On Monday, President Donald Trump signed his 221st executive order, surpassing his entire four-year first term record of 220. Unlike many other presidents who partnered with Congress to pass legislation to advance their agenda, President Trump has opted to “dramatically expand presidential authority with moves that have tested the bounds of the Constitution,” according to The Washington Post.

“American presidents have consolidated executive power to skirt Congress since the beginning of the 20th century. But Trump has accelerated the trend that intensified in recent decades amid a decline in legislative activity and rising partisan brinkmanship.”

Continuing at his current rate, Trump would finish this four-year term with more than 880 executive orders to his name.

According to The American Presidency Project, President Joe Biden signed a total of 162 executive orders in four years. President Barack Obama signed 276 across eight years. President George W. Bush signed 291 in eight years, and President Bill Clinton, 364.

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“Trump has used the orders to impose sweeping tariffs, seek retribution against his perceived enemies and weigh in on cultural issues big and small, from challenging immigration laws to regulating water pressure from showerheads,” the Post reported.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has “major influence” over Trump’s executive orders. The Post reported that one White House official said that every executive order is “fully vetted and reviewed” by the White House Counsel, the president’s staff secretary’s office, and Miller.

Trump’s approach is distinguished by both the volume of executive orders and the scope. They reflect a strong effort to shift power away from Congress and toward the Oval Office — an expansion of presidential authority that courts are now being asked to rein in.

The courts, according to the Post, have stepped in numerous times, halting Trump “from unilaterally changing federal election-registration rules, banning care for transgender people and punishing law firms who have represented causes or clients that he opposes. A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Trump’s tariffs during oral arguments last month, and the high court said it would hear a case examining Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship.”

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Moderate House Republicans concerned about re-election next year have been pushing for a vote to extend the Obamacare premium subsidies, but Speaker Mike Johnson is strongly opposed. House Democrats need only four Republicans to cross the aisle and sign their discharge petition, which would force a vote on the House floor — and Democrats may get exactly what they want.

That’s according to Punchbowl News and its co-founder, Jake Sherman.

“This week,” Sherman wrote, “was designed to give House Republicans a way to push back on Democratic attacks that they’re indifferent to skyrocketing health care costs hitting millions of Americans. Instead, the House GOP leadership has facilitated an untimely — and particularly nasty — intraparty brawl, pitting moderates against Republican Party leaders and further strengthening Democrats’ political hand as the Obamacare cliff looms.”

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Speaker Johnson is “pushing” moderate Republicans “into the arms of Democrats,” Sherman added, “as the House Republican leadership refuses to allow the centrists a vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies.”

One moderate Republican, Sherman also reported, U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) “stood up in a House Republican Conference meeting and said that not having an up-or-down vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies is malpractice.”

He also reported that many moderate Republicans “share this sentiment.”

“They feel like they have to have a vote and the conference won’t give it to them. Driving them into the arms of democrats.”

Sherman explained that by refusing to allow the vote, Republicans have delivered a “political advantage” to the Democrats. If just four House Republicans sign Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition, “Democrats have exacted the precise policy win they’ve been seeking, even if that never becomes law.”

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The November unemployment rate jumped to 4.6%, a four-year high, according to the Trump administration’s delayed jobs report released on Tuesday. It is the highest unemployment rate since September 2021. Employers added 64,000 jobs in November, after a sharp loss of 105,000 jobs in October, a month for which the administration did not release a report.

In what is being seen as a clear sign that hiring is slowing, the October loss “marked the third time in six months that payrolls saw a net negative level,” according to CNBC.

The New York Times called the jump in the unemployment rate “a warning sign for the economy.”

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Experts are expressing concern.

“There have been almost no job gains since April,” warned Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal. She added that the “US would have LOST JOBS in the past 6 months if it weren’t for healthcare.”

Long concluded, “The US economy is in a hiring recession.”

Professor of economics and frequent cable news guest Justin Wolfers has repeatedly warned about possible stagflation.

On Tuesday, he called private sector hiring “weak,” and said it “may have stalled totally.”

“All told, the headline numbers suggest VIRTUALLY NO EMPLOYMENT GROWTH since April (‘Liberation day”),” Wolfers wrote, referring to the day President Donald Trump’s tariffs began.

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Wolfers also offered some concerning news: “Are we in a recession? Perhaps. Maybe. Hard to tell.”

“I just realized…the unemployment rate rising to 4.6% has taken us back to February 2017…the first month of Trump’s first term,” noted Martha Gimbel, a former senior advisor at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

“The unemployment rate for Black Americans rose to 8.3% in November, the highest level since 2021 and a 2.1 percentage point increase from the start of this year,” noted Joey Politano, who writes about economics at Apricitas Economics.

Kevin Gordon of the Schwab Center for Financial Research summed up Tuesday’s report: “The simplicity of today is that the unemployment rate continues to move higher.”

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