Which president has issued the most eo declarations of emergency
Executive summary
A definitive single-name answer depends on how “emergency” is being counted: sources that count formal national emergencies declared under the National Emergencies Act attribute the largest tallies to presidents across different eras, while other reporting mixes in disaster declarations and later renewals that inflate more recent totals [1] [2]. Review of the available reporting shows two competing narratives — one naming George W. Bush as among the most prolific national-emergency declarants and another spotlighting Donald Trump’s flurry of post-2025 emergency orders — and the discrepancy stems from differences in counting methodology and the kinds of emergency instruments tallied [3] [4] [5].
1. The competing tallies: Bush, Trump, and different “mosts”
Some outlets and legal trackers identify former President George W. Bush as the author of a long-running set of national emergencies, including the broad post‑9/11 proclamation that has been renewed annually and figures prominently in many lists of NEA declarations [4] [1]. Other coverage argues that Donald Trump, during his post‑2025 presidency, issued a cluster of new national emergencies — with specific articles claiming he issued eight national emergencies after reentering the White House and other outlets reporting nine or more — and some official releases also highlight a record number of disaster-related emergency approvals tied to FEMA during winter storms in 2026 [3] [6] [5] [7].
2. Why journalists and legal trackers disagree: counting rules and instruments
Counts diverge because “emergency” covers distinct legal tools: a National Emergencies Act (NEA) declaration, an International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) proclamation, renewals of existing emergencies, and FEMA disaster/emergency declarations are separate instruments tracked by different federal registries and newsrooms, and some outlets conflate them into a single tally [8] [9] [7]. Authoritative datasets — like the aggregated list of NEA declarations maintained in legal references and Wikipedia’s list of national emergencies — attempt to standardize these entries, but media outlets sometimes report a running total that mixes new NEA proclamations with expansions, executive orders that invoke IEEPA authorities, or emergency disaster approvals made in coordination with FEMA [1] [8] [5].
3. The institutional background that makes totals volatile
Since the National Emergencies Act codified a process in 1976, presidents have continued to rely on emergency powers and renewals; that statute also enabled a long tail of active emergencies that presidents renew annually, producing a high cumulative count and making “most” a moving target over time [2] [1]. Legal experts and watchdogs note that over 120 statutory authorities can be unlocked by an NEA declaration and that presidents routinely modify or expand prior emergencies by separate executive actions, further complicating clean headline counts [10] [8].
4. Assessing the evidence and the best short answer
Using the sources at hand, the careful short answer is this: if the question is limited to formal national-emergency declarations cataloged under the NEA, reporting identifies George W. Bush as one of the presidents with the most consequential and long‑running entries (including the post‑9/11 emergency) while media tallies show Donald Trump issued a notably large number of new emergency proclamations after 2025 [4] [3] [6]. There is no single uncontested numeric ranking in these sources because news outlets and legal trackers apply different inclusion rules; an authoritative, reproducible ranking requires consulting the official NEA/Federal Register list and specifying whether FEMA disaster declarations or IEEPA-based orders are counted [1] [9].
5. Bottom line verdict
The safest, evidence‑based verdict from the provided reporting: depending on the dataset, either George W. Bush (for historically consequential NEA entries such as the 2001 proclamation) or Donald Trump (for the rapid cluster of new emergency proclamations in 2025–2026, and separately for a record pace of FEMA disaster approvals) can be framed as issuing “the most” — but that claim must be qualified by exactly which type of emergency instrument is being counted and which cutoff date is used [4] [3] [5] [1]. The sources reviewed do not provide a single, universally agreed numeric ranking that resolves this ambiguity without additional, standardized dataset work [1] [2].