President Donald Trump has moved quickly to implement his wide-ranging early agenda.
Hours after being sworn in on Monday, Trump signed the first executive actions of his second presidential term at the U.S. Capitol. Trump later put pen to paper on several more orders, first during an inaugural rally at Capital One Arena and then back in the Oval Office at the White House.
With his opening rounds of memoranda and executive orders, Trump repealed dozens of former President Joe Biden‘s actions, began his immigration crackdown, withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords and sought to keep TikTok open in the U.S., among other actions. Trump also pardoned roughly 1,500 people for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Here’s what to know about the notable executive orders that Trump has already inked or is expected to sign:
Immigration
Trump reversed several immigration orders from Biden’s presidency, including one that narrowed deportation priorities to people who commit serious crimes, are deemed national security threats or were stopped at the border. It returns the government to Trump’s first-term policy that everyone in the country illegally is a priority for deportation.
The president declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, and he plans to send U.S. troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum. One order designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Trump is also promising to end birthright citizenship, but it’s unclear how he’d do it — it’s enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Democrats and some legal groups have vowed to challenge in court any attempt by Trump to do away with birthright citizenship.
Trump temporarily suspended the U.S. Refugee Admission Program, pending a review to assess the program’s “public safety and national security” implications. 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. And Trump is ending the CBP One app, a Biden-era border app that gave legal entry to nearly 1 million migrants.
Pardons for Capitol riot defendants
Trump pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers, using his clemency powers on his first day in office to undo the massive prosecution of the unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.
Among those set to be released from prison are defendants captured on camera committing violent attacks on law enforcement as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups who were found of seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department will also be freed from prison after having their sentences commuted. Trump is directing the attorney general to seek the dismissal of about 450 pending cases.
The pardons were expected after Trump’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack that left more than 100 police officers injured and threatened the peaceful transfer of power. Yet the scope of the clemency, coming hours after Trump returned to power, still comes as a stunning dismantling of the Justice Department’s effort to hold participants accountable over what has been described as one of the darkest days in the county’s history.
Trump had suggested in the weeks leading up to his return to the White House that instead of blanket pardons, he would look at the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis. Vice President JD Vance had said just days ago that people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot “obviously” should not be pardoned.
Casting the rioters as “patriots” and “hostages,” Trump has claimed they were unfairly treated by the Justice Department that also charged him with federal crimes in two cases he contends were politically motivated. Trump said the pardons end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”
More than 1,200 people have been convicted in the riot, including approximately 250 people convicted of assault charges. Hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants who didn’t engage in any of the violence and destruction were charged with misdemeanor trespassing offenses, and many of those served little to no time behind bars.
Moving to withdraw US from World Health Organization — again
Trump has signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
It was the second time in less than five years that he’s ordered the country to withdraw from the organization, despite it being a move many scientists fear could roll back decadeslong gains made in fighting infectious diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
Experts also warn it could weaken the world’s defenses against dangerous new outbreaks capable of triggering pandemics.
Withdrawing US from Paris Climate Agreement
Trump will pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, according to an executive order signed during an inaugural rally at Capital One Arena.
Under the Paris Climate Agreement, signed in 2016, participating nations vowed to work together to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by making yearly pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, participating nations, including the U.S., have also pledged billions of dollars to funds that assist developing nations with climate adaptation and mitigation.
The White House said in the order that “these agreements steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.”
The order stated that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations will submit a written notification of the withdrawal.
“The United States will consider its withdrawal from the Agreement and any attendant obligations to be effective immediately upon this provision of notification,” the order added.
The U.S. will join Libya, Yemen and Iran as nations that are not part of the Paris Agreement. As the U.S. exits the global stage of climate action, some experts are concerned that other nations may follow suit and that the U.S. may be ceding important input on international climate policy.
Keeping TikTok online for now
Trump signed an executive order delaying implementation of the TikTok ban, saying the order will give him the right to “either sell it or close it.” Specifically, the order instructed the attorney general not to “take any action” for 75 days to enforce the ban until his administration can determine the appropriate path forward.
TikTok thanked Trump after it briefly went dark this weekend, crediting him with working to make sure the site remained accessible. Trump, now a proponent of the app, had previously denounced it over national security concerns.
Regarding his change in position, Trump said when he was asked that it will “depend on the deal.” He said that TikTok will be “worthless” if he does not approve the potential deal selling it and that he wants the United States to get “half of TikTok.”
“If I don’t do the deal, it’s worthless, worth nothing. If I do the deal, it’s worth maybe a trillion dollars, a trillion,” Trump said. “If I do the deal for the United States, then I think we should get half. In other words, I think the U.S. should be entitled to get half of TikTok.”
Energy and the economy
Trump signed a largely symbolic memorandum that he described as directing every federal agency to combat consumer inflation.
By repealing Biden actions, Trump also is trying to ease regulatory burdens on oil and natural gas production, something he promises will help bring down costs of all consumer goods. Trump specifically wants to make it easier to extract fossil fuels in Alaska.
On trade, the president said he expects to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1, but declined to flesh out his plans for taxing Chinese imports.
Trump signed an executive order halting offshore wind lease sales and pausing the issuance of approvals, permits and loans for onshore and offshore wind projects. Trump’s order says the interior secretary will review federal wind leasing and permitting practices. The assessment will consider the environmental impact of onshore and offshore wind projects, the economic costs associated with the intermittent generation of electricity and the effect of subsidies on the viability of the wind industry, the order states.
Additionally, Trump plans to declare an declare an energy emergency as he promises to “drill, baby, drill,” and says he will eliminate what he calls Biden’s electric vehicle mandate.
Transgender rights and DEI
Trump is rolling back protections for transgender people and terminating 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.
Overhauling federal bureaucracy
Trump has halted federal government hires, excepting the military and other parts of government that went unnamed. He added a freeze on new federal regulations while he builds out his second administration.
He formally empowered the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is being led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. Ostensibly an effort to streamline government, DOGE is not an official agency. But Trump appears poised to give Musk wide latitude to recommend cuts in government programs and spending.
Revoking Biden executive action that de-listed Cuba as state sponsor of terrorism
Among the 78 Biden executive orders and actions that Trump revoked was Biden’s memorandum last Tuesday removing Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Trump first added it to the list in January 2021, five years after President Barack Obama had removed it.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced Trump’s action, calling it an act of “arrogance and disdain for the truth.”
“It is not surprising. His objective is to continue fortifying the cruel economic war against Cuba, with the goal of domination,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X.
Cuba had announced that it would release more than 500 political prisoners after Biden removed it from the list. It is unclear whether it still intends to release them following Trump’s decision.
Suspending US foreign assistance for 90 days pending reviews
Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending all U.S. foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his policy goals. It was not immediately clear how much assistance would initially be affected by the order as funding for many programs has already been appropriated by Congress and is obligated to be spent, if not already spent.
The order said the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values” and “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Consequently, Trump declared that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing last week that “every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions:
“Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” he said.
The order signed by Trump leaves it up to Rubio or his designee to make such determinations, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are the main agencies that oversee foreign assistance.
Directing attorney general to help states get lethal injection drugs
Trump has signed a sweeping execution order on the death penalty, directing the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
Trump wrote that “politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country.”
A moratorium on federal executions had been in place since 2021, and only three defendants remain on federal death row after Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.
Allowing security clearances for some aides
Trump signed a memorandum allowing his White House counsel to grant interim six-month security clearances — including access to the highest levels of government information — to some aides whose federal background checks are pending.
Trump delayed in signing an agreement with the outgoing Biden administration last year that would have enabled the FBI to begin processing those clearances faster. Trump’s memo directs that they be granted access to federal property, technology and information immediately.
Name changes
Trump vowed to change 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.