PRESIDENT TRUMP'S KEY EXECUTIVE ORDERS

President Trump has already made good on his promise to deliver a bold agenda and has (thus far) revoked over 78 executive orders introduced during the President Biden era. Here is a list of some of the key actions undertaken by Donald Trump since coming to office on January 20th 2025:

 

Economy, tariffs and regulation

President Trump has signed a directive instructing every US federal department and agency to address the cost of living. Entitled Delivering emergency price relief for American families, President Trump points to the previous administration's exploding government spending, crushing regulatory regime and green policy programme as the causes of the US cost of living crises. He also states that Americans are unable to purchase homes due to "historically high prices, in part due to regulatory requirements that alone account for 25 percent of the cost of constructing a new home".

The directive instructs all government employees and agencies to pursue appropriate actions to "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". He demands a monthly update on progress. 

The president has also issued an order directing federal agencies to refrain from issuing any new regulations until the President Trump administration has full control of the government.

Elsewhere President Trump has pledged to impose blanket tariffs on foreign goods, including a rate of 100 per cent on imports from China, and between ten and 20 per cent on every other country.

The first tariffs of the new Trump administration are expected to be launched in an executive order and could include levies of 25 per cent on imports from Canada and Mexico. He has demanded that both Mexico and Canada take more action on illegal migration and drug-trafficking on America’s southern and northern border in exchange for tariff relief.

 

Immigration and border security

President Trump has signed several executive orders beefing up border security and immigration.

He has proclaimed that "America's sovereignty is under attack", declaring this to be a national emergency that allows him to free up more funding to reinforce the border with Mexico. The same directive tells officials to relaunch efforts to build a border wall with Mexico that was started under his first presidency.

President Trump has re-implemented his "Remain in Mexico" policy from his first term. This returned about 70,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers across the border to await hearings, before being cancelled by President Biden.

The same order demands the end of "catch and release", a policy that allows migrants to live in US communities while they await their hearings.

The president has told the military to "seal the borders" - citing the flow of illicit drugs, human smuggling and crime relating to crossings. Terrorism designation for gangs and cartels.

President Trump has designated drug cartels and international gangs as foreign terrorist organisations - adding the likes of Salvadoran gang MS-13 to a list that includes the so-called Islamic State. 

An order also shut down a major Biden-era immigration pipeline: a sponsorship initiative that allowed up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly to the US.

 

Climate and energy

The president has declared a "national energy emergency", promising to fill up oil reserves. In his inaugural address, he vowed to "drill, baby, drill" for more fossil fuels.

He signed an executive order titled "unleashing Alaska's extraordinary resource potential", pledging to "unlock" oil, gas and other natural resources from the state.

He also directed the Energy secretary to restart application reviews for liquefied natural gas export projects, which were paused by President Biden in early 2024.

President Trump has signed off on withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement (a voluntary international agreement to "pursue efforts" to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, give ‘climate finance’ to ‘poorer’ economies to adapt to warming, achieve ‘net zero’ etc). It will take one year to withdraw from the agreement.

President Trump has terminated the Green New Deal, a series of Biden measures that were aimed at boosting green jobs, regulating the fossil fuel industry and limiting pollution. This includes an order to immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-169) or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58), pending a 90-day review.

He said the US would end leasing to wind farms and revoke what he calls an electric vehicle "mandate". Last year Mr Biden implemented emission regulations which included a target for 56 per cent of all new US vehicles sold to be electric by 2032. Electric vehicles made up less than eight per cent of all new car sales in 2023.

In a separate memorandum, President Trump paused offshore wind leasing in federal waters pending a review of federal wind leasing, per the order.

 

Government reform 

President Trump has signed a directive creating the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) - a new advisory body on cutting government costs. It is expected to be led by Elon Musk.

Another order halts any new federal hiring - except within the US military and several other categories - until the President Trump administration has full control over the government.

The president has also signed a memorandum mandating that federal workers must work in the office and are not allowed to work from home.

A new order called Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions within the Federal Workforce, reclassifies a large swathe of the federal workforce as political appointees, making them easier to remove and stripping them of civil service protections.  The order notes that failure to “faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability” is grounds for dismissal. 

See also - free speech below. 

 

Free speech 

President  Trump has also taken action at what he has called the ‘censorship cartel’ - restoring freedom of speech and preventing government censorship" – addressing the actions of the previous federal government pressuring social media companies to take down lawful posts over concerns around misinformation.

An executive order has been issued which prohibits any federal officer, employee, or agent from unconstitutionally abridging the free speech of American citizens.

It also requires an investigation into whether the President Biden administration engaged in censorship and directs the Attorney General to report on these findings.

The order addresses the use of federal spending on online platforms, seeking to stop taxpayers funding of platforms that restrict free speech. It also touches on the regulatory environment around social media platforms, focusing on their liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, (some commentators suggest this a move towards new regulations that would limit the liability shield for platforms engaging in political censorship.)

Multiple lawsuits have accused the President Biden administration of leaning on social media platforms to take down lawful speech about the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election.

 

Diversity and gender

President Trump has issued an executive order - Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government - which declares that the US will only recognise "two sexes, male and female". "These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality". This policy will affect federal documents like passports and visas, mandating that they reflect biological sex rather than gender identity.

President Trump has ended all government programmes, policies, statements and communications that promote or support "gender ideology".

The president has also ordered all government departments and agencies to terminate "discriminatory and illegal" preferences, policies, programs, guidance and other provisions and them to remove references to DEI and DEIA principles, under whatever name they may appear, from all acquisition, contracting, grants, and financial assistance procedures.

He has also committed to "combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities." In the first instance this requires government agencies to each identify key sectors of concern within each agency’s jurisdiction and name the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in each sector of concern. Agency heads are required to each identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations which may have violated the civil-rights of US citizens. (Commentators expect that this is only the start of President Trump's 'war on woke'). 

The president has specifically directed the Federal Aviation Administration "to immediately return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring, as required by law" and rescind DEI initiatives stating that the FAA betrayed its mission by elevating dangerous discrimination over excellence.

 

World Health Organization & Covid

President Trump has signalled his contempt for the World Health Organisation "due to the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic ... 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."

President Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). It will take a year to complete the withedrawal.This marks the second time President Trump has ordered the US be pulled out of the WHO, after President Biden re-entered it. 

President Trump also revoked a mandate that federal workers must be vaccinated with the Covid vaccine.

He has promised to reinstate the 8,000 military service members who were discharged due to the Pentagon's Covid vaccine mandate - with full backpay.