President Donald Trump issued a host of executive orders on his first day, aiming to reverse many of former President Joe Biden’s policies and kick-start his own “America First” agenda.
Here’s the rundown of the actions Trump took in his first hours, as well as in the days and weeks since:
Immigration
- An executive order on securing the border. Read it here.
This order is meant to reverse Biden administration border policies by ending what Trump has described as “catch and release.” The order also restarts the “Remain in Mexico” policy Trump implemented in his first term and directs further construction of a wall on the southern border.
The order also immediately ended the use of the CBP One app’s immigration functions. The phone app was expanded by the Biden administration to allow more than 730,000 noncitizens to fly into the country from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, as well as apply for appointments at ports of entry.
It also provides for the collection of DNA from illegal immigrants in custody, as well as to determine if migrants are related and family members and to prosecute adults who are not related to children they claim to be related to.
- An executive order empowering agencies to remove illegal immigrants. Read the order here.
This order revokes Biden administration orders on handling migrants who cross the southern border and might claim asylum. It instead orders agencies to execute laws allowing for the removal of inadmissible migrants.
A Trump official described it as equipping agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection with the authorities needed to deport illegal immigrants.
It also establishes federal Homeland Security Task Forces to cooperate with state and local law enforcement in the removal of gangs and criminals from the United States.
- A declaration of an emergency at the southern border. Read it here.
This action will allow the Department of Defense to deploy active-duty and National Guard military to the southern border, erect barriers, and work on ways to take down enemy drones.
- An executive order “clarifying the military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States.” Read it here.
This order assigns the military the mission of sealing the border and institutes campaign planning requirements.
- An executive order designating cartels as terrorists. Read it here.
This order declares an emergency under national security law to designate cartels as terrorist groups. It also does the same for the gangs Tren de Aragua and La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. It will allow Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act against cartels and gangs.
- An executive order pausing refugee admissions. Read it here.
This order suspends refugee resettlement for at least four months.
- An executive order ending birthright citizenship. Read it here.
This order is meant to deny citizenship based on being born in the U.S. Democratic states, and the American Civil Liberties Union sued almost immediately to stop the order.
- An executive order on screening and vetting migrants. Read it here.
This order directs agencies to improve the screening and vetting of migrants on the grounds of preventing terrorism and crime.
- A proclamation guaranteeing the states’ protection against invasion. Read it here.
This proclamation establishes that the situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion under Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution.
- An executive order restoring the death penalty. Read it here.
This order restores the use of the death penalty. It had been paused under Biden. It directs the attorney general to pursue capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement officers and capital crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
- An executive order pausing foreign aid. Read it here.
This order pauses foreign aid for 90 days to make sure it aligns with Trump’s foreign policy.
- An executive order ending taxpayer funding for illegal immigrants. Read it here.
This order directs all federal agencies and departments to identify taxpayer-funded benefits that illegal immigrants benefit from and “take corrective action,” as well as to prevent any federal support for sanctuary policies in individual states.
It also mandates improvements in eligibility verification to block illegal immigrants from receiving federal benefits.
Lastly, it gives 30 days to the OMB director and DOGE director to identify federal funding for illegal immigrants and provide recommendations for cutting it.
- An executive order renaming the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge to Honor Jocelyn Nungaray. Read it here.
This order renames a wildlife sanctuary near Houston after the 12-year-old girl whose suspected killers were illegal immigrants.
This proclamation declares that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, now a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that was the target of extensive apartment raids in Colorado by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in early February, is invading the U.S. and that gang members may be apprehended and deported under the Alien Enemies Act.
Economics
- A memorandum requiring a return to work for federal workers. Read it here.
This memo ends working from home for federal employees and requires a return to work in offices as “soon as practicable.” It allows exemptions based on the judgment of agency leaders.
- A memorandum imposing a regulatory freeze. Read it here.
This memo halts all agency rules until a Trump official can review them. It also directs agencies to consider delaying rules already put in place.
- An order exerting control over independent agencies. Read it here.
This order asserts that independent agencies, such as the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and more, are subject to presidential supervision and control.
The order states that the agencies must submit any regulations for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is located within the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The agencies are also supposed to consult with the White House on their strategicy plans. To that end, the agencies are supposed to create new White House liaisons.
The order only applies to the Federal Reserve’s regulatory functions. Its conduct of monetary policy is exempted.
- A memorandum imposing a hiring freeze. Read it here.
This memo freezes hiring for federal positions. It does not apply to military, immigration enforcement, or public safety and allows for exemptions determined by the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
It also requires a report within 90 days from the OMB on reducing the workforce and bans the use of contractors to circumvent the freeze.
Trump also imposed a hiring freeze in his first term.
- An executive order giving Trump more power over career federal workers, previously known as “Schedule F.” Read it here.
This order reinstates an order issued in the last days of the previous Trump administration and was subsequently undone by Biden that would create a new class of career federal workers that could be removed based on policy considerations. Previously, they would have been labeled “Schedule F” employees. This order would categorize them as “policy/career” employees.
The order is meant to make government employees more responsive to the president and to prevent what Trump has termed “the deep state” from obstructing his agenda. Critics have argued it would undermine the quality of the bureaucracy.
- A memorandum on inflation. Read it here.
This memo directs agencies to take actions that would lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply, cut “counterproductive” requirements that raise the costs of home appliances, slash “unnecessary” administrative expenses that raise healthcare costs, and create employment opportunities for American workers, among other broad directives.
- A memorandum establishing an “America First” trade policy. Read it here.
This day-one memo establishes Trump’s trade policy but stops short of starting the process of implementing new tariffs, as he has promised. Instead, it directs officials to pursue an “America First” trade policy.
It also calls for a review of certain critical and controversial trade policies, including the China trade deal Trump signed in his first term and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement he negotiated.
It also calls for a review of the “de minimis” rule that allows for imports of less than $800 to be duty-free. The order notes that the exception could be used to bring in counterfeits or drugs.
The order also asks the treasury secretary and other members of the administration to consider the feasibility of the External Revenue Service, the agency Trump has proposed to collect tariff revenues. Today, such revenues are collected by Customs and Border Protection.
These orders placed tariffs on major trading partners, saying they were necessary to stop the flow of drugs and, in the cases of Mexico and Canada, illegal immigration. Imports from Mexico faced 25% tariffs. Energy imports from Canada faced 10% tariffs, and all other imports faced 25% tariffs. Imports from China were hit with an additional 10% tariff. In all cases, the orders also removed “de minimis” exemptions from tariffs, which allows shipments of less than $800 to enter duty-free and is important to many e-tailers.
The tariffs on Mexico and Canada were delayed for a month by subsequent executive orders after talks with those countries. Then, when they went into effect in March, imports covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement were exempted.
For China, though, a subsequent order raised the new tariff to 20%.The removal of the “de minimis” exemptions was also laterdelayed until the Secretary of Commerce certifies that systems are in place to impose duties on imports that previously would have qualified.
Trump imposed the tariffs using the authority granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which gives the president broad authority to regulate international trade on national security grounds. The law has often been used to impose sanctions but not for tariffs.
To impose measures under IEEPA, the president has to declare a national emergency. That emergency declaration is susceptible to a vote from Congress.
- A proclamation imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum. Read it here.
This proclamation places tariffs of 25% on imports of steel and 10% on imports of aluminum starting on March 12. It removes exceptions for certain countries that were allowed in Trump’s first terms.
The proclamation cites section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows for the president to impose tariffs he deems necessary for national security.
- An order opening an investigation into tariffs on copper. Read it here.
This order gives the Secretary of Commerce 270 days to complete an investigation into the copper market and to determine whether tariffs are warranted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.
One order directs the secretary of commerce to commence an investigation, under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, into tariffs on lumber. The report is due in 270 days.
The other order directs agencies to remove rules and red tape that slow logging in the U.S.
Within 30 days, the secretaries of interior and agriculture, through the director of the Bureau of Land Management and the chief of the United States Forest Service, are supposed to propose guidance for facilitating lumber production.
Within 60 days, the secretaries of interior and commerce, through the director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the assistant administrator for Fisheries, respectively, are directed to provide a strategy for accelerating approvals of forestry projects.
Within 90 days, the secretaries of interior and agriculture are supposed to set a plan for a target for the annual amount of timber per year to be offered for sale over the next four years from land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and USFS.
Within 120 days, the Interior Department is supposed to finish the Whitebark Pine Rangewide Programmatic Consultation under the Endangered Species Act.
Within 180 days, the secretaries of interior and agriculture are supposed to approve “categorical exclusions” to allow producers to skip reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, the bedrock environmental law that can significantly slow down permitting. Within 280 days, the interior secretary is supposed to create a new categorical exclusion for timber thinning.
The order directs all agencies to find ways to suspend or undo any regulations that slow logging. It also directs the Endangered Species Committee to use any available measures to remove barriers to logging.
- A memo responding to digital services taxes on U.S. companies. Read it here.
This memo tells officials to impose tariffs and other measures on countries that impose digital services taxes (DSTs) on U.S. tech companies.
It orders the U.S. Trade Representative to revive exploration of Section 301 tariffs against France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom for their digital services taxes. Trump had initiated the process for such tariffs in his first term.
It tells officials to include DSTs in the report required by the “America First” trade policy executive order. They’re also supposed to consider whether other countries’ regulation of tech companies infringes free speech.
- A memo restricting investment by China. Read it here.
This memo, titled “America First Investment Policy,” is meant to limit China and its allies from gaining influence over critical domestic infrastructure and technology via investment, and also to facilitate investment by U.S. allies.
The memo indicates that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, which reviews foreign investments for national security concerns, will refocus on preventing China from investing in technology, critical infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, energy, raw materials, or other strategic sectors.
It also says that the U.S. will act to prevent U.S. investment in China’s military-industrial complex and that the government will consider new curbs on investment in China in sectors like semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum, biotechnology, hypersonics, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and directed energy. The order also calls for expediting environmental reviews for any investment over $1 billion in the U.S. and the consideration of whether to suspend or terminate the 1984 United States-The People’s Republic of China Income Tax Convention.
- An order requiring a plan for a sovereign wealth fund. Read it here.
This order directs the secretaries of the treasury and commerce to present a plan within 90 days for establishing a sovereign wealth fund.
A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned and state-directed fund that makes investments on behalf of a government. SWFs are often employed in countries that have significant revenues from natural resources, such as Norway, Kuwait, and Qatar.
- An executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Read it here.
This order relates to the DOGE, touted by Trump and Elon Musk.
The DOGE will be extremely limited in terms of its official government footprint, according to the order. Basically, it will rename the United States Digital Service (USDS), a small organization founded by the Obama administration to aid agencies with tech services, to be the United States DOGE Service (also USDS).
It also creates a temporary organization within the USDS to carry out the DOGE agenda in the next 18 months, permitting it to establish small teams in each agency.
Musk and other Trump allies associated with DOGE have always said that the DOGE primarily will be outside the government and that its actual government authority will be limited.
- An order for federal workforce cuts that gives DOGE hiring responsibility. Read it here.
This order directs the OMB director to submit a plan for reducing the federal workforce, including by ensuring that agencies hire no more than one worker for every four workers that depart (although law enforcement and immigration officials are exempted). It orders agency heads to prepare to “initiate large-scale reductions in force.”
It also requires agency heads to work with DOGE in making any new hires.
The order directs the Office of Personnel Management to initiate a rulemaking to overhaul the process by which it determines whether prospective federal hires are suitable to include additional criteria, such as whether the candidates have been late in paying taxes.
Lastly, it gives all agencies 30 days to prepare a report identifying which parts of the agency might be eliminated or consolidated under existing statutes.
The DOGE is supposed to report on the implementation of the order in 240 days.
- A memorandum exiting the global minimum tax deal. Read it here.
This memo withdraws the U.S. from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s global tax deal, which was pursued by Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to impose a global minimum tax of 15% on businesses. Republicans have long opposed the effort.
- A memorandum on career senior executives. Read it here.
This memo requires performance plans for Career Senior Executive Service officials, who are high-level government administrators who manage major programs within agencies and often interact between agency officials appointed by presidents and career employees.
- An executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Read it here.
This order relates to the DOGE, touted by Trump and Elon Musk.
The DOGE will be extremely limited in terms of its government footprint, according to the order. Basically, it will rename the U.S. Digital Service, or the USDS, a small organization founded by the Obama administration to aid agencies with tech services, the U.S. DOGE Service (also USDS).
It also creates a temporary organization within the USDS to carry out the DOGE agenda in the next 18 months, permitting it to establish small teams in each agency.
Musk and other Trump allies associated with DOGE have said the DOGE primarily will be outside the government and that its actual government authority will be limited.
- An order for a DOGE review of regulations. Read it here.
This order gives agency heads 60 days to consult with DOGE about identifying regulations that exceed the government’s authority or are overly costly and should be modified or cut.
It also tells agency heads to deprioritize enforcement of any such regulations, and to consult with DOGE before implementing any new rules.
- An order implementing DOGE spending curbs. Read it here.
This order directs agency heads to work with DOGE to build a system for recording all payments made through contracts, along with the justification for the payments and the identification of the agency worker who signed off on them. The payment info is supposed to be made public to the extent possible. All existing contracts are supposed to be reviewed.
It also orders agencies to work with DOGE to build systems for tracking travel spending.
It freezes credit card spending by agency employees for 30 days.
Lastly, it gives agencies 60 days to inform the OMB of any properties they own that are no longer needed.
- A proclamation on transparency about wasteful spending. Read it here.
This short proclamation directs agency heads to make public the details of every terminated program or canceled contract.
- An executive order for an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan. Read the order here.
This order requires the assistant to the president for science and technology; the special adviser for AI and crypto, tech investor David Sacks; and the assistant to the president for national security affairs to work with agency heads to develop a plan to “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.” The report is due within 180 days.
The order also tells agencies to carry out the reversal of Biden’s order on AI, which was revoked by a different Trump order.
- An order rechartering the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Read the order here.
This order gives a new charter to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a group of tech and science experts that advises the president and has served all presidents since George W. Bush. Trump’s order adds the Sacks to the council. It also warns that “across science, medicine, and technology, ideological dogmas have surfaced that elevate group identity above individual achievement, enforce conformity at the expense of innovative ideas, and inject politics into the heart of the scientific method.”
- An order boosting cryptocurrencies and banning a Central Bank Digital Currency. Read the order here.
This order repeals an order signed by Biden directing more research into a Central Bank Digital Currency. Free-market advocates have warned that a CBDC could allow the government far-reaching ability to engage in financial surveillance.
The order also establishes a Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, to be headed by Sacks. The group has 180 days to make recommendations about the crypto regulatory framework, including for stablecoins, which are digital currencies that tie their value to an underlying asset, such as the dollar. The group is also supposed to explore the idea of a strategic bitcoin reserve.
Lastly, the order prohibits the creation of a CBDC.
- An order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a United States Digital Asset Stockpile. Read it here.
This order directs the secretary of the treasury to create a strategic reserve of bitcoin, using bitcoin already in the federal government’s custody, gained through criminal or civil asset forfeitures.
It also directs the treasury to open an office to create a stockpile with other digital assets already head by the government.
The secretaries of treasury and commerce are also supposed to come up with strategies for gaining more bitcoin in a budget-neutral way.
Anti-DEI
- An executive order rescinding Biden’s actions on DEI and environmental justice. Read it here.
This is a far-reaching executive order billed as rooting out diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives undertaken by the Biden administration. Trump officials framed it as a move to restore equal treatment and uphold the vision of civil rights leaders by focusing on character rather than race, sex, or other identity-based characteristics. It creates a process to “end federal implementation of unlawful and radical DEI ideology.”
It also reverses 78 orders and memos promulgated by Biden. Many of the orders had to do with DEI and related topics, such as LGBT issues and “environmental justice.”
Others, though, had little to do with DEI. For example, the Trump order reverses the Biden administration order on artificial intelligence, which many in Silicon Valley had said was too onerous. It also undoes the ethics rules imposed by Biden on the executive branch.
In short, the order is a massive change in administrative policy on a host of topics.
- An order revoking an additional 18 orders issued by Biden. Read it here.
This order follows up on the previous order to revoke an additional 18 orders by Biden. Among others, it undoes a Biden action raising minimum wages for federal workers. It also cancels a February 2021 Biden order on “Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World.”
- An executive order ending DEI programs and preferences. Read it here.
This order is meant to terminate all DEI programs and environmental justice programs. Any positions associated with those programs are also meant to be eliminated where possible or redirected to non-DEI purposes.
- An executive order reforming federal hiring. Read it here.
This order requires a new federal hiring plan that prevents hiring based on “race, sex, or religion, and prevent the hiring of individuals who are unwilling to defend the Constitution or to faithfully serve the Executive Branch.”
- An executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Denali, and other important sites. Read it here.
This order renames Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, as Mount McKinley. It had been named Mount McKinley from 1917 until 2015, when the Interior Department changed it in accordance with Alaska natives’ wishes.
The order also renames the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
It sets up a process to review appointments to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
- An executive order defining sex as based on biology. Read it here.
This order defines “sex” in federal policy as based on biology, not gender identity, a reversal of Biden administration policies.
It defines “female” as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.” It defines “male” as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”
All agencies are supposed to use these definitions in interpreting laws and in documents and must get rid of all language pertaining to gender identity.
The order also provides that passports and government personnel documents will only allow for the options of two sexes: male or female.
It also calls on the attorney general to reverse the Biden administration’s interpretation of the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found gender identity is a protected category under employment discrimination law. The Biden administration sought to apply that ruling to other areas of law, such as education.
The order also directs federal agencies to ensure that biological males are not included in women’s spaces, such as in prisons or in public housing.
- An order to keep biological males out of women’s sports. Read it here.
This order is aimed at preventing transgender-identified biological males, as defined in the previous order, from competing in women’s sports.
For schools, the attorney general to prioritize Title IX enforcement against educational institutions that allow biological males to compete against women. It also directs all agencies to rescind funding from schools that are out of compliance.
For athletic organizations, the order directs the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to convene a meeting of sports bodies within 60 days to develop standards for limiting participation in women’s sports. The secretary of state is also directed to promote biological sex as the standard for inclusion in women’s sports in international competitions. The secretary of state is specifically ordered to press the International Olympic Committee to amend its standards so that “eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”
- A memorandum ending DEI at the Federal Aviation Administration. Read it here.
This memo orders the FAA to end all DEI programs and hiring practices and to “return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.”
- A memo on aviation safety. Read it here.
This memo, issued in the wake of the plane crash at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., directs the Department of Transportation and FAA to review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the Biden administration.
- An executive order targeting DEI in contracting, the private sector, and higher education. Read it here.
This far-reaching order extends the anti-DEI effort beyond the federal government to contractors and private entities.
It revokes an executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 that mandated affirmative action in federal contracting, which President Barack Obama in 2014 amended to include gender identity.
The order instead requires every entity that gets a federal contract or grant to certify that it does not engage in DEI.
It further tasks the heads of agencies to oppose DEI in the private sector where applicable. Each agency is tasked with coming up with a list of up to nine large corporations, nonprofit organizations, or universities under their jurisdiction that engage in DEI and might be targets for regulation or litigation. Lastly, the AG and Secretary of Education are supposed to come up with guidance to universities and colleges that get federal funding for compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race-based affirmative action programs.
- A memorandum halting last-minute collective bargaining agreements with federal employees. Read it here.
This memo is meant to prevent agency heads from implementing collective bargaining agreements reached with federal workers in the days before Trump took office, saying that some of the agreements extended “wasteful” practices, such as working from home. It’s not clear that the administration can undo such agreements, though.
- An order establishing English as the official language of the U.S.
This order, not yet signed, will roll back a rule adopted by former President Bill Clinton that mandated the federal government and private sector groups receiving federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
White House officials said the order will not specifically block the federal government and private sector groups from continuing to provide non-English language assistance and is meant to promote unity and help facilitate immigrant integration into U.S. society.
Education
- An order promoting school choice. Read it here.
This order instructs the secretary of education to issue guidance, within 90 days, to states on using federal funds to promote choice in K-12 schools.
It also instructs other agencies to report on how they can use their resources under the law to promote school choice.
- An order counteracting “indoctrination” in schools. Read it here.
This order gives the secretaries of education, defense, and health and human services 90 days to present an “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” for counteracting “Discriminatory equity ideology” and “gender ideology” in schools, both of which terms are defined in the order. The strategy is supposed to include a plan for denying funding to schools that engage in indoctrination, and for prosecuting teachers and school officials who aid students in undergoing gender transitions without proper licensing. The order also revives the 1776 Commission begun in Trump’s first term.
- An order combating campus antisemitism. Read it here.
This order instructs agency heads to produce in 60 days a report on complaints related to post-Oct. 7 massacre instances of campus antisemitism.
The secretaries of state, education, and homeland security are also supposed to provide guidance for colleges and universities about how to report antisemitism by aliens that could be grounds for investigation or deportation.
- An order against school COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Read it here.
This order gives the secretary of education 90 days to devise a plan for ending “coercive” COVID-19 vaccine mandates at schools and universities. The plan should include a list of funds that could be withheld from educational entities that maintain such mandates.
- An order limiting student loan forgiveness for some public service workers. Read it here.
This order directs the secretary of education to revise the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program to exclude some beneficiaries. The PSLF offers loan forgiveness after 10 years to people who work in public service-related occupations, such as government, firefighting, and nursing. Under the order, certain organizations would be excluded from the definition of public service, including ones that flout immigration laws, support terrorism, or facilitate transgender procedures for minors.
Government reforms
- An order ending the “weaponization” of the federal government. Read it here.
This order finds that the Biden administration used federal agencies and the intelligence community to punish political opponents.
It requires a report from the attorney general on any abuse of government power in the past four years. It also mandates a similar report from the director of national intelligence on the intelligence community.
- An order against federal censorship. Read it here.
This order finds that the government infringed speech rights under the guise of combating “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation.” It’s a response, in particular, to the content moderation practices of Big Tech companies in recent years, as platforms limited controversial content related to the pandemic, race, gender, and more.
The order mandates a report from the attorney general on any censorship done by the government in the past four years.
- A proclamation pardoning and commuting sentences for Jan. 6 offenders. Read it here.
This proclamation grants pardons and commutations to all of the defendants convicted over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, marking one of the most expansive clemency announcements in history.
- An executive order suspending the security clearances of 51 ex-intelligence officials. Read it here.
This order suspends the security clearances of dozens of former intelligence community officials who wrote an infamous letter about Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 election. Among the letter’s signatories were three former CIA directors, including John Brennan, as well as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
- A memorandum giving Trump officials security clearances. Read it here.
This memo grants immediate security clearances for Trump personnel.
- An order declassifying the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files. Read it here.
This order declassifies the government files regarding the assassinations of the three men.
A 1992 law ordered the release of the files related to the John Kennedy assassination, but the publication of the documents has been delayed several times as the agencies have reviewed the required redactions.
Trump’s order requires the attorney general and director of national intelligence to present a plan for the release of the John Kennedy files within 15 days. It gives them 45 days to do the same for Robert Kennedy and King.
- A memo recognizing the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Read it here.
This order would grant full federal benefits associated with being a federally recognized tribe to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, which Trump promised on the campaign trail. The order gives the interior secretary 90 days to present a plan to help the tribe obtain full benefits, whether by legislation or another “legal pathway.” The House did pass legislation granting benefits in December 2024, but it wasn’t taken up by the Senate.
- An order creating a council to explore FEMA reform. Read it here.
This order creates a council to review reforms for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Trump has harshly criticized and suggested eliminating following its handling of hurricane damage in North Carolina.
The secretaries of homeland security and defense will co-chair the council, which is supposed to offer a report on reforms in 180 days.
- An order creating a Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday. Read it here.
This order creates a task force to prepare for celebrations of the 250th anniversary of American Independence on July 4, 2026.
It also revives the National Garden of American Heroes, an initiative Trump started in his first term to create a sculpture garden honoring notable Americans. The effort was axed by Biden before it got off the ground.
The order also reinstates an order Trump issued in his first term protecting monuments from vandalism.
- An order creating a task force for the 2026 World Cup. Read it here.
This order creates a task force of government officials, chaired by the president, for preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
- An order creating a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias. Read the order here.
This order creates a task force, chaired by the attorney general and comprising the heads of major agencies, to prepare a report within one year that includes recommendations on ending anti-Christian policies, in both public and private institutions, and promoting religious liberty. The task force is supposed to consult a range of individuals, faith-based organizations, and governments and tribes.
The order cites, as examples of anti-Christian bias, the Biden administration’s prosecutions of anti-abortion protesters under the FACE Act, as well as instances of agencies under Biden clashing with Christians over sexual orientation or gender identity. It also noted the spate of arson and vandalism affecting churches.
- An order protecting Second Amendment rights. Read the order here.
This order instructs the attorney general to review Biden administration policies to see if they infringe on Second Amendment gun rights. The attorney general is supposed to provide a report of the findings of the review within 30 days.
- An order establishing the White House Faith Office. Read it here.
This order creates the White House Faith Office, to be housed in the Domestic Policy Council. The office, which is meant to engage on faith-related topics within the government and without outside representatives, is to be led by Paula White-Cain.
- An order eliminating the Federal Executive Institute. Read it here.
This order dissolves the Federal Executive Institute, an organization created by President Lyndon B. Johnson in Charlottesville, Virginia, to provide training to government leaders. The order says the institute has entrenched the bureaucracy at the expense of the public.
- An order eliminating some government boards. Read it here.
This order, titled “commencing the reduction of the federal bureaucracy,” calls for the elimination or reduction of a number of government boards and programs.
Specifically, targeted are: 1) The Presidio Trust, which manages a park in San Francisco. 2) The Inter-American Foundation, an agency that funds investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. 3) The United States African Development Foundation, an agency that funds investment in Africa. 4) The United States Institute of Peace, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
The order also cancels the Presidential Management Fellows Program, a two-year program bringing graduate students into the government.
The order also directs the termination of federal advisory committees. That includes USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, the CFPB’s Academic Research Council and Credit Union Advisory Council, Advisory Committee on Long COVID, and CMS’ Health Equity Advisory Committee.
- An order shuttering several government entities. Read it here.
This order directs agencies to work to effectively shutter sub-agencies and other entities that the administration has deemed “unnecessary.” Some of the entities in question were created by Congress and cannot be closed without congressional authorization. The order says that their staffing and operations should be limited to the bare minimum needed to carry out the functions mandated by Congress. The entities are: the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the United States Agency for Global Media, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency.
- A memo targeting the law firm that helped Jack Smith. Read it here.
This memo suspends the security clearances of Peter Koski and other lawyers at Covington & Burling who assisted special counsel Jack Smith in his investigations of Trump. It also directs the OMB director to review any government contracts with the law firm for cancelation.
- An order punishing law firm Perkins Coie and reviewing racial hiring at law firms. Read it here.
This order penalizes Perkins Coie, a Democratic-linked law firm that was involved in pushing discredited Russian collusion allegations during the first Trump presidency.
It directs agencies to work to revoke security clearances given to Perkins Coie staff and end any federal contracts it has with the government.
The order also accuses Perkins Coie of using racial quotas for hiring and directs the Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and attorney general to review hiring practices at large law firms.
- An order punishing the law firm Paul Weiss. Read it here.
This order directs agencies to revoke security clearances and cancel contracts with the law firm Paul Weiss, and to limit its employees from federal buildings to the extent possible.
Paul Weiss and lawyer Mark Pomerantz brought a case against Jan. 6 protesters.
- A memo meant to limit injunctions placed on the federal government by judges. Read it here.
This order is meant to address the trend of federal judges placing nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration, sometimes by activists who engage in “forum shopping” to get their lawsuits before judges they believe are aligned with them ideologically.
The memo directs agency heads to request that courts require plaintiffs to post security equal to the government’s potential costs and damages from an injunction that is later found to be wrongful.
Energy and environment
- An executive order “unleashing American energy.” Read it here.
This major order is meant to undo many of the rules put in place by the Biden administration to promote clean energy, limit carbon emissions, increase efficiency rules for appliances, and boost electric vehicles.
It sets up reviews by agencies to find ways to undo clean energy rules and promote energy production.
It undoes a dozen Biden climate-related orders and terminates the American Climate Corps started by Biden.
It orders the Council on Environmental Quality to speed up permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act, the bedrock environmental law that requires environmental reviews of projects. It also orders other agencies to put forward recommendations to Congress for overhauling permitting laws.
It limits agency environmental reviews to just what is required by the underlying laws. Specifically, it undoes the Biden administration’s “social cost of carbon” calculation, which was used to guide the cost-benefit analyses of various federal rules.
The order also ends the pause on approvals of new exports of liquefied natural gas put in place by the Biden Energy Department.
The rule also calls for accelerating mining for critical minerals.
- An executive order declaring a national energy emergency. Read it here.
This order directs agencies to find ways they can use emergency powers to produce energy and build energy infrastructure.
Among other provisions, it asks the Environmental Protection Agency to consider allowing year-round sales of gasoline with a higher blend of ethanol, known as E15.
- An order withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate. Read the order here.
This order withdraws the U.S. again from the Paris Agreement, the 2016 agreement by countries to aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The order tells agencies to undo any policies they put in place to work toward the goal.
Trump had withdrawn from the agreement in 2016, and then Biden rejoined it.
- A memorandum halting wind projects on federal lands. Read it here.
This memo blocks all lease sales for offshore wind projects and pauses any new approvals, permits, leases, or loans for wind projects both on and offshore. It follows Trump’s campaign pledges to stop the construction of wind turbines.
- A memorandum on water use in California. Read it here.
This order directs relevant agencies to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state. It’s responsive to Trump’s feud with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) about his management of water in the state. Trump has criticized Newsom’s administration for opposing his water management plans on the grounds of protecting the Delta smelt, an endangered species of fish.
- An order to override California’s water policies. Read it here.
This order, which follows from Trump’s criticism of California’s government for managing the water supply and fighting wildfires, instructs agencies to find ways to redirect water to Southern California to help fight the fires, overriding local policies as necessary. It instructs the interior secretary to operate the Central Valley Project to supply water to high-need areas, “notwithstanding any contrary state or local laws.” The agencies have 15 days to report back about authorities that could be invoked to take control of the water system.
The order also instructs the OMB director to find ways, within 30 days, to attach strings to grants that California gets from the federal government to entice the state to change its policies.
- An executive order promoting fossil fuel production in Alaska. Read the order here.
This order is meant to unleash all of Alaska’s “natural resource potential,” including timber, seafood, and critical minerals. It specifically supports projects exporting LNG from the state, prioritizing any necessary permitting and pipeline construction to transport LNG to the U.S. and abroad.
The order also calls on the U.S. to “fully avail” itself of Alaska’s lands and resources, maximize the development of natural resources, and expedite permitting and leasing for energy projects in the state. Trump’s action additionally withdraws a number of Biden administration policies related to the region, including its cancellation of any leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
- An order against paper straws. Read it here.
This order directs the heads of agencies to stop the use of paper straws. It also tells the assistant to the president for domestic policy to present, within 45 days, a “National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws.” The policy is supposed to promote the elimination of paper straws in the federal government and review policies that might encourage the use of paper straws by states and other entities.
- An order establishing the “National Energy Dominance Council.” Read it here.
This order creates a council, located within the executive office of the president, to pursue the production and distribution of fossil fuels, nuclear power, and geothermal energy. The council doesn’t have a mandate to boost renewable energy sources like wind and solar. The council’s chairman is the secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, and the vice chairman is the secretary of energy, Chris Wright. A number of other agency heads are members.
The council has 100 days to provide recommendations for pursuing “energy dominance,” including accelerating permitting approvals, facilitating natural gas pipelines to California, New England, and Alaska, and bringing small modular nuclear reactors online.
Abortion and healthcare
- An order implementing the Hyde Amendment preventing funding of abortions. Read it here.
The order also calls on the U.S. to “fully avail” itself of Alaska’s lands and resources, maximize the development of natural resources, and expedite permitting and leasing for energy projects in the state. Trump’s action additionally withdraws a number of Biden administration policies related to the region, including its cancellation of any leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
This order undoes two executive orders issued by Biden that the Trump administration says undermined the Hyde Amendment, a stipulation routinely attached to spending bills that prevents federal funding for abortion.
The two orders in question were issued in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that there is no constitutional right to abortion.
The first set up a task force on promoting abortion access. It also directed the Department of Health and Human Services to state that emergency abortions were required under federal law. It sought to protect the privacy of women who procured abortions.
The second was meant to aid women crossing state lines to get abortions and to further examine what could be done administratively to promote abortion access.
- A memorandum restoring the ‘Mexico City Policy’ preventing funding for abortions abroad. Read it here.
This memo restores the “Mexico City Policy” that has been enforced by Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan that prevents funding for abortions in foreign countries. It has been rescinded by Democratic presidents.
The reinstated Trump version of the order expands the directive to include not just nongovernmental organizations that receive U.S. funding for family planning, but all NGOs that receive any U.S. health assistance.
- An executive order preventing transgender procedures for minors. Read it here.
This order instructs agencies not to use guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and gives the secretary of health and human services 90 days to submit a review of the medical literature on best practices for minors with gender dysphoria.
It also will require that medical schools or hospitals that get federal funding do not engage in “chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
The HHS secretary is also tasked with trying to curtail transgender procedures for minors through any measures that might be available under Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid. The order also instructs the defense secretary to stop transgender procedures through TRICARE.
The order tasks the Justice Department with prioritizing prosecutions under laws against female genital mutilation and investigating alleged fraud and deception by medical providers regarding the long-term effects of transgender procedures for minors.
Additionally, the DOJ is directed to draft legislation allowing children and parents to sue healthcare providers for damages resulting from gender transition procedures, with the inclusion of a lengthy statute of limitations.
The order also takes aim at so-called sanctuary states that allow custody changes to facilitate access to transgender procedures, calling for enforcement of federal laws such as the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act.
- An order establishing the “Make America Healthy Again” commission. Read it here.
This order creates the “Make America Healthy Again Commission,” an entity that will pursue the agenda outlined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The commission, chaired by Kennedy, is tasked with addressing the “childhood chronic disease crisis,” a top priority of Kennedy’s.
Specifically, the commission has 100 days to prepare a report assessing the problem, including by scrutinizing whether chronic conditions are caused by “over-utilization of medication, certain food ingredients, [or] certain chemicals,” or by antidepressants or weight-loss drugs.
The commission then, 80 days later, is supposed to submit a strategy for addressing childhood chronic conditions, including by ending any federal policies that contribute to them.
The order also says that health research that gets federal funding should be done through open-source data and with transparency, and free from conflicts of interest.
- An order expanding access to in-vitro fertilization. Read it here.
This order directs the assistant to the president for domestic policy to provide, within 90 days, a set of recommendations for protecting access to in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, and for “aggressively” reducing out-of-pocket costs and health plan costs for IVF services.
The order does not include any call for legislation or administrative action to have the government pay for IVF or to mandate that insurers cover all costs for IVF, as Trump called for on the campaign trail.
- An order on health price transparency. Read it here.
This order follows up on an order Trump issued in his first term meant to push hospitals and health plans to disclose prices to patients.
It gives the secretaries of the treasury, labor, and HHS 90 days to update implementation of that first-term order, including by requiring the disclosure of prices, rather than estimates, and also to update regulations and guidance relating to price transparency.
National security and foreign policy
- An executive order giving TikTok 75 days of life. Read it here.
This order extends the deadline for compliance with the TikTok divestment law, a move that effectively halts the app’s shutdown in the U.S. for 75 days.
The law, which went into effect Sunday, is meant to sever ties between the Chinese-owned platform and its parent company, ByteDance, over national security concerns. The new executive order seeks to address the “unfortunate timing” of the law going into effect one day before Trump took office, which was also the deadline to find a U.S. buyer for the Chinese-owned social media app.
- An executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. Read it here.
This order withdraws the U.S. from the WHO. Trump had sought to exit the organization in his first term over its handling of the pandemic and its investigation into the outbreak of COVID-19 in China. But Biden reversed that effort.
The order tasks the secretary of state and OMB director with finding alternatives to the WHO for coordinating among countries.
- An executive order telling the secretary of state to pursue “America First.” Read it here.
This order directs the secretary of state to provide guidance on an “America First Policy” that will “champion core American interests and always put America and American citizens first.”
- An executive order banning transgender people from the armed forces. Read it here.
This order effectively bans transgender people from the military, as Trump sought to do in his first term.
It orders Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to update the medical standards for service to reflect that the “medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria” and the use of preferred pronouns are “inconsistent” with the standards required of troops. Hegseth has 30 days to issue a report on carrying out the order and 60 days to update the standards.
Furthermore, Hegseth is supposed to issue guidance immediately for ending the usage of preferred pronouns.
The order requires that males not share sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities with females, and vice versa, outside of “extraordinary operational necessity.”
- An executive order banning DEI in the military. Read it here.
This order bans offices and initiatives related to DEI, gender ideology, and “divisive concepts” in the military. It also bans DEI at the military academies.
It gives the secretary of defense 90 days to produce a review of DEI initiatives. The secretaries of defense and homeland security are supposed to issue guidance implementing the DEI ban within 30 days and submit a report on their progress within 180 days.
- An executive order reinstating service members who refused COVID-19 vaccine doses. Read it here.
This order reinstates, with back pay, service members who were discharged “solely” because they would not comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
- An executive order establishing an “Iron Dome” for America. Read it here.
This order gives the defense secretary 60 days to come up with a plan to implement a “next-generation missile defense shield” for the U.S.
Specifically, the plan should include plans for tracking missiles through space and shooting them down in space, among other specifications.
It also orders the Defense Department, following the submission of the plan, to conduct a review on improving coordination on missile defense with allies.
- A memo for holding migrants at Guantanamo Bay. Read it here.
This memo directs the secretaries of defense and homeland security to provide space at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay for criminal illegal immigrants. Trump said the expansion could house 30,000 migrants.
- An amendment reinstating the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran. Read it here.
This memo orders the treasury secretary to tighten sanctions on the Iranian regime. It orders the secretary of state to start a campaign to lower Iran’s export of oil to zero, including to China, and to lead a diplomatic campaign to isolate Iran around the world, as well as to ensure that Iran cannot use Iraq or Gulf states to circumvent sanctions.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is also tasked with implementing international sanctions on Iran. The commerce secretary is ordered to limit any exports of military tech to the regime.
- An order withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council and ending UNRWA funding. Read it here.
This order cuts off funding for the U.N. relief agency for Gaza known as UNRWA. It also withdraws the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council and orders the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. to review participation in the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, and produce a report on it in 90 days.
The order said those groups needed scrutiny for “propagating anti-Semitism” and said that UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
- An order sanctioning the International Criminal Court. Read it here.
This order, which repeats actions Trump took in his first term, sanctions the ICC for prosecuting U.S. allies, specifically Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
It sanctions ICC officials for going after Americans or allies by freezing their assets and limiting their travel.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan is the first and only person listed as sanctioned.
- An order sanctioning South Africa over treatment of Afrikaners. Read it here.
This order is justified as reacting to a law in South Africa that allows the expropriation of land without compensation in some cases, which the order says allows the government to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”
The order directs agencies to halt foreign aid to Africa and to prioritize admission of Afrikaner refugees.
- An order pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Read it here.
This order directs the attorney general to pause enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal to bribe foreign government officials. The order says enforcement of the law has been stretched to include routine business, undermining U.S. foreign policy.
The attorney general has 180 days to come up with new guidelines for enforcing the law. The pause can be extended in 180-day increments as deemed necessary by the attorney general.
- An order to ensure that the diplomatic corps follows the president’s agenda. Read it here.
This order states that failure by workers within the State Department to follow the president’s agenda is grounds for separation.
It says that the secretary of state should take action with respect to subordinates who fail to enact the president’s policies, including by referring presidentially appointed officials to Trump for consideration.
It directs the secretary of state to reform the Foreign Service to ensure that workers are “committed to faithful implementation” of the president’s agenda, including by overhauling the Foreign Service Institute and the Foreign Affairs Manual.
Federal buildings
- A memorandum promoting beautiful federal architecture. Read it here.
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This order requires the administrator of the General Services Administration to produce recommendations for policies to ensure that federal buildings are “visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage in order to uplift and beautify public spaces and ennoble the United States and our system of self-government.”
The order continues a quest Trump began during his first term to ensure new federal buildings are not just functional but also follow a traditional style of architecture. The president and others have expressed their dissatisfaction with some modernist architecture.