Trump’s Day 1 Executive Actions and Orders

 

Donald Trump began issuing executive actions Monday after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, kicking off his second term in office at a signing desk inside Washington’s Capital One Arena with family members and allies behind him onstage and a crowd of supporters in the audience

On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump promised to impose broad tariffs on imports, expand domestic energy production and launch mass deportations. Trump has also long vowed to dismantle federal regulations, exact revenge on his political enemies, uproot the federal bureaucracy he has referred to as the “deep state” and eliminate what he sees as government waste.

There are limitations to what a president can legally do via executive action, and many of Trump’s orders are expected to be challenged in court. That legal process could slow down or halt their implementation.

Rescinding of Biden administration actions and freezing regulations

The president, in his first executive action, rescinded 78 executive actions implemented by the Biden administration.

The rescinded actions covered a wide range of topics. The targeted actions were aimed at advancing racial equity, combating gender discrimination, addressing climate change, mobilizing the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, adding ethics requirements for political appointees, addressing the root causes of migration, lowering prescription drug costs, imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and the withdrawal of offshore drilling from certain areas.

Additionally, Trump rescinded President Joe Biden’s 2021 order that had repealed a ban on transgender personnel serving openly in the U.S. military. Trump initially barred transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military during his first term in office.

Trump subsequently issued a regulatory freeze pending an administration review.

President Donald Trump wasted no time signing a series of executive actions on his return to office Jan. 20. (Video: Julie Yoon/The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Ending birthright citizenship in the United States

The U.S. government will no longer recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States to immigrants who lack legal status, according to an order Trump signed Monday. It also bars birthright citizenship for children born to people on temporary work, student and tourist visas. The order, which is expected to face legal scrutiny, reinterprets the words “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which grants citizenship to nearly all people born on U.S. soil, to exclude babies born to parents illegally in the country.

Declaring a ‘national emergency’ on the southern border and other major immigration orders

Trump declared a “national emergency” on the U.S.-Mexico border as part of immigration-related executive actions. He also declared in a separate order that “the current situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion.”

He ordered a halt to refugee admissions in the United States for “at least four months” and said his administration would designate cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.

He directed the military to make it a priority to “seal the borders” and end unlawful mass migration, drug trafficking and other crimes. And he directed the armed forces to provide troops, detention space, transportation — including aircraft — and other services to boost border security.

The United States will stop allowing migrants who cross the border illegally into the United States, even if they are seeking asylum, per one of Trump’s directives. He also ordered the restoration of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires migrants to await asylum hearings in Mexico.

Another order allows the attorney general to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” including capital crimes committed by undocumented migrants.

Making changes to the federal workforce

The president ordered federal workers to come back to their offices. The action Trump signed directs agency heads to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

Trump also issued a freeze on federal hiring with exceptions for military personnel and jobs “related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety.”

He reinstated a policy that would strip employment protections from tens of thousands of federal workers. Trump stripped those protections in his first term in office, and Biden reinstated them. Another memorandum is aimed at “restoring accountability for career senior executives” in the federal government. The memo directs his administration to issue new performance plans for senior government officials who are not political appointees and reassign officials to ensure they are “optimally aligned to implement” his agenda. A different order makes changes to the federal government’s hiring plan.

Trump also signed an order that calls for the elimination of government diversity programs. It includes the termination of all federal offices and positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion as well as environmental justice. The order also directs his administration to review which federal contractors have provided DEI training materials to federal workers and which federal funding grantees have been given funds to advance DEI and environmental justice.

Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement

The president signed a letter to the United Nations to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. Trump initially withdrew the United States from the accords during his first term in office, but under Biden, the country had rejoined it.

Ending ‘weaponization’ of the federal government

A newly signed but vaguely written directive orders the U.S. attorney general and the director of national intelligence to review potential misconduct within the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the intelligence community that may have occurred in the last four years.

Delaying enforcement of a federal ban on TikTok

Trump ordered his administration to delay enforcing a federal ban against TikTok, giving the app’s Chinese parent company more time to broker a deal with a potential American buyer. Legislation signed into law and upheld by the Supreme Court required the Chinese parent company to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban in the United States over concerns that the app poses a national security threat by potentially exposing American users to Chinese surveillance or propaganda. TikTok has said those claims are unfounded. China hawks, including some Senate Republicans, balked over the weekend at Trump’s plans, saying there is no legal basis to extend the divestiture window. The president cannot unilaterally overturn a law that was passed by Congress and affirmed in court, and his plans to halt enforcement are likely to face legal scrutiny.

Clemency for Jan. 6 defendants

Trump issued a presidential proclamation commuting the sentences of 14 individuals charged with crimes related to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The proclamation also granted pardons “to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” Trump also ordered the attorney general “to pursue dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending indictments against individuals for their conduct” on Jan. 6.

Recognizing two sexes

Trump signed an order to officially recognize only two sexes (male and female), which would be defined based on the reproduction cells at conception. He directed agencies to issue government documents showing people’s sex at conception, stop using gender identity or preferred pronouns, and maintain women-only spaces in prisons and shelters.

The measure directs the attorney general to write new policies concerning the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found sex discrimination in employment includes gender identity and sexual orientation. It also directs the Bureau of Prisons to “ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

The action could prompt the Education Department to punish schools that recognize gender identity, for instance by allowing transgender girls access to girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms or sports teams. It also could affect teachers who, in some districts, are told to use students’ preferred names and pronouns.

Expanding American energy production, rolling back Biden environmental and climate regulations

In a flurry of executive actions centered on energy policy, Trump declared a national emergency to expand natural resources production, struck rules that aimed to speed the transition to electric vehicles and scrapped restrictions on the exporting of liquefied natural gas.

An executive order on Alaska would support liquefied natural gas exports and the production of oil, gas and critical minerals.

Another order temporarily halted offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and paused the approval of leases, permits and loans for both offshore and onshore wind energy projects. The order also temporarily prohibits the company Magic Valley Energy from developing the Lava Ridge Wind Project, the largest wind farm in Idaho. Though Trump has long disdained wind energy, the order is broader than many observers had expected and is certain to draw legal challenges.

A memo also directed his administration to restart efforts “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.” When wildfires caused unprecedented destruction in California this month, Trump tried to connect dry hydrants in Los Angeles to his criticism about the state’s governance of water distribution. While Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) maintains that the state’s reservoirs in Southern California were full, the longtime Trump foil launched an investigation into the loss of water pressure during the fires.

Other directives

The president signed several other executive orders and actions, including:

• Directing members of his administration to assess several aspects of U.S. trade, including evaluating relations with Mexico, Canada and China, investigating the causes of the U.S. trade deficit and identifying unfair trade practices by other countries.
• Issuing a directive barring the censorship of American citizens’ constitutionally protected speech by the federal government. The order specifically accuses the federal government of infringing on protected speech “under the guise of combating ‘misinformation.’”
• Issuing a directive aimed at addressing the “cost-of-living crisis” in the United States.
• Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization.
• Revoking any security clearances held by his former national security adviser, John Bolton, and the former intelligence officials who signed on to a letter calling the Hunter Biden laptop story Russian disinformation.
• Granting interim security clearances to certain personnel on a list provided by the White House counsel’s office.
• Directing his administration to make recommendations to beautify federal civic architecture.
• Implementing a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign development assistance so the administration can realign aid toward Trump’s foreign policy goals.
• Starting the process to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and reverting Mount Denali’s name to Mount McKinley, undoing a change made during the Obama administration.
• Establishing the “Department of Government Efficiency.” The order reorganizes and renames the United States Digital Service as the United States DOGE Service.
• Directing the secretary of state to issue guidance bringing the agency “in line with an America First foreign policy, which puts America and its interests first.”

The Washington Post: Maegan Vazquez, Maria Sacchetti, Nick Miroff, Lauren Meckler, Hannah Natanson, Cristiano Lima-Strong, Evan Halper, Tony Romm, Isaac Arnsdorf and Jacqueline Alemany contributed to this report.

 

Trump’s executive orders already face pushback, legal challenges:

The executive orders include some things that scholars and legal experts say may be out of the reach of the president’s pen and could be tied up in courts or legislatures for years, including ending birthright citizenship, a right embedded in the Constitution and bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling that grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States. 

Trump also wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. For some of the diciest efforts, the administration laid out little of its legal framework for what are certain to be battles sparked by Trump’s actions.

“It’s kind of an executive-order shock-and-awe campaign,” said Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. “The shock and awe are to send a message to his critics and most importantly to his voters, his supporters, that he’s back, and that he is going to try to deliver on his campaign promises, and he’s going to do it aggressively.”

-The Washington Post