Andrea Austria / Media Matters

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Fox News figures have done a 180 on presidential executive orders now that Trump is in office

Written by Chloe Simon & Sage Hodil

Published

In the first 30 days of his second administration, President Donald Trump signed more than 70 executive orders. Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levin have praised Trump, referring to him as a “force of nature” who is “doing things now no president has ever done right out of the box,” making it feel like “Christmas every day.”

Conversely, when former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden instituted executive orders during their terms, the same Fox News hosts lambasted them. Hannity attacked Obama for instituting an “imperial presidency” and claimed Biden was “ignoring an entire branch of government.” Ingraham repeatedly called Obama a “tyrant” and referred to him as a “would-be dictator.” Levin faulted Biden for instituting “fascistic” executive orders. 

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  • Trump has issued at least 73 executive orders during his second term so far

    • Since taking office for his second term in January, Trump has issued a flood of executive orders. According to NBC News, in just the first 10 days of his presidency, Trump had already signed more executive orders “than any recent president has in their first 100 days.” The orders cover a wide range of issues, including immigration enforcement, banning trans youth in sports, and trade policy. [NBC News, 2/5/25; CBS News, 2/20/25] 
    • Several of Trump's second term executive orders have raised significant legal and constitutional concerns. Many of these orders, particularly those related to immigration enforcement and agency restructuring, are facing legal challenges from courts across the country. Some experts have voiced worries about a looming “constitutional crisis” as Trump forges ahead, “resisting the plain meaning of law” to increase his executive power. [The New York Times, 2/20/25; BU Today, 2/20/25]
    • Fox News has defended Trump’s executive actions at nearly every step in his second term. Hosts and contributors have misled viewers on the financial impacts of Trump’s executive orders, attacked judges for blocking them, and spun justifications for his attempts to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico. [Media Matters, 2/21/25, 2/13/25, 2/2/25] 

  • Fox News’ Sean Hannity claimed Obama was “ruling by executive fiat” and Biden was “ignoring an entire branch of government,” but has praised Trump as a “force of nature” for his executive actions

    • In 2014, Fox host Sean Hannity said Obama had instituted an “imperial presidency” and was ruling by “executive fiat.” Hannity added, “That is not how our framers designed our Constitution, and our Constitution matters. Otherwise we’re shredding it. We shred it and the country itself is hurt.” [Fox News, On the Record with Greta van Susteren, 1/28/14]
    • Just over a week after Biden took office in 2021, Hannity criticized him for “governance by executive order on a level we’ve never seen in our history.” [Fox News, Hannity, 2/1/21] 
    • A few days later, Hannity said Biden’s “ruling by executive order is basically ignoring an entire branch of government.” Hannity continued, “More than three times the executive orders at this time in the presidency of Obama, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. OK. And then they’re using reconciliation [bill] again to ram it down the country’s throats with no bipartisan support at all.” He then asked his guest, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), “Was this governing to you? Is that constitutional to you?” [Fox News, Hannity, 2/5/21]  
    • On Trump’s first day in office, Hannity praised him for already “working nonstop” and “signing a slew of executive orders.” Hannity went on to list a variety of executive actions and said: “It has been a busy day. There’ll be even more hard work ahead.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/20/25] 
    • A week later, Hannity praised Trump for having “the most productive first week of any president in living memory,” in part due to his “flurry of executive actions.” Hannity celebrated the actions and said they will “get this country back on track.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/27/25] 
    • During an exclusive interview with Vice President JD Vance, Hannity called Trump “a force of nature,” praising him for signing executive orders at the “speed of light.” Speaking to Vance, Hannity stated: “I would describe him as a force of nature, and there's nobody else like him. … As we've seen, hundreds and hundreds of executive actions and you've been here barely — a little over a week now. … It’s the speed of light.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/29/25]

  • Fox News host Laura Ingraham called Obama a “tyrant” and “would-be dictator” for his executive actions but said Trump’s orders made it “like Christmas every day”

    • Prior to Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address, then-radio personality Laura Ingraham claimed Obama wanted “to just be king for a day” and that his was “truly the imperial presidency.” Ingraham also claimed, “He’s annoyed by the fact that he can’t just redistribute when he wants, promulgate laws when he wants to, and I think it speaks to a real dislike of … our whole governmental system.” She added, “That’s kind of in line with his overall philosophy. … That we’re kind of corrupt to the core, our whole system of government, and he thought he was going to come in and right the whole thing for us by the sheer force of his personality.” [Mediaite, 1/28/14]
    • Later that year, in a “Shut Up & Blog” post on her website, Ingraham repeatedly called Obama a “tyrant” and “would-be dictator,” and instructed Congress to restrict his power using “traditional instruments of Congressional authority.” Ingraham wrote, “Stop yielding more and more power to a man who evidently feels that there are no legal constraints on his authority to rewrite our laws and our Constitution.” She also wrote, “The issue now is whether Congressional Republicans will knuckle under to the President, or whether they will act to protect our freedoms, our sovereignty, and our system of government.” [Media Matters, 2/14/25] 
    • A day later, Ingraham likened Obama's executive actions to “homegrown tyranny” of a “king.” [Courtside Entertainment Group, The Laura Ingraham Show, 11/20/14]
    • One day into Trump’s second term, Ingraham praised “the pace” of his executive orders as “astounding” and said “every one … was well executed.” With an on-screen graphic declaring “promises made, promises kept,” Ingraham exclaimed, “Holy cow, like the past few days have been like a bracing but kind of welcome shock to the system because we basically have had no president over the last four years.” Later she remarked that witnessing Trump signing “stacks of executive orders … was a sight to behold.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/21/25]
    • On her show the following night, Ingraham said “Trump's sweeping executive orders” are “like Christmas every day.” Ingraham specifically celebrated Trump’s anti-DEI executive order by stating: “All federal employees in DEI roles — that’s a lot of federal employees — have been put on leave and the woke offices that they were in are now closed. That’s thanks to Trump's sweeping executive orders. I love this. It's like Christmas every day.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/22/25]

  • Mark Levin labeled Biden’s executive orders as “fascistic” but lauded Trump for “doing things no president has ever done right out of the box”

    • In 2021, Levin claimed, “Biden's over 40 executive orders and actions violates separation of powers.” Levin then argued that Biden’s order blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline was “a violation of the Fifth Amendment.” [Fox News, Hannity, 2/3/21] 
    • In 2022, Levin said Biden had “perfected the ability to rule like a dictator” by signing a historic number of executive orders. Levin critiqued Biden for having “more executive orders than any modern president.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 9/23/22] 
    • In 2023, Levin claimed that Biden forgiving student debt via executive order “is a fascistic act by an out-of-control man who thinks he's got this kind of power.” He stated: “When Joe Biden issues an executive order giving up debt that is owed to the United States taxpayer, that is an unconstitutional act. That is a fascistic act by an out-of-control man who thinks he's got this kind of power. He signs executive orders left and right. And of course, he's cheered by the Marxists in the country, whether they be historians or media types or nut jobs in Congress. They hate the Constitution to begin with. But then they claim the Constitution gives a president these kinds of dictatorial powers.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 2/28/23] 
    • Reacting to Trump’s first week in office, Levin praised him for “doing things now no president has ever done, right out of the box” with some of the executive orders he signed. Levin spent the next several minutes listing a variety of executive orders and opined: “Donald Trump is not only one of the most consequential, historic, and iconic figures already to serve as president of the United States, you may well be looking at the most conservative constitutionalist president.” [Fox News, Life, Liberty & Levin, 1/26/25]