All the executive orders Donald Trump has signed
Washington: US President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders and directives as he sought to put his stamp on his new administration on matters ranging from energy to criminal pardons and immigration.
President Trump holds up an executive order commuting sentences for people convicted of offences during the January 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill.Credit: AP
What are executive orders?
An executive order is an order issued unilaterally by the president that has the force of law. Notable executive orders issued by Trump in his first term included a ban on travel from some Muslim-majority countries and an order expanding the leasing of offshore waters for oil exploration. Trump issued 220 executive orders in his first term, more than any other president in a single four-year term since Jimmy Carter. President Joe Biden issued 155 executive orders as he left office.
Here are the key executive orders signed on Trump’s first day back in office:
Pardons
Trump pardoned about 1500 people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a sweeping gesture of support to the people who assaulted police and tried to prevent lawmakers from certifying his 2020 election defeat.
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said. “We’re expecting it.”
Rioters loyal to Trump overrun the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, trying to overturn the 2020 election result.Credit: AP
The far-reaching action also cuts short the sentences of 14 members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organisations, including some who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
The document directs the US attorney-general to drop pending cases related to the riot.
Immigration
Trump signed orders declaring illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency, designating criminal cartels as terrorist organisations, and targeting automatic citizenship for US-born children of illegal immigrants.
Trump’s order dealing with US refugee resettlement will suspend the program for at least four months and will order a review of security to see if travellers from certain nations should be subject to a travel ban.
“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants,” the order said.
Undoing Biden actions
At a rally at a sports arena, Trump revoked 78 executive actions of the previous administration.
“I’ll revoke nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration,” Trump said.
Among Donald Trump’s first acts as president was to overturn decisions made by predecessor Joe Biden (right).Credit: AP
Trump also said he would sign an order directing every agency to preserve all records pertaining to “political persecutions” under the Biden administration.
The rescission applied to executive orders spanning from former president Joe Biden’s first day in office in 2021 to as recently as last week, and covered topics from COVID-19 relief to the promotion of clean energy industries.
Diversity
Trump also rescinded executive orders that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and rights for LGBTQ people and racial minorities, fulfilling promises to curtail protections for the most marginalised Americans. Among the 78 repealed executive orders were at least a dozen measures supporting racial equity and combating discrimination against gay and transgender people.
TikTok ban
Trump signed an order to delay a ban for 75 days of popular short-video app TikTok that was slated to be shuttered on January 19. The order directs the attorney-general to not enforce the law “to permit my administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok”.
Regulatory, hiring freezes
Trump signed orders freezing government hiring and new federal regulations, as well as an order requiring federal workers to immediately return to full-time in-person work.
“I will implement an immediate regulation freeze, which will stop Biden bureaucrats from continuing to regulate,” Trump said, adding he would also “issue a temporary hiring freeze to ensure that we’re only hiring competent people who are faithful to the American public”.
The move would force large numbers of white-collar government employees to forfeit remote working arrangements, reversing a trend that took off in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of Trump’s allies have said the return-to-work mandate is intended to help gut the civil service, making it easier for Trump to replace long-serving government workers with loyalists.
Inflation
Trump ordered all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker.
Measures include cutting regulations and climate policies that raise costs, and prescribe actions to lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply.
“Over the past four years, the Biden administration’s destructive policies inflicted an historic inflation crisis on the American people,” the order said.
Climate
Trump also signed a withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty, including a letter to the United Nations explaining the withdrawal.
The announcement, which has been widely expected ever since Trump won the November 5 presidential election, further threatens the central goal of the agreement to avoid a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees, a target that appears even more tenuous because last year was the planet’s hottest on record. “It is the policy of my administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first,” the order said.
He repealed a 2023 memo from Biden that barred oil drilling in 6.5 million hectares in the Arctic, saying government should encourage energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, and eliminated an electric vehicle mandate.
Health
Another order withdrew the US from the World Health Organisation, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr at the inauguration.Credit: AP
The plan, which aligns with Trump’s long-standing criticism of the UN health agency, marks a dramatic shift in US global health policy and further isolates Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.
Trump has nominated several critics of the organisation to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic who is up for the post of secretary of health and human services, which oversees all major US health agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
Government efficiency
Trump signed an executive action to create an advisory group called the Department of Government Efficiency aimed at carrying out dramatic cuts to the US government, attracting immediate lawsuits challenging its operations. The group – dubbed “DOGE” – is being run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and has grandiose goals of eliminating entire federal agencies and cutting three-quarters of federal government jobs.
Targeting the ‘deep state’
The president signed a document “ending weaponisations” of government against political opponents. The order directs the attorney-general to investigate the activities of the federal government over the past four years, including at the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission during the prior administration.
It said the government would “identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the federal government related to the weaponisations of law enforcement and the weaponisations of the intelligence community”.
Assassination history
Trump has signed an executive order he said would declassify documents related to the assassinations of US president John F. Kennedy, senator Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
On the campaign trail, Trump had promised to release classified intelligence and law enforcement files on the 1963 assassination of America’s 35th president.
Kennedy’s assassination remains a source of intrigue in the US where federal government bodies and the Justice Department have attributed the crime to a sole gunman – Lee Harvey Oswald – but polls show many Americans believe his death was a result of a wider conspiracy.
Free speech
Trump signed an executive order that he said was aimed at “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship”.
“Under the guise of combating ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’, and ‘malinformation’, the federal government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens,” the White House said.
Trump and his Republican allies have accused the Biden administration of encouraging suppression of free speech on online platforms.
Energy
Trump declared a national energy emergency, promising to fill up strategic oil reserves and export US energy all over the world.
He laid out a sweeping plan to maximise US oil and gas production, including by stripping away excess regulation.
Trump said he expected the orders to help reduce consumer prices and improve US national security. He also signed orders aimed at promoting oil and gas development in Alaska.
The moves signal a dramatic U-turn in Washington’s energy policy after Biden sought to encourage a transition away from fossil fuels and establish the US as a leader in combating global warming.
Reuters
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