Within the first hours after he was sworn into office, Donald Trump reversed dozens of Biden administration executive policies, withdrew from the Paris Agreement, upended the 14th Amendment to end birthright citizenship, and signed a directive to the federal government to “restore” freedom of speech.
After signing a stack of executive orders in front of a raucous crowd at the Capital One Arena on Monday, he threw his Sharpie into the audience before heading to the Oval Office to push through further orders.
Trump also declared a national emergency in order to mobilize troops at the U.S.-Mexico border, axed DEI programs in government and denied the existence of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people throughout the government.
He has also designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and cut regulations on oil production.
Follow all the latest updates as Donald Trump gets down to work in the White House
The extraordinary executive orders, previewed by incoming White House officials on Monday, are likely to face enormous legal backlash from civil rights groups and advocacy groups, drawing constitutional battles as Trump tests the limits of his authority.
Immigration
Trump signed a deluge of executive orders related to immigration in an effort to create a “common sense” policy in response to immigration that poses an “unconscionable risk” to public safety, public health and national security, an incoming White House official told reporters on Monday.
The official described immigration as an “invasion” that has “caused widespread chaos and suffering.”
One order declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border to “erect physical barriers” and deploy military assets under the command of the Secretary of Defense. It is unclear how many troops will be assigned to the southern border.
Trump also ended birthright citizenship with an order that states “the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States.”
Another order will reinstate the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy to force people to stay on the other side of the southern border while their immigration cases are pending with U.S. courts and authorities.
The administration will also freeze asylum claims — a right guaranteed under both U.S. and international law — and pause a decades-long refugee resettlement program for at least four months.
Trump also ended the CBP One app, which has been used by more than 900,000 people to schedule appointments with immigration authorities at the southern border since it was introduced in January 2023.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have estimated roughly 270,000 people on the other side of the border were in the process of trying to get an appointment through the app. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will honor any of those requests.
The app allowed people living outside the country to request an appointment at an official port of entry to begin their asylum claims and immigration paperwork, but has been falsely characterized by Trump and his allies as a fast track for illegal immigration.
Drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations
Donald Trump signed another executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Violent Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American criminal groups were highlighted as a safety concern for US citizens and a national security threat, which could destabilize “the international order in the Western Hemisphere,” the order reads.
While the gangs were not explicitly listed by name, Cabinet secretaries are due to recommend groups for designation as terrorist organizations within the next two weeks.
The order continues: “The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.”
While the move could push a more militarized agenda for the border and Latin America, it remains unclear what U.S. law enforcement and military actions that could entail.
“We have not made any determination on what that would necessarily look like right now,” an official said ahead of the order being issued. “It’s up to the Secretary of Defense at this point [and] Secretary of State.”
Gender identity and LGBT+ rights
Trump signed a pair of executive orders intended to roll back the Biden administration’s efforts to recognize and accommodate transgender people at the federal level and end federal efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The first order states that it is “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female” as “sexes that are not changeable and ... grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
The order also says the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other departments must “ensure that official government documents, including passports and visas, reflect sex accurately”.
Trump’s order also rescinds Biden-era guidance and other orders signed during the Biden administration to eliminate what the official described as “radical gender ideology” from government.
A second order focuses on “ending radical and wasteful government [diversity, equity and inclusion] programs and preferencing,” describing such initiatives as illegal discrimination.
“To carry out this directive, the Director of OPM, with the assistance of the Attorney General as requested, shall review and revise, as appropriate, all existing Federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies or programs to comply with this order,” the order reads.
“Federal employment practices, including Federal employee performance reviews, shall reward individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements,” it adds.
Oil and gas drilling and the economy
Trump is fulfilling his campaign’s pledge to “drill, baby, drill” with a series of executive actions to “unleash affordable and reliable American energy,” according to an incoming administration official.
The president has once again pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accords, putting the country alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries in the world outside forgoing the 2015 pact, in which governments agree to emissions in the midst of the climate crisis.
Trump has also issued an executive order to declare a “national energy emergency” in a move intended to sweep away restrictions from the Biden era, giving rise to a new age American “energy dominance”.
“The United States’ insufficient energy production, transportation, refining, and generation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to our Nation’s economy, national security, and foreign policy,” the order reads. “In light of these findings, I hereby declare a national emergency.”
The emergency declaration is “crucial” for generating power to compete in the artificial intelligence race with China, according to the Trump administration official.
A separate order reversed Biden’s restrictions on drilling on millions of acres of federal land in Alaska, to “unleash” the state’s “natural resource potential”.
Trump also signed “memorandum” on inflation and rising costs in the US. The document directs “heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief.”
The order states officials must “lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel”.
It is unclear how exactly officials are supposed to achieve the goals set out in the document.
World Health Organization
One of Trump’s final day one orders saw him withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization after railing against the agency during his first term in office, when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.
“The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states,” the order reads.
“In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments,” it continues.
January 6 pardons
Trump signed full pardons for roughly 1,500 people charged with crimes related to their involvement in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots. He also issued six commutations.
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right group, the Proud Boys, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and jailed for 22 years for leading the during the confirmation of Biden’s 2020 election victory was among those set to be freed.
“I hope they come out tonight,” he said.
Some 1,583 individuals have been charged criminally in federal court as of January 6, 2025, according to the Department of Justice.
Death penalty
Trump signed an executive order instructing the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure states have full access to lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
The order also said Biden’s moratorium on federal executions defies “his duty to faithfully execute the laws of the United States that provide for capital punishment.”
“These efforts to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes,” the order reads. “The Government’s most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my Administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens.”
