Everything we know about Trump’s first flurry of executive orders
The president’s “Day One” orders are coming — and immigrants, transgender Americans, the climate, and the Constitution are in the crosshairs
As Donald Trump resumed the powers of the presidency — declaring in his inaugural address that he was “saved by God to make America great again” — began signing a slate of sweeping executive orders that reflect his ambition to be a dictator on “Day One.”
In his address Monday inside the Capitol Rotunda, Trump described his reactionary agenda — on climate and geography, immigration and citizenship, federal gender recognition, and more — as a “revolution of common sense.”
In the normal course of things, executive orders are subject to checks and balances. And Trump’s first-day batch is sure to invite litigation where they attempt to run roughshod over enacted regulation, law, treaty, or constitutional amendment. However Trump begins his term with the backing of an arch-conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court, which has shown little appetite to overrule him and no interest in holding him accountable.
Trump started signing orders soon after he was sworn in as president, signed some more at a lunch with lawmakers, and then sat at a miniature desk onstage at the Capital One arena, where his indoor “parade” was held, took out a Sharpie, and signed even more of them as his supporters cheered. He then headed to the Oval Office to sign some more.
Immigration and the Border
In his inaugural address, Trump said: “I will declare a national emergency at our southern border.”
Trump later in the day signed an executive order attempting to abolish “birthright citizenship.” (This has been guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the constitution, ratified in 1868: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”) The order alleges that “the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States” and seeks to create a legal gray area in the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” to exclude undocumented mothers, or those in America on tourist visas.
Trump also signed or was expected to sign executive orders to:
- Declare a national emergency at the border, closing the southern border to anyone without legal status.
- Commit federal troops to “repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
- Reinstate the infamous policy that required asylum seekers to “remain in Mexico.
- Designate drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
Trump also said in his inaugural address he will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to pursue immigrant “gangs and criminal networks” inside the U.S.
Gender
Trump declared in his inaugural address: “As of today It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Trump intends to sign an executive order that prohibits federal recognition of transgender Americans. The anticipated order, leaked to the right-leaning Free Press, will reportedly bar government issued identification like passports from listing anything other than a person’s birth gender, remove transgender individuals from protection of laws barring sex-discrimination, end funding for transition surgeries for federal prisoners, and purport to protect the First Amendment and other rights of those who flout “preferred pronouns” or refuse to recognize the reality of transgender individuals.
Energy and Climate
Trump takes office with the nation reeling from climate-change related disasters including unprecedented flooding in mountainous North Carolina and ruinous fires in rain-starved Los Angeles. Heedless of carbon emissions, Trump signed a “national energy emergency” he said will allow oil companies to “drill baby, drill” for the “liquid gold under our feet.” Trump also vowed to end the national “electric vehicle mandate” as part of his agenda to roll back predecessor Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation, which Trump shorthands as the Green New Deal. (It is not the Green New Deal).
Targeting wind energy, Trump signed an order mandating “temporary withdrawal” of the entire “outer Continental shelf from offshore wind leasing.”
Trump also signed an executive order pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris climate treaty, which seeks to limit global greenhouse emissions below catastrophic levels. The U.S. is joining pariah states Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only nations that refuse to participate.
Health Preparedness
In the Oval Office, Trump signed an order pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization which grew controversial to his base during the pandemic as it sought to coordinate a global response. The order cites WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a lack of independence, as well as a demand of “unfairly onerous payments from the United States.”
Crime and Punishment
Trump signed an executive order “Restoring the Death Penalty.” It demands the Attorney General seek the death penalty “for all crimes of a severity demanding its use” and in particular for crimes involving the death of a law enforcement officer, or capital crimes committed by “an alien illegally present in this country.” The order reads in part: “Our Founders knew well that only capital punishment can bring justice and restore order in response to such evil”
Geography
“We are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump declared in his inaugural, insisting he would also rename Alaska’s highest peak from its current indigenous name Denali to its previous moniker: “Mount McKinley.”
(Although it is not part of his Day One actions, Trump also vowed to seize the Panama Canal and extend America’s “manifest destiny” to outer space by sending astronauts to Mars, the latter of which is a key goal of Trump’s billionaire sidekick Elon Musk.)
A Stay for TikTok
Trump from the Oval Office on Monday signed an executive order to delay the TikTok ban, telling reporters that the order “gives me the right to sell it or close it.”
In a Truth Social post Sunday night, Trump vowed to sign an executive order to create a grace period, staying the enforcement mechanisms of the new law banning the China-linked viral video app in America, “so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.” The move was, typically, self-serving as Trump said he wanted Americans to see TikToks of “our exciting inauguration.”
Derregulation
At the Capital One signing ceremony, Trump signed several executive orders related to his transition. One blocks the implementation of 78 rules, regulations and orders from the outgoing Biden administration. (The spiking of socalled midnight regulations, not yet fully enacted, is fairly normal in these moments of transition.) Trump also signed an order implementing a regulatory freeze and a hiring freeze until his administration has fully taken the reigns. Trump who campaigned as a champion of the working man, behaved a lot like a corporate boss, signing an order ordering federal workers to end remote work and return to office immediately.
Targeting Career Officials
A key objective of the Trump administration is to clear out the ranks of competent career officials in government and replace them with pliable loyalists. Trump signed a memo to create an onerous process whereby Career Senior Executive Service officials would become easier to fire.
Populist Show Ponies
Trump signed a trio of orders at his arena signing ceremony that appear to be more public relations than actual reform, including an order to prevent government censorship of free speech and an order to prohibit the “weaponization of government” — even as Trump talked openly Monday of his desire to go after political enemies of his own, calling speaker emeritus Nancy Pelosi, for example, “guilty as hell.”
Throwing down in his ongoing spat with the governor of California over that state’s water policy, Trump also signed a memorandum entitled: “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California.”