As his first 100 days in office draws to a close, Donald Trump has basically no legislative wins to speak of. So what’s a man with a compulsive need to be seen as a winner to do? Trump’s answer—or the answer of the staff tasked with making him feel like people think he’s getting stuff done—has been to make a big deal about issuing executive orders. But while Trump’s executive orders show his desire to create a meaner, uglier America with a lot less protections for workers, consumers, and the environment, many of them don’t do much more:
… more than half of the 29 orders issued as of Thursday have merely called for reviews, have commissioned reports or established panels to issue recommendations. The documents lay out a dizzying schedule of 90-, 120- and 180-day increments for federal agencies to evaluate the feasibility of White House policy goals and report to the president. [...]
Some senior White House officials have acknowledged that the executive orders are intended in part to signal Trump’s priorities to his supporters.
“The purposes of the orders are to make clear what the president’s and the administration’s priorities are and to signify the importance of these issues to the American people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week as he rolled out the executive order on reducing the burden of tax regulations.
Okay … Trump’s big accomplishments of his first 100 days are making clear his priorities and signifying their importance. So basically, something his presidential campaign should have done. That seems about his speed.