WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump will mark the end of his first 100 days in office with a flurry of executive orders, looking to fulfil campaign promises and rack up victories ahead of that milestone by turning to a presidential tool he once derided. But Trump’s frequent use of the executive order points to his struggles getting legislation through a Congress controlled by his own party and few of the orders themselves appear to deliver the sweeping changes the president has promised.Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald TrumpWhite House aides said that Trump will have signed 32 executive orders by Friday, the most of any president in their first 100 days since the second world war. That’s a far cry from Trump’s heated campaign rhetoric, in which he railed against his predecessor’s use of executive action late in his tenure as president Barack Obama sought to manoeuvre around a Republican Congress. Trump argued that he, the consummate deal maker, wouldn’t need to rely on the tool.“The country wasn’t based on executive orders,” said Trump at a town hall in South Carolina in February 2016. “Right now, Obama goes around signing executive orders. He can’t even get along with the Democrats, and he goes around signing all these executive orders. It’s a basic disaster. You can’t do it.”But after taking office, Trump has learned to love the executive order.In an email blast to reporters on Tuesday, the White House touted the sheer volume of orders as evidence for the suspect claim that “Trump has accomplished more in his 100 days than any other President since Franklin Roosevelt.” The White House has defended the use of executive orders as necessary to accomplish the speedy solutions it says the American people elected Trump to enact.At first, the president’s West Wing advisers fashioned an onslaught of executive action to set the tone for ...
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