Trump executive actions: What he's signed so far and other expected orders
Jan 20, 2025
President Donald Trump has moved quickly to implement his wide-ranging early agenda.
Hours after being sworn in, Trump signed the first executive actions of his second presidential term at the U.S. Capitol.
Flanked by members of Congress from both parties, Trump sat in a high-backed red chair at an ornate desk and began affixing his signature to documents. One act was related to Cabinet duties while another proclamation directed that U.S. flags be flown at full staff on Inauguration Day.
Trump is expected to sign more than 50 executive orders — and possibly more than 100 — on Day 1 of his presidency. The expected acts are related to a wide range of issues, from the U.S.-Mexico border to gender and the renaming of Denali in Alaska.
He referenced many of these plans during his inauguration speech.
Here’s what to know about the notable executive orders that Trump has already inked or is expected to sign:
Immigration
Much of the executive action on the border is ripped from Trump’s first-term playbook. He will declare a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, send U.S. troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum.
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. During the previous effort, squalid and fetid camps grew on the border and were marred by gang violence.
Trump is also promising to end birthright citizenship, but it’s unclear how he’d do it — it’s been long believed to be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Democrats and legal groups have vowed to challenge in court any Trump attempt to do away with birthright citizenship.
Trump also ended the CBP One app, a Biden-era border app that gave legal entry to nearly 1 million migrants.
Extra energy
Trump is also signing executive orders designed to spur American energy production, which is already at a record level. One order will declare a “national energy emergency” in order to reduce bureaucracy and allow more drilling, while another will allow more energy production in Alaska.
DEI and gender
Trump is planning to roll back protections for transgender people and terminate 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 would declare 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.
Reforms — and cuts — for government workers
As had been previously announced, Trump will also sign an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will have a mission of cutting government spending, according to Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary.
In November, Trump announced DOGE would be co-led by billionaire Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. But sources familiar with his thinking told NBC News on Monday that Ramaswamy would not be involved so he can focus on running for governor in Ohio.
That order was immediately challenged in a trio of lawsuits alleging that the unofficial government department evades transparency rules and other laws.
On Trump’s agenda as well is an order reimplementing “Schedule F,” an executive order that strips job protections from non-political career officials in policy roles throughout the federal bureaucracy. The move makes it significantly easier for a president to fire them. The order could impact potentially thousands of workers.
Another order would require more federal workers to return to work in person.
Jan. 6 pardons
Trump and his new administration have prepared a list of pardons for people convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Pardoning Jan. 6 defendants has been a frequent campaign-trail promise for Trump, who called the violent attack a “day of love” on multiple occasions.
Notably, Trump could issue pardons for about 700 rioters who were convicted of a crime but never sentenced to prison or have completed sentences. A subset of those individuals will have their voting and gun rights restored once pardoned.
Name changes
He’s also signing another order changing the name of Alaska’s Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, back to Mount McKinley. Then-President Barack Obama renamed the mountain in 2015 at the request of native Alaskan tribes and politicians, a move that sparked anger in McKinley’s home state of Ohio.
Notably, Alaska’s two senators have affirmed the state’s preference to retain the Mount Denali name.
Another order would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, although it is not clear if a U.S. president has the authority to rename an area that is considered international waters.
Flags at full staff on Inauguration Day
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.