WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has a new go-it-alone strategy: When Congress blocks his way, the president says he plans to act on his own more often. (He’s already done it quite a bit.) Five things to know about executive orders and other presidential edicts:

1. EVERY PRESIDENT DOES IT. The strategy goes all the way back to George Washington, who issued 8 executive orders, although that precise term wasn’t in use then. Some big examples of unilateral executive action: Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Harry Truman desegregating the armed forces. George W. Bush establishing military tribunals to try “unlawful enemy combatants.” Obama giving young people brought to this country illegally a reprieve from deportation.