After his inauguration into the United States (U.S.) presidency, Donald J. Trump has issued a barrage of executive orders in his first week of office. In an effort to reverse policies enacted during Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration, in his “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” President Trump revoked 78 Biden-era executive orders.
Within hours of his inauguration, President Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged with attacking the capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. This pardon included 14 members of the Proud Boys — a right-wing white supremacy group — and the Oath Keepers militia. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was also pardoned from his 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy, a crime that requires prosecutors to prove that a defendant used violent force against the government.
In a move that public health experts say will “undermine America’s standing as a global health leader,” President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO responded to the U.S. withdrawal, stating “The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization … We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.”
President Trump, in the executive order, cites the WHO’s alleged “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. In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments” as motivations behind withdrawal from the organization.

Echoing his 2017 decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, in an executive order titled “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements,” President Trump withdrew from the global Paris accords for the second time. President Trump’s order declares that the Paris accord is one of a number of international agreements that “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.”
Withdrawing from the agreement makes America one of only four nations — alongside Libya, Yemen and Iran — not participating in the Paris climate accords. Director and Lead Economist for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Dr. Rachel Cleetus put out a statement responding to this withdrawal, stating, “Pulling out of the Paris Agreement is an abdication of responsibility and undermines the very global action that people at home and abroad desperately need.”
In another roll back for environmental protections, President Trump’s executive order, “Unleashing American Energy” terminated the Green New Deal. This congressional legislation, originally introduced by Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), laid out a plan for tackling the climate crisis.
In a series of executive orders signed on his first day in office, President Trump attempted to seal the nation’s border from migrants, “crack down” on undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and cut off birth-right citizenship for children of noncitizens. Many of these executive orders “test the legal limits of his authority” and are currently facing challenges in court.
Among the most prominent of these executive orders was President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. According to the Trump Administration, this order directs the Secretary of Defense to deploy members of the Armed Forces and National Guard to the southern border, as well as directs the Secretary of Defense and Homeland Security to complete the wall along the southern border.
On Jan. 20, 2025, in an executive order titled “Protecting the People Against Invasion.” President Trump authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to suspend the physical entry of illegal migrants through the southern border and deport those unlawfully present in the U.S.
Continuing his crackdown on immigration, President Trump issued an executive order, “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion.” The order declares an ongoing “invasion” of migrants at the southern border and invokes Article IV, section four of the Constitution, which states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.” With this order, DHS has the authority to block asylum seekers and those seeking entry from the southern border.
“Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” an executive order set to limit birthright citizenship to children who have at least one parent who is a green card holder or U.S. Citizen. This executive change to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution — stating, “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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” — has already faced challenges in court from 22 states.

Rolling back protections for people of color and trangender communities, in an executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, President Trump terminated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal workforce, federal contracting and federal spending.
This executive order revokes Executive Order 11246: Equal Employment Opportunity, a Johnson-era policy that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis on sex, race and national origin in employment and also requires them to engage in “affirmative action.” President Trump’s order mandates the Attorney General and Secretary of Education to “issue joint guidance regarding the measures and practices required to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision in ‘Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.”
“Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard” concluded that “while the original purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause was to ensure that laws apply equally to everyone, regardless of race, both the Supreme Court and the nation failed to uphold this principle … Any exceptions to equal protection must satisfy ‘strict scrutiny’; that is, the government must show that the racial classification serves a compelling interest and is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.
“The case further states that “Harvard’s (and UNC’s, in the consolidated case) race-based admissions systems fail to meet the strict scrutiny, non-stereotyping, and termination criteria established by Grutter and Bakke. Specifically, the universities could not demonstrate their compelling interests in a measurable way, failed to avoid racial stereotypes, and did not offer a logical endpoint for when race-based admissions would cease. As a result, the programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
As a result of this executive order, many companies and universities have begun rolling back DEI policies.
Currently, the Trump Administration is working on legislation to ban people who identify as transgender from enlisting in the military. Legal Director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights Shannon Minster — who sued the first Trump Administration over its transgender military ban — stated in response to the new proposed ban, “Transgender people are still with us and will continue to be part of our society. You can’t just disappear them with an executive order. So [Monday’s executive order] feels more like a sort of symbolic statement than an offer of any sort of concrete policy or guidance.”
President Trump enacted a slew of other executive orders regarding U.S. trade practices and tariffs. In his “America First Trade Policy,” President Trump reviewed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USCMA) as well as other U.S. trade agreements, directing the U.S. Trade Representative to review and renegotiate or withdraw from the agreement. He also plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico starting on Feb.1.
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) — designed to resettle refugees in the U.S. — was suspended by President Trump’s executive order, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).” President Trump claimed that “the United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees. This order suspends the USRAP until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
President Trump has initiated a slew of other policies regarding immigration, the environment, health and more in an attempt to roll back Biden-era policies he characterized as “disruptive, radical executive actions of the previous administration.”