Posted by 
President Donald Trump bolted into his first day in office with an unprecedented show of executive force — signing orders intended to end the right to citizenship by birth, force federal workers back to the office and grant Tik Tok a reprieve from a forced shutdown — as he showcased his desire to circumvent Congress and reshape everything from the economy to energy policy.
The new president’s flashy signing ceremonies highlighted a long day of classic Trump showmanship that kept him not only at the center of the festivities, but in front of the cameras, as he criticized his predecessor, stewed about familiar grievances and sent messages to his MAGA supporters.
Trump delivered not one but two lengthy speeches on Capitol Hill before holding court at a glitzy congressional luncheon. He then used a rally at Capital One Arena as the backdrop for one of his signing ceremonies, holding up an order pulling the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement before the crowd of cheering supporters.
Back at the White House, he spent 45 minutes taking dozens of questions from reporters in the Oval as he pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters — including those convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers and seditious conspiracy — and signed another swath of orders overhauling the federal government’s treatment of immigrants and withdrawing the country from the World Health Organization.
“What a great feeling,” Trump said of returning back to the Oval. “One of the better feelings I’ve had.”
Many of his moves were intended to grab attention and appeal to his base, including two announced on social media by Trump’s incoming press secretary that would rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and restore the name Mount McKinley to Alaska’s highest peak, which former President Barack Obama renamed Denali in 2015 as a show of respect to Alaskan tribal groups.
It’s not yet known which of Trump’s exhaustive list of executive actions will have immediate impact, which are purely symbolic, and whether Congress or the courts can limit their impact. As of 9 p.m., Trump had signed dozens of executive actions, with the possibility he could sign more later Monday night.
It was immediately clear, however, that several Day One orders appeared to fall short of the “days of thunder” the incoming president’s allies promised in the lead up to Inauguration Day. Despite recent vows to enact tariffs as high as 100 percent on imports, for example, Trump issued an order merely directing federal agencies to investigate and address trade deficits and unfair trade and currency practices, without levying any new tariffs on foreign countries.
The order singles out China as well as Canada and Mexico for evaluation — but does not impose either a universal baseline tariff or tariffs on select trading partners, as many countries feared. That contradicts Trump’s promise in November to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on his first day in office in an effort to crack down on illegal migration and the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
The decision is likely to irk backers of the hawkish tariff agenda Trump outlined on the campaign trail, which also included imposing 10 to 20 percent tariffs on all imports, tariffs of 60 percent or higher on Chinese imports and replacing the income tax with tariffs.
Speaking to a pared-down crowd in the Capitol Rotunda earlier Monday, Trump also pledged to “defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices” but gave no details on how his administration would accomplish that, other than rolling back environmental regulations and boosting fossil fuel extraction. And he vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal, which the Panamanian government has said is not possible under international law.
On his most defining issue — immigration — Trump signed several executive orders. He moved to end birthright citizenship, an action that would exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from the right to citizenship by birth that was established under the 14th Amendment. Immigration groups and civil rights organizations were finalizing legal challenges Monday night, setting up Trump for one of his first lengthy court battles.
Trump also increased immigration enforcement authorities, declared a national emergency at the southern border, moved to end so-called “catch and release” policies that allow migrants parole while awaiting their court hearings, resumed construction of the border wall and moved to resurrect “Remain in Mexico,” a policy from his first term that required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for their cases to be processed.
The president also issued an order to “clarify the military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States” — suggesting he is trying to make good on his plans to deploy the military for immigration enforcement — directed agencies to provide recommendations for the suspension of entry for nationals of countries of concern and suspended refugee resettlement for at least four months. He also moved to further restrict asylum, designate a series of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and direct the attorney general to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement and capital crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
“I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” Trump said.
With Monday’s executive orders, the incoming president hoped to send the message that the border is closed to illegal crossings and that anyone living in the U.S. unauthorized, especially those who have committed crimes, will be deported. But it sets up a challenging and pivotal period ahead for the White House and Republican allies in Congress, as the party’s immigration agenda will no doubt face a number of legal and logistical hurdles.
Another order focused on the domestic front targets programs across the government that promote DEI — shorthand for diversity, equity and inclusion — in hiring practices and community programs.
May Davis Mailman, the former head of the conservative Independent Women’s Law Center, who also served in Trump’s first administration, told reporters that it was “very fitting” to announce on Martin Luther King Jr. Day an executive action to “dismantle the DEI bureaucracy, and this includes environmental justice programs, equity related grants, equity action plan, equity initiatives, these types of things,” adding that it was “one of many to come” and that more actions targeting DEI initiatives would be unveiled “very soon.”
Invoking King to tout the end of diversity programs is likely to infuriate civil rights advocates who support those programs and often point out that King fought for economic as well as racial equity.
Trump also signed a broad order to roll back programs that recognize transgender and non-binary individuals.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government, that there are only two genders: male and female,” he said in his inaugural address, a line that drew some of the loudest applause.
Trump also signed a broad order Monday eliminating federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary individuals. In practice, said Mailman, the order will mean barring any options other than male and female from government documents, including passports and visas, ending the annual recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility, and excluding trans people from gender-segregated spaces that take federal funding, including prisons, migrant housing and domestic violence shelters.
The Trump administration will also seek to eliminate restrictions on so-called conversion therapy — a practice intended to persuade young trans people to reject their identity.
“A government entity telling a therapist that they can’t speak the truth that a boy is a boy — that sort of ban has no place in our country,” Mailman said.
Conversion therapy is opposed by medical groups like the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, who argue it is both scientifically unsound and harmful for mental health.
Whether the administration will be able to implement these orders, however, remains to be seen. The Trump transition was plagued by self-inflicted delays in hiring and coordinating with career federal workers and outgoing Biden officials, and on Monday the new president implemented a hiring freeze that federal worker unions warned would impede his administration’s ability to carry out new rules and policies.
“Such blanket freezes exacerbate workforce shortages and contribute to skills gaps,” said American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley.
Many Democratic attorneys general and advocacy groups have also pledged to challenge the executive orders in court. And in a move that could bolster those efforts, the progressive legal group Democracy Forward issued 75 public records requests Monday to uncover how the incoming administration coordinated with GOP state officials, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) group run by mogul Elon Musk to prepare the blitz of executive orders.
“The incoming Trump-Vance administration has pledged ‘maximum transparency,’ yet their record to date has been irregular, chaotic, and secretive,” said Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman, citing POLITICO’s reporting that the Trump transition used private email servers. “Should the Trump-Vance administration not uphold its commitment to transparency — and comply with the law — we will meet it in court.”
Ari Hawkins contributed to this report.
