WASHINGTON ― President-elect Donald Trump intends to start his second White House term with a bang through a flurry of executive orders and directives that leave no doubt a major transformation is underway.
“Shock and awe,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., recently predicted after Republicans members of Congress received a preview of the activity to come.
Convinced he has an election “mandate” from American voters, Trump is planning to surpass the century mark in executive actions over his first few days of office after getting sworn in as the 47th president on Monday ‒ a moment he’s called a “liberation day for America.
“There will be over 100 executive actions ‒ commands to the bureaucracies to change their ways,” Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, told Fox News last week.
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President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak to members of the media during a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club on January 07, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida.
The orders will bypass Congress to undo President Joe Biden’s policies ranging from climate to diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce while carrying out Trump’s campaign promises to secure the southern border, expand domestic energy production and target transgender Americans.
Many of the actions will be controversial and draw protests from Democrats and others on the political left. Some orders, particularly involving immigration, are expected to invite lawsuits.
It could be a busy few days and weeks of signatures from Trump, who has also also promised “major pardons” for people convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Here’s a look at some of the executive actions that Trump and his top advisers have signaled the incoming president might take:
Reinstating Title 42
On the immigration front, Trump has talked about a series of orders he would issue on “Day 1” to seal the U.S.-Mexico border, where illegal crossings have in recent weeks fallen to record lows.
That includes executive action to revive Title 42 authority to quickly expel asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Title 42 is an emergency public health law that both the Trump and Biden administrations used during the COVID pandemic to justify turning back migrants and asylum-seekers who crossed the border illegally. Biden ended the policy in 2023.
Mass deportations
One of Trump’s signatures campaign promises is to carry out “mass deportations” of immigrants who are in the country unlawfully.
To carry out his sweeping plans, Trump has suggested he would expand the authority of immigration agents and use the U.S. military. The expected moves have already generated pushback from Democrats.
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Stephen Miller, senior advisor to President Donald J. Trump, speaks during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, in New York, U.S., October 27, 2024.
Ending birthright citizenship
Trump has also promised to end birthright citizenship on Day 1 of his presidency ‒ and will do so through executive action “if we can” ‒ likely setting up a constitutional legal fight.
Birthright citizenship refers to anyone born in the U.S. being considering a U.S. citizen based on the 14th Amendment, which says “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
If he decides he can’t end birthright citizenship through executive action because of constitutional constraints, Trump would seemingly have to pursue an amendment to the Constitution, which would require support from two-thirds of Congress and ratification from two-thirds of state legislatures.
More: What is birthright citizenship and the 14th amendment? Explaining Trump’s desired changes
Border wall and empowering local law enforcement
Trump has promised to restart construction of the border fence at the U.S.-Mexico border, an original staple of his first term policy agenda that the Biden administration halted.
About 452 miles of barriers along the southern border were constructed during Trump’s presidency, but only 40 miles of wall were placed where a barrier didn’t previously exist.
Trump advisers also have signaled plans to direct the federal government to more aggressively use 287(g) ‒ a federal program that empowers local law enforcement to carry out some immigration enforcement duties.
Trump turned to the federal program often in his first term. Biden campaigned on ending the Trump-era agreements during his 2020 campaign. Although Biden did not embrace the program at the same level as Trump, immigration activists have accused Biden of not fulfilling his original pledge.
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People visit the beach next to the US-Mexico border wall in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on January 12, 2025.
Tariffs
Trump has promised major new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China on his first day in office.
Three weeks after his election victory, Trump said one of his first executive orders would be to sign all the necessary paperwork to levy a 25% tariff on all products arriving from Canada and Mexico.
Trump said he plans to levy an additional 10% tariff on top of existing tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States.
He’s said the tariffs on goods from the neighboring country’s are in response to “thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before.”
More: Donald Trump vows to impose 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico
TikTok
With a ban on TikTok going into effect over the weekend, Trump said he plans to issue a Day 1 executive order to bring the wildly popular social media app back online.
Trump on Sunday said he will issue an order extending the period before the sell-or-ban TikTok law goes into effect “so we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
“The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump said in a statement.
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TikTok went dark in the U.S. on Saturday but a message displayed to users also said, “President Donald Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution.”
Biden signed bipartisan legislation in April banning TikTok if Beijing-based parent company ByteDance did not sell off its U.S. assets by Sunday. Biden cited national security concerns with the app ‒ which some fear the Chinese government could exploit to gain access to private user data or spread misinformation.
Although Trump now wants to keep TikTok operating, he tried to ban TikTok by executive order in 2020 during his first term.
President-elect Trump has told NBC News he expects to “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban.
‘Drill, baby, drill’ agenda
Trump, who campaigned on a mantra of “drill, baby, drill,” is expected to take multiple executive actions aimed at fulfilling his pro-oil agenda to boost the production of domestic energy, even as it’s already at an all-time high.
Trump has promised to swiftly overturn Biden’s recent action to ban offshore drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. He also wants to reopen drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Among several moves expected in the energy sector, the incoming president has said he will create a new National Energy Council to “oversee the path to U.S. energy dominance.” The new council will be led by former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Interior. But how the council will be structured, staffed and operate hasn’t been detailed.
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A person fishes with offshore oil and gas platform Esther in the distance on January 5, 2025 in Seal Beach, California. President Joe Biden has permanently banned future offshore oil and gas drilling in over 625 million acres of federal waters.
Eliminating the ‘electric vehicle mandate’
Trump has talked repeatedly about eliminating Biden’s so-called “electric vehicle mandate,” referring to an Environmental Protection Agency rule that requires auto manufacturers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half in new light- and medium-duty vehicles beginning in 2027.
The EPA estimates that auto manufacturers may choose to build electric vehicles for about 30% to 56% of their new light-duty vehicles by 2032 and 20% to 32% of new medium duty vehicles.
Biden has used the federal government to accelerate the transition to clean-energy electric vehicles. Trump has pledged to undo the efforts.
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President Joe Biden drives a F150 electric truck at the Ford Dearborn Development Center in Dearborn, Michigan on May 18, 2021.
Ending natural gas export ban
Trump has said he will take executive action to end the Biden administration’s pause on issuing new permits for projects aimed at exporting liquified natural gas.
Like the emissions guidelines, it’s among several rules issued by the Biden administration to combat climate change, which Trump has called a “hoax.”
A Louisiana federal judge in July ruled the Biden administration cannot halt issuing permits for such projects. The Justice Department appealed the decision.
More: Trump prepares wide-ranging energy plan to boost gas exports, oil drilling, sources say
‘Transgender lunacy’
Trump has promised first-day action taking aim at rights for transgender people, including making it the official policy of the U.S. government to recognize only two genders: males and females.
“With the stroke of my pen, on Day 1, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said in a speech last month in Phoenix.
Trump said he will sign executive orders to end “child sexual mutilation,” get transgender people out of the military and public schools, and to keep athletes born male biologically from participating in women’s sports.
The Republican-controlled House voted Tuesday to pass a bill that would ban transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ school sports, but it’s unclear if the legislation can garner 60 Senate votes and eventually make it to Trump’s desk for signature into law.
More: House passes bill that would ban transgender athletes from women and girls’ sports
Transgender rights supporters rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court hears arguments in a case on transgender health rights on December 04, 2024 in Washington, DC.
DEI in the federal government
Trump has signaled he will take action to overturn Biden-era policies aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, in the federal government.
“I’ll end all of the Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion policies across the entire federal government immediately,” Trump said last month.
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DEI in business and government has become a top target of Republicans. In his first year in the White House, Biden signed an executive order that established procedures to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility are priorities in building the federal workforce.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders extending coronavirus economic relief, during a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, on August 8, 2020.
In-person work for federal employees
Trump and his top advisers have signaled possible executive action directing federal employees to return to working in-person.
“He’s going to bring workers back to their offices,” Miller said. “He’s going to end the travesty in which federal workers are pretending to work but are not actually working. They’re at home watching Netflix while you’re paying their salaries.”
Trump has said he will fire any federal employees who don’t physically return to their offices once his new administration begins. He also pledged to challenge in court a Biden agreement allowing Social Security Administration employees to work remotely.
Work-from-home policies enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic remain in place for some federal workers.
More: Donald Trump vows to fire federal employees who won’t return to the office
End funding to ‘radical left NGOs’
Miller said Trump will take action to stop federal funding for “radical left NGOs,” though he did not specify which entities would be targeted.
NGOs, or non-governmental operations, refers to nonprofit organizations that receive federal funding.
Biden used executive authority to overturn a Trump executive order for a so-called “global gag rule” that prevented federal aid from going to foreign organizations that provide abortion services or information.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump preps 100 executive actions. Here’s what could be coming.
