How many executive orders has Barack Obama issued?
On my flight from London to Washington DC to spend Thanksgiving with American friends, I met an intelligent and articulate Anerican who voted for Donald Trump, who hated Hillary Clinton, and who told me that Barack Obama had issued more executive orders than the previous seven presidents combined.
I told him that he was absolutely wrong about Obama and that in fact Obama’s use of exectuve orders was in no way out of the ordinary compared to other post-war presidents. But I could not give him the figures because I could not access the web during the flight. Now I can.
Obama has issued a total of 235 executive orders. His predecessor George W Bush issued 291. Before Bush Jr, Clinton issued 364. Before Clinton, George H W Bush issued 166. I think you get the point. My American conversant was totally wrong and he illustrated for me just how biased even many educated Americans are against Obama.
Truly we live in a post-truth world.