An Overview Of Trump's Day One Executive Actions
President Donald Trump set a breakneck pace on the first day of his second term, taking numerous executive actions and rescinding 78 executive orders from his predecessor, while also pardoning roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the U.S. Capitol.
The commander-in-chief moved fast on the border, inflation, energy, government censorship, federal bureaucracy, and much more. He also officially renamed parts of the map, changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and reverting Denali back to Mount McKinley. Here’s a rundown of Trump’s first moves upon his return to the White House.
Border and Immigration
Trump issued 10 executive actions on border security, including a national emergency declaration to pave the way for military deployment to the border and the completion of a border wall.
Trump’s executive orders set the stage for deportation operations while cracking down on illegal immigration and crime.
Trump’s orders reinstate Remain in Mexico, end catch-and-release of illegal immigrants, designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, pause refugee resettlement, end birthright citizenship, and bring back the death penalty for certain crimes against federal agents.
By stopping catch-and-release and re-implementing policies such as Remain in Mexico, those seeking asylum will no longer be able to live and work in the United States while awaiting adjudication of their claim.
Those policies under President Joe Biden were a significant factor in attracting some 11 million illegal immigrants into the country in four years, experts have said.
Another executive order directs the attorney general to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement officers and capital crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
Ending birthright citizenship will likely spark legal challenges.
Birthright citizenship is addressed under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, saying “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
Trump’s order hinges on the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” part of the amendment, meaning the federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrant parents.
The idea of birthright citizenship was decided in the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark. The high court ruled that children born in the United States to immigrant parents are citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
Trump also rescinded multiple Biden executive orders related to the border and immigration.
A chart depicting illegal immigration data is displayed on a screen as former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., on Oct. 11, 2024. Alejandra Rubio/AFP via Getty Images
Reducing Inflation
Trump also signed an inflation memorandum, titled “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis,” that will assemble a whole-of-government approach to tackle high prices.
In his executive action, Trump referenced the “unprecedented regulatory oppression” from the previous administration that he estimates “have imposed almost $50,000 in costs on the average American household.”
He ordered heads of all executive departments and agencies to provide “emergency price relief.” The measures will include expanding the housing supply, eliminating administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that add to health care costs, and removing requirements that raise the costs of home appliances.
Trump, according to the memorandum, will abolish “harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.”
Trump, in his inaugural address, diagnosed 40-year high inflation as caused by overspending and ballooning energy prices.
Cumulative inflation has surged about 21 percent over the last four years. Trump will begin his second term with an annual inflation rate of 2.9 percent, compared to the 1.4 percent when he left office.
A chorus of economists has said Trump’s economic agenda, especially tariffs, could rekindle the inflation flame by making products more expensive to produce and raising consumer prices.
U.S. Treasury nominee Scott Bessent dismissed these concerns during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee last week. Bessent stated that a layered-in approach could offset a spike in prices. Additionally, he noted that U.S. dollar appreciation, cheaper foreign exports, and changes to consumer preferences could counteract potential adverse effects.
Treasury secretary nominee, Scott Bessent, testifies before the Senate Committee on Finance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 16, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
Trade and Tariffs
A portion of Trump’s raft of executive orders focused on his trade agenda.
The 47th president presented a broad trade memorandum that directs federal agencies, including the Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security, to examine unfair trade relationships and currency policies with other countries, particularly Canada, Mexico, and China.
Trump will not impose new levies on other nations.
This does not mean he will abandon his pursuit of tariffs. Speaking to reporters from the White House, Trump said he will consider imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1 because of their trade policies. The president noted he will think about putting levies on China if it does not approve a TikTok deal.
He also pledged to overhaul the trade system in his inauguration speech.
“I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” he said.
“You put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the United States, because they’re coming in and they’re stealing our wealth, they’re stealing our jobs, they’re stealing our companies. They’re hurting our companies,” Trump told reporters.
Trump reiterated his plan to establish an External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues from foreign businesses and countries.
Tariffs were a chief tenet of his election campaign. He vowed to impose 10 to 20 percent universal levies on all U.S. importers and 60 to 100 percent tariffs on Chinese products arriving in the United States. Shortly after the November election, Trump threatened 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico if they didn’t curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking.
Containers including some from China Shipping, a conglomerate under the direct administration of China's State Council, are stacked at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, Calif., on July 6, 2018. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
WHO Withdrawal
Trump also signed an executive order to remove the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency.
The order also ends any negotiations on the organization’s global pandemic treaty.
It instructs the secretary of state to inform the top ranks of the WHO and the United Nations. The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to that position earlier on Jan. 20.
Trump previously withdrew the United States from the WHO in 2020, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden rejoined the organization soon after taking office. The order revokes the Biden administration communication to rejoin.
Climate Pact Exit
Trump has again withdrawn the United States from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, essentially reissuing his 2017 executive order leaving the global accord.
It will take a year to formally disenroll from the pact but it signals the nation’s energy policy will no longer adhere to global carbon emission goals.
“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said at the Capital One Arena.
“You know, China, they use a lot of ‘dirty’ energy, but they produce a lot of energy and when that stuff goes up in the air, you know, [it] doesn’t stay there … it floats into the United States of America,” he said.
It is difficult to “fight for cleaner air” when “dirty air is dropping all over us,” Trump said. “Unless everybody does it, it just doesn’t work.”
Withdrawing from the climate pact will save taxpayers $1 trillion, the White House said.
A television broadcasts President Donald Trump's announcement that he is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, at the New York Stock Exchange on June 1, 2017. Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images
National Energy Emergency
Trump declared a national energy emergency, and opened millions of acres in Alaska to fossil fuel development in the first of many energy-related executive actions expected.
“We will drill baby drill,” Trump vowed to rousing applause during his inauguration address, noting the nation has “the largest amount of energy, of oil and gas, than any country on Earth and we are going to use it.”
Under his ‘Unleash American Energy’ executive order’s emergency declaration, the president can streamline permitting, loosen regulations, and “use all necessary resources to build critical infrastructure.” such as pipelines and electric grid expansion.
“We are going to export energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again and it will be that liquid gold below our feet” that makes it happen, he said.
Trump directed the Department of Interior (DOI) to restore oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres in Alaska’s 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve, reversing Biden’s order reversing his first-term order.
At least two orders unplugged Biden executive orders that placed restrictions on offshore drilling across 625 million acres off the east and west coasts only weeks ago.
A part of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System runs through boreal forest past Alaska Range mountains near Delta Junction, Alaska, on May 5, 2023. The 800-mile-long pipeline carries oil from the North Slope in Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Inflation Reduction Act
Three other orders reverse energy-related Biden orders that provided regulatory authority for implementing many aspects of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Trump and Republican congressional leaders vow to dismember the massive IRA which, along with the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 CHIPS & Science Act, are the signature bills of Biden’s “New Green Deal.”
The IRA alone authorizes 10 years of sustained tax credits, low-interest loans, and grant programs that by some estimates could top $1 trillion.
Untangling the IRA will require legislation and some of its provisions are popular, including in Republican congressional districts.
By repealing Biden’s three executive orders, the White House and Congress can administratively tighten tax credits, claw back some loans and grants, and revise unfinalized rules under the Congressional Review Act to chip away at the IRA.
End of EV Agenda
In line with his vision for U.S. energy, Trump rescinded an executive order signed by Biden in August 2021 that set a target of 50 percent zero-emission new vehicle sales by the end of the decade. Electric vehicle sales in the United States reached 8.1 percent of sales in 2024, according to Cox Automotive.
The 47th president also overturned a December 2021 executive order requiring that, by 2035, all vehicles the government procures are emission-free. Light-body vehicles would have had to meet that mark by 2027.
Another new executive order establishes as U.S. policy an intention to eliminate electric vehicle subsidies and to eliminate state fuel emissions waivers. California introduced its Clean Air Act waiver as a regulatory driver of electric vehicle adoption.
The president said his orders make good on his promises to America’s autoworkers.
“You’ll be able to buy the car of your choice,” he added. “We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago.”
Biden’s August 2021 executive order directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work on new emissions standards.
President Joe Biden walks near Chevy vehicles as he arrives to deliver remarks during a visit to the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit on Nov. 17, 2021. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Consequently, an EPA rule, finalized earlier this year, required automakers to tighten tailpipe emissions standards in a gradual fashion through 2032.
The regulation, which was less severe than one proposed by the same agency in 2023, set a target of 56 percent electric for all new vehicle sales by 2032.
Federal Bureaucracy, DOGE
Trump also promised to reform and streamline government bureaucracy so that it will “work for the American people,” including by freezing “bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas.”
He announced the rescission of a slate of executive orders with the goal to improve government workers’ accountability. Another EO requires that all federal workers return to in-person work, noting that “only 6 percent of employees currently work in person.”
Another executive order formalizes the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It repurposes the U.S. Digital Service to serve as a White House-based U.S. DOGE Service. Additionally, it creates a time-limited service organization to administer DOGE.
It also mandates DOGE teams of at least four people across all federal agencies. Software modernization is a key focus of the DOGE executive order, in line with the tech-forward outlook of DOGE’s leader to date, Elon Musk.
Elon Musk speaks following the inauguration of President Donald Trump during an event at Capital One Arena in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
No Government Censorship
Trump issued an executive order against government censorship, which he vowed would “bring back free speech to America.”
“Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
The executive order establishes as policy that federal employees cannot restrain American citizens’ free speech or use money from taxpayers to that end.
It also directs the attorney general to prepare a report to address abuses against Americans’ free speech under the Biden administration.
While on the campaign trail, the president outlined his plans for a day one executive order targeting restrictions on speech, often carried out by Big Tech firms under pressure from the federal government.
Trump added that he would swiftly purge the federal government of those who facilitated domestic censorship and keep federal funds from going to initiatives that would empower certain groups to determine what is “mis-” or “disinformation.”
While advocates of such programs say they combat falsehoods online, especially those spread by unfriendly state actors, opponents say that recent campaigns against “mis-” and “disinformation” have targeted many Americans on political grounds.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who attended Trump’s inauguration alongside Jeff Bezos and other tech titans, previously divulged that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to carry out ideological censorship.
(L–R) Priscilla Chan, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk attend President Trump's inauguration ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The executive order calls government censorship “intolerable in a free society.”
“Under the guise of combating ’misinformation,‘ ’disinformation,‘ and ’malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,” the order states.
Exposing Abuse
Trump also moved to prevent the destruction of records as his administration takes the helm, part of a broader executive order aimed at addressing what he has characterized as a partisan takeover of government institutions that should remain neutral.
“To stop the weaponization of law enforcement and our government, I will also sign an order directing every federal agency to preserve all records pertaining to political persecutions under the last administration, of which there were many, and beginning the process of exposing any and all abuses of power, even though he’s pardoned many of these people,” Trump said shortly before signing that and other executive orders, and referring to Biden’s preemptive pardons.
Trump’s executive order on the weaponization of government directs the attorney general to investigate cases over the past several years that appear to fit a pattern of weaponization in the Department of Justice, regulatory agencies, and other agencies, and to prepare a report outlining the alleged abuses.
It similarly directs the director of national intelligence to probe possible abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies.
The executive order instructs the federal bureaucracy “to comply with applicable document-retention policies and legal obligations.”
Cases where employees defy the order “will be referred to the attorney general,” it states.
President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025. Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images
Security Clearances Stripped
Trump’s executive actions also include an order targeting election interference. It cites the 2020 letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials who dismissed accounts of Hunter Biden’s laptop as “part of a Russian disinformation campaign.”
The executive order also criticizes a 2019 memoir from Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, describing it as “rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government.”
The order revokes the security clearances of Bolton as well as 49 intelligence officials involved in the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop analysis, including former director of national intelligence James Clapper, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan, and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
It also instructs the director of national intelligence to produce a report on steps to take to prevent election interference in the future.
Pardons for Jan. 6
The new president also followed through on a promise to pardon participants in the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 who were charged in connection with that event while commuting the sentences of 14 others. Those who have been pardoned include former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio.
“You’re gonna see a lot of action on the J6 hostages,” Trump promised earlier in the day at the Capitol.
Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 defendants were issued hours after Biden issued a slew of his own preemptive pardons.
Biden’s Jan. 20 pardons encompassed Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and the Jan. 6 congressional committee, including former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
“Why are we trying to help a guy like Milley?” Trump asked on Monday. “Why are we helping Liz Cheney?”
In the final minutes before Trump and Vance were sworn in, Biden ended his presidency by preemptively pardoning his siblings and their spouses. In December, Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, as the younger Biden faced sentencing and a lengthy prison sentence for firearm and tax convictions.
The D.C. Central Detention Facility in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. President Donald Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants after taking office for his second term. Bryan Woolston/Getty Images
TikTok Reprieve
Trump signed an executive order to give social media platform TikTok 75 days to secure a U.S. buyer. Without separating from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, TikTok faces a ban in the United States.
After a 14-hour shutdown over the weekend as the original deadline of Jan. 19 approached, TikTok resumed its service after Trump signaled that he would grant the company an extension.
Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the divest-or-ban law, citing valid national security concerns due to TikTok’s “scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control” and the “vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects.”
ByteDance, TikTok, and TikTok content creators challenged the law soon after it was enacted in April last year. They brought their case to the nation’s highest court after a federal appeals court denied their claims on First Amendment grounds.
At the core of the transaction is the algorithm owned by China-based ByteDance, without which TikTok wouldn’t be the same. China on Jan. 20 indicated for the first time it would be open to a transaction to allow TikTok to operate in the United States after consistently rejecting any deal for divestiture, citing technology transfer concerns.
Previous attempts by Oracle and Walmart to acquire ByteDance’s U.S. operations fell apart in 2021.
Monday’s executive order is Trump’s second one addressing TikTok. In August 2020, during his first term, he issued an EO to ban the video app over national security risks. TikTok sued and overturned that EO with a court order in December 2020.
A news ticker shows information about TikTok outside the Fox News building in New York City on Jan.19, 2025. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
DEI Targeted
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies were the focus of another executive order.
“This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private light,” Trump said in his inauguration speech. “We will forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based.”
The new order ends all federal programs and preferences that are based on race, sex, gender, or any other immutable characteristics. It also instructs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the attorney general to terminate all “discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”
A White House statement said Trump will “freeze bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas to end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried into the federal workforce.”
The Biden administration prioritized DEI efforts, which often encourages hiring practices that give advantages based on metrics including gender and race.
Another executive order seeks to ensure that merit guides hiring in the federal government rather than race, sex or other factors.
Two Sexes Policy
Trump also signed an order to create a new U.S. policy on gender.
“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 said in his inauguration speech.
Gender neutral signs are posted in the 21C Museum Hotel public restrooms in Durham, N.C., on May 10, 2016. Sara D. Davis/Getty Images
Trump’s executive order defines a female as “a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” which refers to eggs or ovum.
The definition does not distinguish gender and sex based on chromosomes, bypassing the issue of those who may have an irregular combination of chromosomes.
The federal government will no longer “promote” gender ideology and will revoke the Biden administration’s efforts to expand Title IX to include gender identity.
The EO also protects women’s privacy in intimate spaces such as bathrooms and changing rooms, while also safeguarding against enforcing pronoun policies that encroach on free speech.
Name Changes
Another EO directs the Interior department to rename the nation’s tallest mountain and a massive Atlantic Ocean basin in the southeast.
“We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” Trump said in his inauguration speech.
Mount McKinley received its original name in 1896 by prospector William Dickey, who named it after then-presidential candidate William McKinley. President Barack Obama renamed it to Denali in 2015, a name long used by Native American tribes in the area.
Trump also said the Gulf of Mexico will be renamed to the Gulf of America.
Richard Mount and Thomas Page's 1700 map of the Gulf of Mexico. Public Domain
The Department of Interior will oversee the change to any reference in laws, maps, regulations, documents, papers, or other U.S. records to refer to the basin as the Gulf of America.
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