President-elect Donald Trump plans to issue a flurry of more than 25 executive orders and directives on his first day in office on January 20 as he looks to dramatically reshape US government policy on issues ranging from immigration to energy .
Two sources familiar with the effort said Trump has told his team he wants to make a “big splash” with orders on the first day, exercising his executive power with greater scale and speed than in his first term. want. The number of planned orders has not been previously reported.
The Republican issued only a handful of such orders on the first day of his 2017-2021 presidency. In contrast, Democratic President Joe Biden issued 17 executive orders on his first day in office in 2021, many of which were aimed at rolling back Trump policies.
When asked about the executive order plans, Trump spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt said, “The American people can count on President Trump to use his executive power on day one to fulfill the promises he made to them during the campaign.” Were.”
US Presidents often issue executive orders to fulfill campaign promises and quickly establish their policy objectives without going through the lengthy process of getting legislation through Congress. However, orders may be subject to court challenges, and generally any funds set aside to carry out the orders’ mandates must be approved by Congress.
One of the sources familiar with the Trump team’s plans said there was recognition internally that each action would require an enormous amount of coordination between affected government agencies, potentially slowing things down and causing delays on the first day. The total number of orders decreases.
Sources told Reuters that more orders and instructions would be issued in the days and weeks that follow.
The effort is being coordinated by longtime Trump aide Stephen Miller, who will be a top White House adviser at the start of Trump’s second term, four sources said.
The Trump team is working from a list of draft orders provided by groups such as the America First Policy Institute, a think tank established in 2021 to promote Trump policies and ideas, as well as the Conservative Partnership Institute and the Heritage Foundation, two other right-wing . Lean organizations.
first wave
The orders expected on the first day after Trump’s inauguration will focus primarily on rolling back Biden’s ultra-conservative border policies and stemming a new surge of migration at the U.S. southern border with Mexico, two of the sources said.
He is expected to sign executive orders that give immigration officials more authority to arrest people with no criminal records, send more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and restart border wall construction, those drafts Three separate sources with knowledge of the orders said.
The orders will also include a campaign to increase energy production and follow Trump’s often-proclaimed campaign slogans “drill, baby, drill” and “frack, frack, frack,” the sources said.
While some steps would face tough court challenges or require legislation or new agency rules — which could take months to implement — there are dozens of actions Trump could literally take with the stroke of a pen.
Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview broadcast Sunday that he plans to take executive action on his first day in office to try to end birthright citizenship, which would extend to anyone born in the U.S. Grants citizenship to the individual regardless of their parents’ immigration status. ,
Trump’s advisers say they are prepared for court challenges to the move.
During the campaign, Trump promised to sign an order on day one to strip federal funds from schools that teach Critical Race Theory, an academic concept – rarely taught in public schools – that is based on the premise that Racial bias is pervasive in American institutions.
He has said he will issue an order on day one that would remove some anti-discrimination protections given to transgender students by the Biden administration. Trump also promised to sign an executive order designed to prevent federal contractors from running certain diversity training programs.
A source who worked on transition matters for Trump’s incoming State Department described helping draft an executive order that would stipulate that any hiring decisions at the agency be based on race- or gender-based characteristics rather than merit. Has been done on the basis of or not.
It was unclear whether that order would be implemented on day one, and Trump could always decide against issuing it.
According to multiple people with knowledge of the inner workings of the transition, work appears to be spread across various executive orders, with some orders being drafted at Trump’s actual base in Palm Beach, Florida, and others at a think tank in Washington. Are being done.
