President has made no firm decisions on which executive orders he wants to issue first, an improvisational approach contrary to his predecessors
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to take executive action on a nearly daily basis for a month to unravel his predecessor’s legacy and begin enacting his own agenda, his aides say, part of an extended exercise of presidential power to quickly make good on his campaign promises.
But in a reflection of the improvisational style that helped fuel his rise, he has made few, if any, firm decisions about which orders he wants to make, or in which order. That is a striking break from past presidents, who have entered office with detailed plans for rolling out a series of executive actions that set a tone for their presidencies and send a clear message about their agendas. ‘A game-day decision’
It was clear that Trump had devised no such strategy by his first day in office, as advisers expressed doubt until the last moments about whether he would issue any directives Friday. “It’s going to be a gameday decision ,” Sean Spic er, the White House press secretary, told reporters that afternoon.
Then, at about 7 p.m., reporters were suddenly summoned to the Oval Office. After sprinting from the briefing room, they watched Trump sign a directive to federal agencies to begin scaling back parts of the Affordable Care Act.
“There are a number that are being looked at, but it’s just a question of which one she feels like doing, and when,” Spicer had said of executive orders earlier Friday. In recent days, he had said Trump’s top aides were still deciding on the “sequencing” of the unilateral actions.
Still, there is little doubt about the policy areas in Trump’s sights: international trade deals, illegal immigration, the fight against the Islamic State, climate change and Washington lobbying.
In his first half-day in office, Trump focused on health care, ordering the machinery of government to look for every opportunity to pull back on President Barack Obama’s signature achievement by waiving fees or granting exemptions to states, businesses, individuals and insurance companies. He also moved quickly to freeze the Obama administration’s unfinished regulations, a routine step for an incoming president of the opposite party.
During the campaign, Trump railed against Obama’s use of executive authority to sidestep an uncooperative Congress on issues such as immigration and health care. After his victory, Trump vowed to use those same powers to quickly reverse the country’s ideological course.
Aides said they hoped to group Trump’s executive actions thematically for maximum impact. They gave few other details, though some advisers suggested that executive actions onillegal immigration could be amongthe first issued after the inaugural weekend.
The stop-and-start nature of the new president’s first 24 hours re- flected his management style, both in his business empire and in the campaign, which went through four shake-upsasaidesfell intoandoutof favor. His travel schedule was rarely planned out more than a few days in advance, and Trump did not hesitate to tear it apart when he wanted to. Decisions would be telegraphed by top advisers, only to be pulled back within hours, or never announced. Stark contrast to past
The lack of planning stands in stark contrast to the approaches of past presidents.
President Ronald Reagan retreated to the President’s Room just off the Senate floor only moments after being sworn in and signed an order freezing federal hiring, echoing the declaration in his inaugural address that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Obama also decided well in advance which executive actions he wanted to take in his first days, after a team of lawyers spent much of his transition planning what he could do without Congress to illustrate a stark break with George W. Bush’s presidency.
Obama’s embrace of executive orders may have helped pave the way for Trump to take quick action. Since many of O ba ma’ s achievements were put in place with executive action, Trump can reverse them, at least over time, the same way.