So Trump signed like 50 executive orders on his first day as President. But who actually writes the text of these things and who decides what the content should be? Are there committees to plan them? Does anyone other than the President officially get a say in their content, and if not, who is likely to unofficially have an input into each one?
The short answer is “Whoever the President wants”. In theory, you or I could write to the President, and say “Here’s the text of an executive order I’d like you to issue”, and he could look at it, say “Yeah, that’s a great idea”, and sign it. In practice, of course, anything you or I send is going to be completely ignored, but there are plenty of individuals and groups who do have the President’s ear, and any of them could suggest something.
It works similarly for legislation, by the way. Most laws that get passed have some sort of advocacy group that wants them, and the text of the laws is mostly written by those groups. Of course, in either case, the actual politicians can re-write them as they choose, or consult with the advocacy groups on how to re-write them, but in most cases, they don’t know enough about the subject matter to be able to write intelligent laws concerning them.
This.
The majority of these things along with most bills are written by late 20 something staffers of the executive branch and the legislative branch.
That wouldn’t be the case with yesterday’s batch. There were many of them and they were long and detailed. He was signing them as soon as he got into the White House. They had to have been prepared by his back room supporters, not staffers in the executive branch.
It doesn’t seem particularly democratic.
Even this doesn’t seem great, although at least anyone who opposes the law or has concerns can bring them to the attention of their representative.
I take it that it isn’t public knowledge who wrote the text of each one? Do we have any idea which of the groups/factions backing Trump would have been involved in specific executive orders?
The democratic part is that it’s the elected President who chooses which ones to issue.
Also note that “advocacy groups” can cover all sorts of ground: Some of them represent particular industries or even individual companies, but some of them also represent citizens with certain interests or demographic traits. The category includes Moms for Liberty and Planned Parenthood; the Project for a New American Century and the ACLU; the Proud Boys and the NAACP.
That, I don’t know, though it’s a good question.
I just assumed it was the 2025 committee.
I remember right around this time in his first term, Mitch McConnell saying “He’ll sign anything we put in front of him,” or something to that effect. Just hand him a Sharpie and set him loose.
That sounds like the guess that would have the most correct hits.
And any big-money Trump donors who didn’t happen to work on Project 2025 are likely to have submitted some prospective executive orders, too.
I’d say that it’s most likely that the 50 executive orders weren’t all written by the same folks. Everyone has some issues that are important to them and some that they don’t care about.
Yeah, if you look at the list of the orders he signed, they fall into a few broad categories:
- Stuff from Project 2025
- Stuff to placate his base
- Stuff to stick it to Biden
- Stuff that’s stupid but makes him “look tough”
Category 1 was probably written years ago, and they just put it in front of him. Same with category 2, we knew he’d go for the things like anti-immigrant and anti-trans orders. Category 3 was pretty simple, just list everything Biden did, and say, “Deleted!”. Category 4 is pretty easy to write; Re-name the Gulf of Amexica, “Lower prices you fools!”, shit like that. None of them are overly-long or complex, so could have been banged out in very little time.
For example,
Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew said he spoke with Trump by phone about a month ago and urged him to act on his campaign promise.
“I said ‘Mr. President, we need to move on this.’ He said, ‘Yeah, we definitely do. I agree. I’m against them,’ ” Van Drew said. “He said, ‘Write an executive order, get it to my people.’”
Van Drew told The Associated Press Wednesday night that he quickly emailed a draft order to Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to be Interior secretary.
~Max
The transition team would have been stuffed with lawyers, prepped to put policies into legal language. The lawyers would pass them up to Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles. She was his campaign director, so she had extensive opportunity to find out what his intentions were. She and the President’s legal counsel, David Warrington, would have vetted them and told Trump he’d get what he wanted. I refuse to believe he read 100 EOs.
EOs look different from bills. Many of the ones I read resembled mission statements. They direct the leaders in the Executive Branch to do stuff that he likes, as if that wasn’t going to happen anyway. Or they are supposed to submit reports, as if that wasn’t going to happen anyway.
OK, this one sounds like real action. Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis
Here’s the action paragraph.
I hereby order the heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker. This shall include pursuing appropriate actions to: lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel. Within 30 days of the date of this memorandum, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy shall report to me and every 30 days thereafter, on the status of the implementation of this memorandum.
I could have written that. I’ve written speeches for people like Mayors and College Presidents. This is nothing more than “Please me, or you’ll be toast.”
Now some EOs might have real consequences, like pardoning 1/6 criminals, - or they will if they exist after all the lawsuits. Eliminating birthright citizenship would hurt, but 18 state attorney generals* and two mayors have already launched suits. Most of these EOs, therefore, are pre-emptive propaganda rather than policy.
See all of them here.
* Yeah, that’s the modern way to make attorney general plural, pedants.
NO!
The gender identity one was apparently written by a woman called May Mailman from the Independent Women’s Forum, now a Whitehouse staffer.
Probably journalists could find out, for any particularly important EOs, who was responsible, but there doesn’t seem to be a public database
It’s not. There’s no actual legal mechanism for EOs. They’re just a thing that presidents started doing as the power of the office grew.
Thank God!! Now the whales won’t get cancer!
AI may be the author based on some of the language in Trump’s EO’s.
Who writes them? Me, once. But I won’t say which one or why. It’s basically true that an executive order can be written by anyone the president chooses.
No one has mentioned the traditional role of the Office of Legal Counsel (Office of Legal Counsel | Office of Legal Counsel), which is a part of the Department of Justice that advises the White House on legal matters. In the ordinary course of business, all executive orders will be reviewed by the OLC. If the matter concerns a particular agency, senior management of that agency will also usually review it and have input.
The recent executive orders were certainly drafted before the inauguration. No one from the OLC or the affected agencies should have been involved in drafting them. However, the incoming president gets a transition budget to pay staff and get started on substantive work, like drafting and reviewing executive orders. Many or most of the staffers working on the transition team will be in senior positions in the new administration. The transition team likely included the very same lawyers who are now working in the OLC.
Cite please.