’s orders this way: “The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government. The injection of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy. Orders to open the borders have endangered the American people and dissolved Federal, State, and local resources that should be used to benefit the American people. Climate extremism has exploded inflation and overburdened businesses with regulation.”
Trump isn’t wrong on any of this, and these issues are all related to the mandate that voters gave Trump when they elected him.
However, he needs to do the hard work and make sure Congress takes action, too.
Biden overstepped too much. Trump should avoid that trap.
I spent much of the four years of Biden’s term criticizing him for abusing his presidential powers, whether that was related to COVID-19 or student loans. The courts also pushed back on many of his actions.
Just because Biden did it doesn’t mean Trump should. In fact, Trump should take the higher ground.
Yet, Trump also issued executive orders Monday that are concerning. Among those were delaying the ban of TikTok and ending birthright citizenship.
The TikTok ban was passed by Congress, signed into law by Biden and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, so it’s unclear why Trump has the legal authority to reverse that call.
Birthright citizenship is embedded in our Constitution, and while Trump is attempting to discourage illegal immigration, he can’t step on our most fundamental rights.
Similarly, it’s discouraging to see Trump lean on “national emergencies.” He declared a national emergency at the southern border (which he also did during his first term) as well as an energy emergency.
These emergency declarations are ways for him to act more quickly – and without Congress. But it’s too similar to what Biden did with his extensions of the “national emergency” related to COVID-19. He kept the country under a state of emergency far longer than necessary so he could lean on his executive power.
Trump has only four more years to cement his legacy. I understand the need to act quickly, but presidential decrees are the wrong way for him to do that.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at Paste BN. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques