President Donald Trump promised a flurry of executive action on Day 1 — and that’s what he did. But what executive orders did he sign and what do they do?
With his opening rounds of memoranda and executive orders, Trump repealed dozens of former President Joe Biden’s actions, began his immigration crackdown, withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords and sought to keep TikTok open in the U.S., among other actions. He also pardoned hundreds of people for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Actual execution of this agenda, however, is expected to face legal and logistical challenges.
Here’s a look at some of Trump’s initial actions and upcoming plans:
What does an executive order do?
According to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response, executive orders “are issued by the White House and are used to direct the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government.”
They “have the effect of law” and are “issued in relation to a law passed by Congress or based on powers granted to the President in the Constitution.”
What does a pardon mean?
According to the Justice Department, “a pardon is an expression of forgiveness and can help eliminate some of the consequences of a conviction.”
They can be granted by the president to any person who was convicted in a United States District Court, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, or a military court-martial.
What executive orders did Trump sign so far?
The full list of executive orders signed so far and the text of each order can be found here.
The economy and TikTok
Trump signed a largely symbolic memorandum that he described as directing every federal agency to combat consumer inflation. By repealing Biden actions and adding his own orders, Trump is easing regulatory burdens on oil and natural gas production, something he promises will bring down costs of all consumer goods. Trump is specifically targeting Alaska for expanded fossil fuel production.
On trade, the president said he expects to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1, but declined to flesh out his plans for taxing Chinese imports.
Trump also signed an order intended to pause Congress’ TikTok ban for 75 days, a period in which the president says he will seek a U.S. buyer in a deal that can protect national security interests while leaving the popular social media platform open to Americans.
America First
As he did during his first administration, Trump is pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization. He also ordered a comprehensive review of U.S. foreign aid spending. Both moves fit into his more isolationist “America First” approach to international affairs.
In more symbolic moves, Trump planned to sign an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, making it the Gulf of America. The highest mountain in North America, now known as Denali, will revert back to Mount McKinley, its name until President Barack Obama changed it. And Trump 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. Another Trump order calls for promoting “Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture.”
Immigration and national security
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.
Trump is trying end birthright citizenship. It’s unclear, though, whether his order will survive inevitable legal challenges, since birthright citizenship is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
He temporarily suspended the U.S. Refugee Admission Program, pending a review to assess the program’s “public safety and national security” implications. 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. And Trump is ending the CBP One app, a Biden-era border app that gave legal entry to nearly 1 million migrants.
Meanwhile, on national security, the president revoked any active security clearances from a long list of his perceived enemies, including former director of national intelligence James Clapper, Leon Panetta, a former director of the CIA and defense secretary, and his own former national security adviser, John Bolton.
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 declared an energy emergency as he promised to “drill, baby, drill,” and said he will eliminate what he calls Biden’s electric vehicle mandate.
Overhauling federal bureaucracy
Trump has halted federal government hiring, 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.
He formally empowered 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 declares 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.
Others
Trump signed a sweeping execution order on the death penalty, directing the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
Trump wrote that “politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country.”
A moratorium on federal executions had been in place since 2021, and only three defendants remain on federal death row after Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.
Who did Trump pardon?
As he promised repeatedly during the 2024 campaign, the president issued pardons late Monday 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 said Monday that he would end “weaponization” of federal law enforcement but his actions seemed targeted only to help his backers.
Who did Biden pardon?
Joe Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses on his way out of the White House on Monday — the surprise finale in a series of unprecedented presidential actions by the Democrat, who has been known as an intuitionalist during his half-century in politics.
Biden explained his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.”
“Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,” he said as his presidential term was ending.
Biden also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and allies who have been targeted by Republican President Donald Trump. He was sworn in Monday.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/NgSTumP
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