What major laws did Donald Trump sign during his first term (2017-2021)?
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Executive summary
Donald Trump signed a mix of laws, executive orders and proclamations during his first term (2017–2021); sources count 220 executive orders and 570 proclamations across 2017–2021 and highlight signature bipartisan laws such as the First Step Act (criminal‑justice reform) and a number of deregulatory measures claimed to yield large savings (White House: $220 billion in annual savings from 20 deregulatory actions; 16 deregulatory laws said to raise real incomes by $40 billion) [1] [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not provide a single definitive, comprehensive list of every public law Trump signed in 2017–2021 in the search results supplied here; they focus instead on executive actions, selected legislative highlights, and administration tallies [1] [5] [2] [3].
1. What the available records emphasize — executive actions over statutes
Federal Register and other records in the provided search results emphasize that Trump’s first term produced a large volume of executive orders (counted as 220 across 2017–2021 in one summary) and many proclamations, with year-by‑year Federal Register pages listing orders by number (for example, 55 EOs in 2017, 69 in 2020, 14 in 2021) [1] [5] [6] [7]. The materials you supplied therefore foreground executive and regulatory actions more than an enumerated list of public laws signed by Congress and the president [1] [5].
2. Major bipartisan statute often cited: the First Step Act
Multiple administration summaries and fact sheets highlight the First Step Act — a bipartisan sentencing‑reform bill that reduced some mandatory sentencing provisions and aimed to improve inmate reentry — as a signature legislative accomplishment of Trump’s first term [4]. The American Presidency Project fact sheet frames it as eliminating certain “three‑strike” mandatory life sentences for federal drug offenders and as a notable bipartisan success [4].
3. Deregulation: administration tallies and claimed economic impacts
The Trump White House cataloged deregulatory achievements as a central legislative and executive theme, asserting “20 major deregulatory actions” that would save consumers and businesses $220 billion per year and “16 pieces of deregulatory legislation” that would raise annual real incomes by $40 billion [2]. Those figures come from the archived Trump White House “accomplishments” page and represent the administration’s accounting; independent corroboration or opposing estimates are not included in the supplied results [2].
4. Other laws and legislative posture: selective examples, not a complete ledger
The search set includes references to specific laws the administration touted (for example, veterans’ measures such as the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act mentioned on the White House archive) and entries cataloging acts of Congress during the 115th Congress, which began when Trump took office [2] [8]. But the provided material does not supply a single consolidated public‑law list enumerating every statute Trump signed from 2017–2021; instead, it points to fragments — administration fact sheets, Congress act lists, and Federal Register dispositions — that a researcher would need to combine [2] [8].
5. What the Federal Register and govinfo documents add — primary sourcing for EOs and signed acts
For executive orders, the Federal Register pages are primary sources giving year‑by‑year counts and EO numbers (e.g., 55 EOs in 2017; annual EO lists for 2018 and 2020) [5] [9] [6]. For statutes, govinfo holds official compilations (one PDF is cited for “Acts Approved by the President” in 2021), but the specific 2017–2020 statutes are scattered across congressional act lists and aren’t assembled in full in the search results provided [3] [8].
6. Competing perspectives and limitations in the record you provided
Administration sources present signed laws and deregulatory numbers as accomplishments and quantify economic benefits [2]. Other results in your set emphasize the scale of executive actions and note legal pushback in some cases (e.g., courts blocking some orders is referenced in a Wikipedia snippet), indicating contested legal reach for some executive measures [10] [1]. The search results do not include independent academic or Congressional Research Service tallies of every public law signed from 2017–2021, nor do they provide a consolidated list of all named major laws; those items are “not found in current reporting” among the provided sources and would be needed to produce a definitive statutory catalog [1] [8].
7. How to get a definitive list and next steps I can take for you
To produce a complete, authoritative list of every major public law Trump signed in his first term, combine: the U.S. Statutes at Large / govinfo annual “Acts Approved by the President” PDFs for 2017–2021; the Congressional “List of Acts” pages for the 115th–116th Congress; and contemporaneous reportage identifying high‑profile bipartisan laws (e.g., First Step Act). The sources you supplied already point toward those records [3] [8] [4]. If you want, I can compile a focused list of “major” statutes (criminal‑justice, veterans, tax, trade, pandemic relief, foreign‑policy sanctions, etc.) using the specific govinfo and congressional act pages and flag items where administration claims (like the $220B deregulation figure) come only from White House summaries [2] [8].