What Trump’s executive orders will do

The newly sworn-in President Trump had a busy inaugural day. Between swearing into office and waving a saber around while dancing to “YMCA” at an inaugural ball, he also signed several executive orders and proclamations.

After signing his cabinet and other nominations, President Trump’s first order of business was to proclaim that all flags should be flown at full staff for this and all future inauguration days.

Following the inaugural parade, President Trump signed a bevy of additional executive documents as thousands of his supporters cheered. These included: the rescinding of seventy-eight executive orders signed by the Biden administration, a regulatory freeze on government bureaucracies, a freeze on all federal government hiring (with exceptions for the military and other excluded categories), a requirement for federal workers to return to full-time, in-person work, a directive to all departments and agencies to address the cost-of-living crisis, a withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, a directive to protect freedom of speech and end government censorship and a directive to end what an advisor described as “the weaponization of government against the political adversaries of the previous administration.”

Upon his return to the Oval Office, President Trump signed pardons and executive orders while answering questions from the press. He began with the pardon of approximately 1,600 people convicted for their involvement in the January 6 Capitol protest. He also signed an executive order realigning the refugee admissions program, as well as another order declaring cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations. 

Additionally, he signed an order interpreting the definition of birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment to mean that citizenship would not automatically apply to children born to undocumented immigrants. While signing it, Trump acknowledged that although he believed there were strong grounds for this interpretation, the order could have issues in court.

President Trump then declared a national emergency at the southern border. Through this and related orders issued on his first day, he sealed the border, paused all refugee admissions for four months, reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” policy from his previous administration, and pushed for the death penalty for undocumented immigrants convicted of capital crimes, the Washington Post reported.

Following this, Trump signed an order aimed at reforming the federal hiring system to focus on merit rather than identity or diversity. He also created the Department of Government Efficiency, which he said would aim to implement executive orders more swiftly than in the past.

Trump signed several orders related to energy production in the US. The first allowed Alaska to be used as an energy reservoir, followed by a declaration of a national energy emergency and an order to expand energy production to boost the American economy.

The president also signed an order holding former government officials accountable for the unlawful disclosure of sensitive information and postponed the ban on the social media app TikTok for ninety days to allow further negotiations between the US and the platform.

Trump ended the night by withdrawing from the World Health Organization and issuing an order to protect women from what he called “radical gender ideologies.” He said that additional orders, declarations, and declassifications would be forthcoming throughout the week.