Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term of office at noon inside the Capitol Rotunda. The pomp and circumstance lasted all day, including making a spectacle of signing a slate of executive orders publicly inside the Capital One Arena. After which, he threw pens to the MAGA crowd as they dove and cheered. Trump continued to sign orders late into the evening once he returned to the White House.
What follows is an accounting of the 46 actions he signed on a day he promised he’d be “a dictator.” Four were administration staffing announcements, 26 were executive orders, 12 were memorandums, and four were proclamations.
Proclamation to Fly Flags at Full-Staff
Trump issued a proclamation to fly flags at full-staff on inauguration day, despite flags having been lowered to half-staff following the passing of President Jimmy Carter on December 29, 2024. President Biden had issued a proclamation for flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days.
Memorandum Limiting More Regulations
Trump has issued a memorandum titled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” to prevent more regulations until he has full control of the government.
Executive Order Withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization
Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization titled “Withdrawing The United States From The World Health Organization.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer have access to the WHO’s global health data.
Memorandum on Freezing Federal Hiring
Trump issued a memorandum freezing most federal hiring in the executive branch and asked the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Project 2025’s Russ Vought) to submit a plan within 90 days to reduce the size of the federal government. The hiring freeze for the IRS is indefinite.
Executive Order on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Trump has signed an executive order titled “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” disguised as preventing the weaponization of government against political adversaries of the previous administration. The actual text of the order calls for identifying actions taken by past administrations that could be construed (or propagandized) as weaponizing the government.
Executive Order on the Freedom of Speech
Trump has signed an executive order titled “Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship,” in which he claims the Biden administration violated the free speech rights of Americans online and calls on the Attorney General to investigate and remediate policies over the past four years.
Pardoning of January 6 Insurrectionists
In a proclamation titled “Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating To The Events At Or Near The United States Capitol On January 6, 2021,” Trump issued 1,500 full pardons for insurrectionists, along with commutations of sentences for six defendants.
Memorandum for Federal Employees to Return to In-Person Work
Trump issued a memorandum called “Return to In-Person Work” commanding federal workers to return back to in-person work immediately.
Hiring and Firing Federal Employees
Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce,” which makes it easier to hire and fire federal workers (part of the Project 2025 agenda). The order states, “They are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the President. Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.” Loyalty is a measure for President Trump.
Memorandum to Restore Accountability for Career Civil Servants
Trump has issued a memorandum titled “Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives,” where he demands that Senior Executive Service officials resign or be fired so they can be replaced with those who will implement Trump’s agenda and “prioritize accountability.” (Also in line with the Project 2025 agenda)
Cost of Living Crisis Memorandum
Trump has issued a memorandum titled “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis,” which directs agencies to implement emergency price relief to lower the cost of housing, health care, food, and fuel as well as create employment opportunities. There are no specific means of doing this offered in the memorandum.
Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement
Trump signed an executive order titled “Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements,” withdrawing the country from the Paris Agreement, designed as a pact across most nations to help fight climate change. It additionally orders the withdrawal of the United States from any other international climate pacts or financial commitments made to the U.N Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Pulling Out of the OECD’s Global Tax Deal
Trump has issued a memorandum titled “The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Tax Deal (Global Tax Deal),” which withdraws the United States from a universal corporate minimum tax ratified by almost 140 countries.
Declaration of National Emergency at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border in a proclamation titled “Declaring A National Emergency At The Southern Border Of The United States.” He has called for military personnel and ordered construction on the border wall to resume, as well as the deployment of drones. Border crossings are currently near a four-year low.
America First Trade Policy
Trump issued a memorandum titled “America First Trade Policy,” which states that “unfair and unbalanced trade” should be addressed and directs cabinet officials to investigate tariffs and “America First” trade policies.
American First Foreign Policy Approach
Trump has signed an executive order titled “America First Policy Directive To The Secretary Of State,” which directs the Secretary of State — newly confirmed to be Marco Rubio — to have an isolationist foreign policy approach.
Order to Seal the Border
Trump signed an executive order titled “Clarifying the military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States,” requiring the military to come up with a plan to seal the border from “forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.” This order authorizes the U.S. military to plan to deploy troops to the southern border.
Proclamation Declaring an Invasion
Trump declared the United States is facing an invasion due to the migrant crisis at the border and issued an executive order titled “Guaranteeing The States Protection Against Invasion,” which suspends entry by “any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States.” Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of State, and Attorney General are to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States.”
End to Birthright Citizenship
Trump signed an order ending birthright citizenship titled “Protecting The Meaning And Value of American Citizenship,” which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the children of noncitizens, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” This order faced near-immediate legal challenges.
Tightening of Immigration Laws
Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting The American People Against Invasion,” which restricts funds for sanctuary cities, allocates resources to create more detention centers, and establishes Homeland Security task forces in every state.
Designation of Latin-American Gangs and Cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations
Trump signed an executive order titled “Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” designating drug cartels, Salvadoran gang MS-13, and Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations. Anyone seen as linked to the above can be charged as a terrorist and deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
TikTok Ban Delay
Trump signed an executive order called “Application of Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act to TikTok” to keep TikTok open for 75 days so it can find a buyer and not be shut down for national security reasons. He would like the U.S. government to have 50% control, which would make TikTok the first U.S. state-owned social network.
Revoking Security Clearances
Trump signed an executive order titled “Holding Former Government Officials Accountable For Election Interference And Improper Disclosure Of Sensitive Governmental Information,” rescinding security clearances for 51 intelligence officials who signed a letter during the 2020 presidential campaign suggesting that information found on Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. The order includes Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, who he accuses of writing a reckless book with sensitive information.
Organizing the National Security Council
Trump issued a memorandum titled “Organization of the National Security Council and Subcommittees,” which lays out its structure and purpose for his administration.
Suspension of U.S. Foreign Assistance Programs
Trump signed an executive order titled “Reevaluating And Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” suspending U.S. foreign assistance programs for 90 days until further review.
Sweeping Order on the Death Penalty
Trump signed a sweeping executive order on the death penalty titled “Restoring The Death Penalty And Protecting Public Safety” and has compelled the attorney general to pursue the death penalty for all capital crimes and ensure states have lethal injection drugs. Trump wrote that “politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country.” The order suggests states that do not pursue the death penalty may be targeted by the Trump administration.
Immediate Security Clearances for Trump Designees
Trump issued a memorandum titled “Memorandum to Resolve the Backlog of Security Clearances for Executive Office of the President Personnel,” commanding that any White House personnel designated on his shortlist be immediately granted a Top Secret/Secure Compartmented Information-level clearance without going through any normal protocol.
Executive Order Defining Gender
Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government,” which seeks to erase gender identity and the acknowledgment of transgender individuals from federal policies and official identification. The order specifically calls for individuals to be imprisoned based on the gender they were assigned at birth. The order notably misunderstands biology and additionally assigns personhood to cells.
Some language in the executive order, “sex-based rights,” suggests the U.S. is on track to legally define different rights and freedoms for women vs. men.
Suspending Refugee Resettlement
Trump signed an executive order titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
Suspending Countries for Admission into the United States
Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting The United States From Foreign Terrorists And Other National Security And Public Safety Threats,” which increases the vetting of visa-seekers from certain countries. This is likely a precursor to reinstating his first-term Muslim travel ban.
End of Executive Branch DEI Programs
Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” which requires executive branch agencies to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs along with environmental programs. Those who hold jobs such as “chief diversity officer” are to be fired. This is another agenda item in Project 2025.
Order Calling for Merit-Based Federal Hiring
Trump has signed an executive order titled “Reforming The Federal Hiring Process And Restoring Merit To Government Service,” which prohibits federal hiring based on race, sex, or religion. The order calls for “merit” and “skill” based hiring.
Establishment of DOGE
Trump has officially signed an executive order titled “Establishing And Implementing The President’s ‘Department Of Government Efficiency,'” to establish the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. DOGE will have advisory powers to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
Executive Order on Energy
Trump signed an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” which calls for a review of anything that burdens the development of domestic energy resources like “natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources.” In the order, Trump also rescinded 12 clean energy regulatory actions and ordered a pause on disbursing funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, which gives subsidies to clean energy initiatives.
National Energy Emergency
Trump has signed an executive order titled “Declaring a National Energy Emergency,” which declares the need to lower energy costs by boosting oil and natural gas production. The order additionally calls for a review of obstacles to boosting energy production, such as the Endangered Species Act.
Repealing Environmental Protections in Alaska
Trump has signed an executive order titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which repeals Biden-era environmental protections and restrictions on drilling and extraction, which protected areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Trump will ramp up oil, gas, and other resource extraction in Alaska.
Pausing of Wind Energy Projects
Trump has issued a memorandum to pause offshore wind lease sales as well as approvals, permits, and loans for onshore and offshore wind projects titled “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.”
Order to Rename Denali and the Gulf of Mexico
Trump has signed an order titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” which calls for the renaming of Denali to Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Removing Environmental Protections for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Trump has issued a memorandum titled “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California,” which calls for water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to be redirected for use for the state and not for the protection of wildlife. This comes following Trump’s attacks on California’s Governor Gavin Newsom during the wildfires in Los Angeles.
Memorandum on Classical Architecture for Public Buildings
Trump issued a memorandum titled “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” which calls for federal buildings to be designed with traditional and classical architectural styles.
Executive Order to Rescinding President Biden’s Executive Orders
Trump rescinded 78 of President Biden’s executive orders and actions, accusing that administration of having “embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government” for the former president’s focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion and the climate crisis.
Some of these include:
A Biden order that directed the federal government to prioritize racial equity in policy.
A Biden executive order to end the Justice Department’s use of private prisons.
A Biden order that created a task force to reunite families separated at the border.
A Biden order that directed the federal government to rebuild the refugee program.
A Biden order on law enforcement reforms which attempted to reduce the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants.
A Biden order protecting transgender members of the military put in place by Biden.
A Biden order from 2021 designed to have federal agencies help boost voter registration.
A Biden order designed to prevent misuse of AI.
A Biden order to welcome and incorporate new immigrants into American life.
A Biden order designed to use Title IX to protect against discrimination for reasons of gender or sexual orientation.
A Biden order that lifted the United States designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
A Biden order to strengthen Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
