President Trump is expected to issue a record number of executive orders by the end of his first day in office.

For a closer look at the power of these orders and their limits, we're joined by Andrew Rudal-Levich.

She's a professor of government at Bowden College and author of the new imperial presidency.

Welcome to the News Hour.

So broadly speaking here, just educate us, what does an executive action give the president

authority to do?

How is it different from a law?

Well, an executive order or a different kind of presidential directive, there's a whole

category of them, basically gives the president the ability to try to implement the law in a way that's

consonant with his preferences.

It's part of the power of faithful execution of the law, which is his duty under the Constitution.

And so the power of the executive order does not extend past what the Constitution or an existing statute

already allows the president to do. Obviously, different presidents interpret those earlier

statutes differently, and that's one reason you'll see shifts in emphasis, but the power itself

is one to implement the law. And do you see these as potentially just being sort of statements of intent, more messaging

tools, or do they always actually inspire some sort of immediate action or change?

It's going to be a lot of all of the above, honestly.

Some of them will have immediate impact.

Certainly revoking President Biden's orders will happen immediately.

If President Trump is making changes to the executive office of the president, organizationally,

declaring emergencies will happen quite quickly, of course. That's a power Congress has given the

president, as was noted. But others are going to be plans to make plans, right? Bringing down the

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