By D.I. Muhammad
"It would be a very strange Thing, if six Nations of ignorant Savages should be capable of forming a Scheme for such an Union, and be able to execute it in such a Manner, as that it has subsisted Ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like Union should be impracticable for ten or a Dozen English Colonies..."
"The Senate recognized the influence of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy on the construction of the Constitution in a resolution read on September 16, 1987, that noted, “the original framers of the Constitution, including most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts, principles and governmental practices of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Whereas the confederation of the original Thirteen Colonies into one republic was explicitly modeled upon the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself (3-4).”
“Short Hints Towards a Scheme for Uniting the Northern Colonies.” Franklin wrote to his printing partner, James Parker, “It would be a very strange Thing, if [the] Six Nations… should be capable of forming a Scheme for such an Union, and be able to execute it in such a Manner, as that it has subsisted Ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like Union should be impracticable for ten or a Dozen English Colonies, to whom it is more necessary, and must be more advantageous.” He worked on the Albany Plan of Union and members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy attended the Albany Congress, where members of northern colonies discussed forming a general council for their common defense." (The Library of Congress Blogs,The Library of Congress Blogs, https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/09/the-haudenosaunee-confederacy-and-the-constitution/)
(New York state Education Department (.gov), nysd.gov)
Executive orders are how a president directs the executive branch. They can't override the Constitution or Congress, and courts can strike them down, as the Supreme Court did in Youngstown (1952). Here are the orders and actions tied to what's in the news now, in the order they happened.
"The calm before the storm" (October 5, 2017). Trump posed for photos with senior military leaders and their spouses before a White House dinner. He said it might be "the calm before the storm."
When reporters asked what storm, he told them they'd find out. About a week later, CNBC reported, he seemed to point to North Korea. The meeting that day covered Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, and ISIS.
Human trafficking. Two orders come up most. EO 13818 (December 2017) allows sanctions that freeze the assets of foreign people involved in serious human rights abuse and corruption. EO 13903 (January 31, 2020) tells federal agencies to coordinate on prosecuting traffickers and people who exploit children online, support victims, and expand prevention education. It also created a full-time White House position on the issue. Neither order creates military trials or secret arrests.
EO 13848 (September 12, 2018). This order declared a national emergency over foreign interference in U.S. elections. It does four things:
- The Director of National Intelligence must assess any foreign interference within 45 days after each election.
- DHS and DOJ report on whether election or campaign infrastructure was affected.
- The Treasury Department can sanction foreign persons found responsible.
- Agencies recommend further sanctions.
When he signed it, Trump noted that state and local governments run elections. The emergency has been renewed every year, most recently on August 31, 2026. With the midterms on November 3, the 45-day mark falls around December 18, 2026.
During the 2020 elections Trump claimed the Elections were tampered. It would later come out that Dominion tampered with the voting machines using a black box to flip votes, and to submit votes without a voter voting. Which is why up to the point of this writing Trump still talks about election fraud.
The Insurrection Act. The law lets a president send in the military or federalize the National Guard to suppress an insurrection or enforce federal law. In 2020, Trump's White House raised it during the protests after George Floyd's death, but he did not invoke it. It was last invoked in 1992, during the Los Angeles riots. In January 2025, his border emergency order asked for a report on whether to invoke it. He has since said he would consider it and hasn't ruled it out around the midterms.
EO 13961 (December 7, 2020). One of the last orders of Trump's first term, it directs the executive branch to build up its ability to keep operating through catastrophic emergencies, and came with a Federal Mission Resilience Strategy. It covers planning, an interagency committee, and backup arrangements for agency leadership. It applies to the executive branch only.
Biden's term (2021-2025)
Biden signed 162 executive orders. As with Trump, courts and the next president shaped what lasted.
Border and immigration. EO 14010 (February 2021) set up a regional framework to address migration and asylum. EO 14011 created a task force to reunite separated families.
Voting. EO 14019 (March 7, 2021), "Promoting Access to Voting," directed agencies to look at ways to expand access to voter registration and election information. Supporters called it a voting-access measure, Republicans criticized it as overreach, and reporting on it noted it tells agencies to act within existing law.
Vaccine requirements. EO 14042 (September 2021) required federal contractors to follow a COVID vaccination rule, and EO 14043EO 14043 required vaccination for federal employees. The Courts pushed back: a federal judge in Georgia blocked the contractor rule nationwide in December 2021, and other courts blocked it in several states, though the Ninth Circuit disagreed in 2023. The White House later dropped the requirement. The Supreme Court also blocked a separate OSHA rule for large employers in January 2022 (NFIB v. OSHA).
Student loans. This wasn't an executive order, but it's another example of a limit. The Supreme Court struck down Biden's student loan forgiveness plan in Biden v. Nebraska (2023).
His final weeks. In January 2025, Biden signed a run of routine orders, including six on January 3 setting orders of succession within departments, which name who acts if a department head can't. On January 19, EO 14146 partially revoked Trump's EO 13961EO 13961, removing the committee and implementation sections and keeping the strategy.
Back to Trump (2025)
On January 20, 2025, Trump's EO 14148 rescinded 78 of Biden's orders and memoranda, including EO 14019EO 14019. In March 2025, EO 14239 ordered a review of all national continuity policies, with recommendations to revise, rescind, or replace them.
Trump's EO 14248, Preserving and Protecting The Integrity of American Elections. It was created to enforce federal law and to enforce integrity in the election process.
Presidents of both parties have signed orders that courts later limited, blocked, or reversed. That's the system of checks I described in Part 1.
Sources:
- Executive Order 13903 (American Presidency Project)
- EO 13848 (Federal Register PDF via OFAC)
- Lawfare: What's in the Executive Order on Election Interference?
- Trump's 2018 statement on signing EO 13848 (GovInfo)
- Continuation of the national emergency, Federal Register, Sept. 2, 2026
- Fox News: Trump says he'd consider invoking the Insurrection Act
- The Hill: Trump not ruling out the Insurrection Act around the midterms
- NBC News: "Calm before the storm"
- CNBC: Trump on the "calm before the storm" remark
- Executive Order 13961 (GovInfo)
- Executive Order 14146 (GovInfo)
- Executive Order 14239 (American Presidency Project)
- List of executive actions by Joe Biden
- Ballotpedia: Multistate lawsuits against the federal government, 2021
- McDonald Carano: Status of the federal contractor vaccination
All of this leads us to where we are with everything going on around us right now. In the next section, "Will You Listen Now", I'll explain, and show more of what the media may not have shown to you.











