Politics

A running list of Trump’s planned executive orders, actions, proclamations and legislation

Published

1 year ago

January 21, 2025

Donald Trump is promising a “golden age of America” in his second term, and he’s issuing a raft of executive orders to try and make it happen.

The president signed a slew of orders and directives that aim to end birthright citizenship and crack down on illegal crossings at the southern border, increase domestic energy production and transform a federal government he views as both too bloated and too “woke.”

It’s unclear which of Trump’s executive actions will have immediate impact or are merely symbolic. But they’re already facing challenges. The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency drew lawsuits hours before Trump signed the paperwork to create it. Some of his more controversial orders — including the one targeting birthright citizenship — also immediately hit legal challenges. And while Trump pledged in his inaugural address to create an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs and revenues from foreign nations, he’ll need congressional approval to create the new agency.

Here’s a look at what Trump signed on Day One — and his executive actions since:

Jan. 6 pardons

Trump pardoned some 1,500 people who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a sweeping grant of clemency that fulfilled a campaign-trail promise and upended years of the Justice Department’s efforts.

Immigration

Trump signed a slew of executive orders on Monday aimed at delivering on his long-promised crackdown on illegal border crossings and immigration more broadly. He also declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying U.S. Armed Forces to the region.

He intends to end birthright citizenship by issuing an executive action that would reinterpret the 14th Amendment that grants citizenship to all people born on domestic soil — a move that drew swift legal challenges, including from Democratic attorneys general.

Trump also moved to:

Resume construction of the border wall
End so-called catch and release
Temporarily suspend refugee resettlement from certain countries for at least four months
Restart the “Remain in Mexico” policy of his first term
Restrict asylum using 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
Designate drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations and invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove them — or, as he put it in his inaugural address, “eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil”
Direct the incoming attorney general to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement and capital crimes committed by undocumented immigrants

Energy

Trump wants to “drill, baby, drill.” He’s going to do it by declaring a “national energy emergency” that would give him the power to increase domestic energy production — and undo many of the Biden administration’s clean-energy policies. The White House also announced that the U.S. will withdraw, again, from the Paris Climate Accord.

Among Trump’s other planned moves:

Issue a memorandum detailing a governmentwide approach to bringing down inflation, according to the Trump team
End what his team has referred to as an “electric vehicle mandate”
End leasing to massive wind farms that “degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve American energy consumers”

Federal workforce

Want to work remote? Good luck. Trump signed executive orders last night focused on the federal workforce, including one order instructing all U.S. government departments and agencies to require employees to return to office, ending any remote accommodations. Trump also announced a hiring freeze across the executive branch except in “essential areas.”

The president also removed job protections for tens of thousands of government workers, which the White House said was necessary to rein in what Trump describes as “deep state” bureaucracy.

Among Trump’s other planned moves:

End “radical and wasteful” diversity training programs, as well as environmental justice programs, equity-related grants and equity initiatives
Freeze hiring except in essential areas to “end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried into the federal workforce,” according to the White House
Freeze the issuing of new regulations
Direct agencies to address the “cost of living crisis”
Restore “freedom of speech” and “preventing government censorship”
Create the “Department of Government Efficiency”

Health

Trump said in his speech the White House will instruct the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, as well as other agencies to remove “nonbinary” or “other” options from federal documents, including passports and visas, according to an incoming administration official.

“It will officially be the policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump said.

He also signed an executive order removing the U.S. from the World Health Organization.

Among Trump’s other planned moves:

Reinstate military members who were penalized for not getting vaccinated against Covid-19

Trade

Trump hasn’t enacted new tariffs, yet. Instead, he issued an order on Monday directing federal agencies to investigate and address trade deficits and unfair trade and currency practices.

Among Trump’s other planned moves:

Impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Feb. 1 (despite pledging to enact these broad tariffs on Day One)
Establish the “External Revenue Service,” aiming to collect tariffs and other revenues from foreign nations

The rest

Extend the deadline for TikTok to be divested or banned, a move that has questionable legality
Suspend U.S. foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending a review of whether they align with his agenda
Rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America — he’ll also return Mount Denali in Alaska to the name Mount McKinley, reversing an Obama-era change

Politics

DC is about to pick new leaders. Trump is watching.

Published

3 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Washington will soon enter a new chapter after voters pick the capital’s first new mayor in a dozen years and its first new Congressional delegate since 1991. And no matter who wins Tuesday’s primaries, they’ll be on a collision course with President Donald Trump.

The frontrunners in both races have hinged their campaigns on opposition to Trump, who since returning to office has chipped away at Washington’s autonomy and sought to remake parts of the city in his image. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has led the city since taking office in 2015, has taken a pragmatic approach to working with the president in an apparent effort to avoid further furor. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has represented the District since 1991 and condemned Trump’s actions in strongly worded statements, but the 89-year-old has dodged the spotlight amid questions about her acuity and ability to serve.

The candidates running to replace them say that’s far from enough.

In interviews with Blue Light News, those leading candidates emphasized that they hoped to find common ground with the Trump administration and coordinate where possible, especially on projects that could jumpstart Washington’s sluggish economy. But they all drew a red line at Trump’s extraordinary law enforcement actions, including sending in the National Guard indefinitely and surging federal immigration agents in coordination with local police.

“Washington, D.C., residents want and deserve a mayor who’s going to stand up and fight back, and that’s what I’m bringing,” said Kenyan McDuffie, a relatively moderate, pro-business former D.C. Council member who is polling second in the mayor’s race. He has pledged to end coordination between the Metropolitan Police Department and ICE on his first day in office.

Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. council member who is polling more than 10 points ahead of McDuffie, has taken an even more adversarial posture against the president. She told Blue Light News she would “actively tell our employees to resist” if Trump again federalized the MPD, adding that she would work with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb “to defend D.C.”

Trump is already making known his displeasure — particularly with Lewis George, a democratic socialist whose platform and campaign are reminiscent of those of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Asked last week about the possibility of Lewis George winning the primary, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “I wouldn’t like it.”

“Maybe we’ll take back Washington, run it on a federal basis,” he continued. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not gonna lose our businesses.”

Lewis George’s campaign almost immediately cut Trump’s comments into an ad. “Look, we’re not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president,” she said in response. “We’re not going to protect our rights, or Home Rule, by complying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you don’t like how residents are voting is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect their mayor, and they want someone who’s gonna stand up to Donald Trump.”

There’s a similar sentiment among the leading delegate candidates.

Robert White, a city council member and one of two frontrunners in the delegate race, described Trump’s surge of federal agents and National Guard troops to the city as “lawlessness” and “the opposite of public safety.” He said he would seek to build a coalition in Congress to “push back in every way.”

Brooke Pinto, a fellow council member and the other delegate frontrunner who has centered public safety in her campaign, said the administration’s use of National Guard troops and ICE agents have not helped the city. “While I am very committed to advancing public safety in the District of Columbia, what we’re seeing from the Trump administration undermines those efforts,” she said.

That type of messaging is politically savvy in a city with an electorate that heavily supported Kamala Harris in 2024 and whose lives have been directly impacted by the president’s grip over Washington — from the troop surge to his sweeping cuts to government programs and razing of the federal workforce, which have severely contracted the District’s economy. That’s not to mention his efforts to splash his name and face across federal buildings, and mounting moves to beautify portions of the city and stand up ambitious architectural projects.

“When politicians try to interfere with our local public safety, when they are sweeping up unhoused residents, cutting jobs, when they are pushing policies that negatively affect our local economy and driving up overall costs of everything from gas to housing, I’m going to fight back,” McDuffie said.

But it sets the candidates — whoever wins — in explicit opposition to Trump, who has consistently sought to bring his enemies to heel whenever he gets the chance. The president has several levers at his disposal if he chooses to retaliate against Washington, from another federal law enforcement surge to using his influence over Congress to weaken D.C. Home Rule. The city also depends on the federal government for high-profile projects that would improve public spaces and bring jobs to the District, including upgrades to Union Station and the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus.

Asked how the White House is preparing for a potentially more adversarial mayor and delegate, a spokesperson referred Blue Light News back to Trump’s Oval Office comments.

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