In sweeping orders, Trump aims to remake federal policy on border, gender, climate change
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed dozens of executive actions Monday, including a massive pardon of almost everyone convicted in the Jan. 6 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and a measure to stave off the shutdown of TikTok.
Trump's orders also encompassed sweeping moves to reimagine the country's relationship with immigration, its economy, global health, the environment and even gender roles.
He began signing the executive orders around 7 p.m. Monday, after his swearing-in ceremony and a parade, and just before the evening's inaugural balls were slated to begin.
He started by rescinding 78 executive orders approved by his predecessor Joe Biden, including efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, protect federal lands from oil drilling and reduce the cost of prescription medications.
Trump's new orders also include mandates for how the U.S. government recognizes gender on federal documents and change official names of Mount Denali in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. And they could grant the second Trump administration expansive authority to enforce border security and immigration laws.
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Under the national border emergency declaration, the Trump administration intends to use the U.S. military to crack down on illegal immigration, combat transnational gangs and drug trafficking and execute his promised mass deportations of undocumented migrants.
Officials said Trump will also declare a "national energy emergency" to end the so-called "electric vehicle mandate," Trump's phrase for an Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring automakers cut greenhouse gas emissions in some new vehicles.
Under the national energy emergency declaration, Trump will also prioritize oil drilling, officials said, and the administration will immediately begin the process of pulling out of the World Health Organization, which it has been a part of since 1948.
More: Donald Trump to rename Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America' and change Denali to McKinley
Donald Trump issues executive order to halt TikTok ban – but is it legal?
As one of his first moves following his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday aiming to halt enforcement of a ban on TikTok in the U.S. for 75 days.
The order comes after TikTok abruptly shut down in the U.S. over the weekend, only to say it was working to restore service based on assurances from Trump. Service was swiftly restored to the popular short-form video app Sunday, although Apple and Google haven't returned it to their app stores for downloading.
Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday that he would issue the order on his first day as a second-term president "so that 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 promised.
Whether Trump's executive order can truly halt the law temporarily isn't clear. The law works by imposing a $5,000 fine on companies for each user who accesses TikTok through their services. That includes companies like Apple and Google that provide platforms to download and update apps and companies like Oracle that provide internet hosting services.
Trump pardons 1,500 defendants charged in Jan. 6 attack
President Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 people Monday charged in the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021, fulfilling a campaign pledge critics said would "endorse attacks on democracy."
That figure would represent almost all of the nearly 1,600 people who were charged in the riot by the fourth anniversary Jan. 6, according to the Justice Department.
About 1,270 people have been convicted from charges associated with the riot. More than 1,000 pleaded guilty and 260 were convicted at trials. The guilty pleas included 327 people admitting felonies and 682 people admitting misdemeanors.
"These are the hostages, approximately 1,500 for a pardon. Full pardon," Trump said in the Oval Office. "We have about six commutations in there where we're doing further research. This is a big one. We hope they come out tonight.”
Trump to declare 'border emergency,' send troops to the border
Trump is expected to sign nearly a dozen executive orders on border security and immigration under the auspices of a national border emergency.
Incoming White House officials said early Monday that the president will order U.S. armed forces to "repel forms of invasion" at the U.S.-Mexico border, including illegal migration and drug trafficking.
More: Donald Trump to declare federal government recognizes two sexes — male and female
The administration is expected to suspend refugee resettlement, finish building the border wall, suspend entry of nationals from "countries of concern" and attempt to end the constitutionally guaranteed right to citizenship for children born in the U.S. to some foreign nationals.
Trump also plans to use the military to target drug cartels as "global terrorists" and use the military to combat them, though officials declined to provide details on the rules of engagement.
Declaring a ‘national energy emergency’
Trump on Monday said he would declare a “national energy emergency,” though what exactly that entails is not clear.
Typically, when a president declares a national emergency, certain statutory powers become available that were not before, according to research by the Brennan Center. Previous presidential emergencies have included natural disasters, maritime issues, security concerns and public health emergencies.
No national energy emergency has previously been declared, but during in 1977 energy crisis, President Jimmy Carter let states declare their own energy emergencies, which allowed them to suspend certain environmental regulations.
By calling a national emergency on energy, Trump said he plans to prioritize domestic oil and gas production – even as U.S. crude oil production hit an all-time high over the past year.
Trump on Monday also revoked a non-legally binding executive order by Biden in 2021 setting a target of making 50% of all new vehicles sold in the United States by 2032 electric.
US to leave Paris climate agreement for second time
President Trump on Monday signed an executive order that begins the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, which he also did during his first term in office. In addition. the White House sent a letter to the United Nations, informing the international body of the decision.
The historic 2015 deal includes almost 200 nations in a single agreement to combat global warming by lowering emissions of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels.
In 2017 Trump said he would remove the U.S. from the agreement. Due to the agreement's terms, the withdrawal did not go into effect until November 20 of 2020.
This time around the withdrawal could take less time as the new administration is no longer bound by the original three-year commitment, according to Reuters.
Just as Trump signed an order to remove the U.S. from the Pais agreement on the first day of this term, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order to rejoin the agreement on Jan. 20, 2021, the first day of his presidency.
The U.S. formally rejoined on Feb. 19, 2021. Under Biden, in November 2021, the U.S. helped lead negotiations that set new emission reduction standards as part of the agreement.
US to pull out of World Health Organization
Trump's day-one executive order to pull out of the WHO fulfills a campaign promise to reject global institutions. Health experts worry it isolates the U.S. with consequences for pandemic and disease response and diplomatic relations worldwide.
He began the process of pulling out from WHO back in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Biden ended that effort and recommitted to the organization, which prioritizes addressing infectious diseases and providing basic health infrastructure, especially in low- and moderate-income countries.
The executive order said the U.S. was withdrawing from WHO "due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, 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." It also cited the "unfairly onerous payments" the U.S. has made to support the organization.
Federal employees required to return to work in-person
Trump signed an executive order directing department heads to require federal employees to "return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis" immediately, with exemptions allowed.
Only about 15% of federal employees work in D.C., according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The remaining 85% are spread across big cities like Dallas and state capitals like Carson City, Nevada.
They are, among others, the postal workers, the civil engineers and the Transportation Security Administration agents. They are mostly represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, a union of 750,000 federal workers.
This return-to-office mandate is expected to get major pushback from federal workers, he recently reinforced his strategy, threatening to take legal action against the AFGE's latest contract that extended remote worker protections until 2029.
Trump revokes Biden order aimed at cutting prescription drug costs
President Donald Trump signed an executive order revoking a 2022 Biden-era order aimed at bringing down the cost of prescription medications.
The Inflation Reduction Act, Biden's major healthcare and climate package, granted Medicare the ability to negotiate lower prices for 10 frequently prescribed drugs with pharmaceutical companies, beginning in 2026.
Last week, the Biden administration added another 15 drugs that treat cancer, diabetes and asthma, including Ozempic, to the list of medications up for negotiation in 2027.
Pharmaceutical CEOs and lobby groups have pushed Trump towards scrapping the measures. It is unclear if Trump's executive order would have any impact on the policy, since it was approved by Congress as part of the act.
'Male and female' only
Trump will declare that the federal government only recognizes two sexes ? male and female ? in a move an incoming White House official described as "restoring sanity."
The State Department, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will be tasked with enforcing the directive, which applies to passports, visas and other government documents, according to the incoming White House official.
New names from the mountains to the Gulf
In one of the orders, Trump is expected to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X, formerly known as Twitter, Monday morning.
Leavitt's tweet also signaled Trump would rename Mount Denali, the highest peak in North America, back to Mount McKinley. The Alaskan government had long recognized the mountain as Mount Denali, and President Barack Obama renamed it at the federal level in 2015. Trump's action will revert to the pre-Obama name.
Mexico, which also borders the gulf that bears its name, is unlikely to go along with the renaming. After Trump initially floated the idea, President Claudia Sheinbaum noted the body of water that separates Miami from Cancun has been known as the Gulf of Mexico since the 17th century.
This is a developing story.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Sudiksha Kochi, Eduardo Cuevas
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Immigration, gender, energy: Trump executive orders to remake America