Trump wasting no time in rapid-fire fifth year in office

Updated / Saturday, 27 Dec 2025 07:28 Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President on 20 January and has since singed nearly 223 executive orders Sean Whelan By Sean Whelan Washington Correspondent As a political figure, losing the 2020 presidential election was the best thing that happened to Donald Trump. It gave him something that most presidents never get – time. Time to think, time to plan, time to plot, time to hire, time to decide what he wanted to do. So he could hit the ground running on 20 January, when he was sworn in as the 47th President on a day so bitterly cold that the usual outdoor ceremony was cancelled. That evening he went to a basketball arena in the city centre and signed 25 executive orders – holding each up for inspection by the cheering crowd - and those watching at home on TV - the mundane business of government transformed into a spectacle for the masses. At the end of the year, the fifth year of the Trump presidency, he is still running – turning out a phenomenal amount of initiatives, actions, deals and announcements – a veritable torrent of government communications. That four-year hiatus between 45 and 47 enabled him and his team to learn from the errors of his first four years, reset, restock and bounce back stronger and more impactfully than he could have if he had won in 2020. One measure – the executive orders: by my count (on Christmas Eve), he has signed 223 orders in the eleven months he has been in office this year – that is more than the 220 he had signed during the entirety of his first, four year term. And that was a record setting high for recent presidencies. President Donald Trump signs an executive order classifying fentanyl as a 'weapon of mass destruction' The pace of activity has been incredible: if you can't keep up, do not worry, you are not alone. Early on, reporting the Trump presidency was likened to trying to take a drink from a fire hose. A refinement to that from a colleague at a news agency: a fire hose that has broke free from the grip of the fire crew and is spraying and thrashing around like it has a mind of its own. But it is not crazy – it is a plan. The "Flooding the Zone" tactic helps to disrupt opposition, and camouflage both the next moves, and the bigger strategic picture of what Mr Trump is up to. Here are a few thoughts on the latter. Presidents have to load up the agenda at the start of their term – its when the energy is highest, and they are often supported by their party winning in Congress, giving a two year legislative window, before midterm elections usually rein the president in – the system of checks and balances in the US Constitution reasserting themselves to keep the ship of state on an even...

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