Weak congressional action could hurt global opinion toward the US
More turbulent, executive-dominated policymaking hurts America’s bargaining power and image overseas
A reader named Elliot (spelled the weird way with only one t) writes in:
Hi Elliott,
There has been some reporting on Biden's pace of executive orders compared to Trump and Obama during the first few weeks of Biden's Presidency. I think it could be interesting to see what kind of executive orders did Trump and Obama sign and whether those executive orders were upheld by the courts. Will Biden's executive orders be upheld?
I hope everything is well,
Elliot
I think this question is worth answering publicly because it gives me the opportunity to talk about executive power and global public opinion, two things we don’t cover enough. First, though, to answer the question: The vast majority of executive orders are not challenged, and those that are usually get upheld by the courts. Some of Trump’s orders got him in hot water — remember the ban on immigration from many Muslim-majority …
