President Donald Trump has begun his promised flurry of executive action on Day 1.
With his first batch of memoranda and orders, Trump repealed dozens of former President Joe Biden’s actions and withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords, among other actions. He also says he’s pardoned hundreds of people for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump, meanwhile, has additional executive orders awaiting his signature as he returns to the White House for the first time since his swearing-in earlier in the day. Those documents would end diversity, equity and inclusion funding, crack down on border crossings and ease regulations on oil and natural gas production. The Republican has promised dozens of actions, though it’s unclear whether he’ll make good on his pledge to do them all on his first day.
Here’s a look at some of Trump’s initial actions and upcoming plans:
Pardons in the Jan. 6 US Capitol attack
As he promised repeatedly during the 2024 campaign, the president said late Monday that he has issued pardons for about 1,500 people convicted or criminally charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress convened to certify Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump. Separately, Trump ordered an end to federal cases against “political opponents” of the Biden administration — meaning Trump supporters. He promised multiple times Monday to end “weaponization” of federal law enforcement but the action he described at his evening rally seemed to apply on his backers.
President Donald Trump issues sweeping pardon of supporters charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack
The economy
In a made-for-TV display at Capital One Arena on Monday evening, Trump signed a largely symbolic memorandum that he described as directing every federal agency to combat consumer inflation.
He is expected to add orders to ease regulatory burdens on oil and natural gas production, including an order tied to Alaska. But he appears to be holding off at the moment on his threat to issue tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada and other countries. He also appears to be holding off on higher taxes on imports, with an incoming official pointing reporters to a Wall Street Journal story saying he will only sign a memorandum telling federal agencies to study trade issues.
America First
Trump will sign an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, making it the Gulf of America. And the highest mountain in North America, now known as Denali, will revert back to Mount McKinley, its name until President Barack Obama changed it. The renaming is to honor “American greatness,” according to a preview of the orders posted online by Trump’s incoming press secretary.
He signed an order that flags must be at full height at every future Inauguration Day. The order came because former President Jimmy Carter’s death had prompted flags to be at half-staff. Trump demanded they be moved up Monday.
Immigration
Trump reversed several immigration orders from Biden’s presidency, including one that narrowed deportation priorities to people who commit serious crimes, are deemed national security threats, or were stopped at the border. It returns the government to Trump’s first-term policy that everyone in the country illegally is a priority for deportation.
The president declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, and he plans to send U.S. troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum. He’s also pledged to restart a policy that forced asylum seekers to wait over the border in Mexico, but officials didn’t say whether Mexico would accept migrants again. During the previous effort, squalid and fetid camps grew on the border and were marred by gang violence. Trump is also promising to end birthright citizenship, but it’s unclear how he’d do it — it’s enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
Trump also is ending the CBP One app, a Biden-era border app that gave legal entry to nearly 1 million migrants.
Climate and energy
As expected, Trump signed documents he said will formally withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreements. He made the same move during his first term but Biden reversed it.
Additionally, Trump plans to declare an declare an energy emergency as he promises to “drill, baby, drill,” and says he will eliminate what he calls Biden’s electric vehicle mandate.
Overhauling federal bureaucracy
Trump has halted federal government hires, excepting the military and other parts of government that went unnamed. He added a freeze on new federal regulations while he builds out his second administration.
Additionally, he is expected to make it easier to fire thousands of federal workers by reclassifying certain employees as political appointees rather than merit system employees whose jobs are protected through changes in administrations. Trump also is set to formally empower the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is being led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man
Ostensibly an effort to streamline government, DOGE is not an official agency. But Trump appears poised to give Musk wide latitude to recommend cuts in government programs and spending.
Diversity, equity and inclusion and transgender rights
Trump is rolling back protections for transgender people and terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government. Both are major shifts for the federal policy and are in line with Trump’s campaign trail promises. One order would declare that the federal government would recognize only two immutable sexes: male and female. And they’re to be defined based on whether people are born with eggs or sperm, rather than on their chromosomes, according to details of the upcoming order. Under the order, federal prisons and shelters for migrants and rape victims would be segregated by sex as defined by the order. And federal taxpayer money could not be used to fund “transition services.”
A separate order halts DEI programs, directing the White House to identify and end them within the government.
