Overview

Since his inauguration on 20 January 2025, President Donald J. Trump has signed dozens of executive orders and presidential memoranda on topics including, but not limited to, energy and the environment; immigration; international trade; foreign policy; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); transforming the civil service and federal government; and technology. These presidential actions include recission orders of Biden-era regulations, withdrawal orders from international organizations and agreements, and orders implementing the administration’s affirmative policy objectives. These actions are indicative of the broader “America First” policy agenda set forth by President Trump throughout his campaign and signal key priority areas for his administration in the coming months.

End of the Biden Era

It is typical for an incoming president to issue a series of executive orders rescinding prior executive actions that conflict with the new administration’s agenda. For example, in former President Biden’s first 100 days in office, he reversed 62 of President Trump’s executive orders from his first term in office. In his first week back in office, President Trump has rolled back over 50 of President Biden’s executive actions. These Biden-era policies included topics such as ethics requirements for presidential appointees, COVID-19 response mechanisms, the enactment of health equity task forces, labor protections for federal workers, and efforts to mitigate climate change, among others. 

In addition to rescinding former President Biden’s executive orders, President Trump issued a series of orders that temporarily suspended pending rules and programs of the Biden administration. First, President Trump instated a regulatory freeze pending review on all proposed, pending, or finalized agency rules that have not yet been enacted. The freeze includes finalized rules that went unpublished in the Federal Register before the end of the Biden administration, published rules that have not yet taken effect, and any “regulatory actions . . . guidance documents . . . or substantive action” from federal agencies. President Trump also issued a hiring freeze on any new federal civilian employees, exempting military and immigration enforcement positions. 

Moreover, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued an internal memo on Monday temporarily pausing federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs. However, the OMB later clarified that the pause only applies to programs implicated by seven of President Trump’s executive orders, and was particularly meant to target, among other things, ending policies such as “DEI, the green new deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest.” Shortly before it was to take effect, a temporary stay was issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia through 3 February 2025. On Wednesday, OMB announced that the original memo has been rescinded in light of widespread confusion on its potential implications. The seven individual EOs originally mentioned still remain effective. 

Looking Ahead: President Trump’s Agenda

Through this round of executive actions, President Trump has demonstrated his intention to utilize the full power of the presidency, in tandem with Republican control of Congress, to quickly enact his “America First” agenda. President Trump has identified key policy areas he plans to address in his second term, which primarily include energy dominance, immigration enforcement, global competition, undoing “woke” Biden-era policies, and American independence. 

In keeping with these campaign priorities, he has ordered the end of DEI within the federal government and directed federal agencies to investigate DEI efforts in the private sector, declared national emergencies on energy and immigration, ordered a review of U.S. trade imbalances in preparation for widespread tariffs, delayed the ban on TikTok, withdrew from the World Health Organization and Paris Climate Agreement, elevated domestic artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” 

Conclusion

Although the Trump administration has a clear and focused policy and regulatory agenda, and can work alongside a Republican-led Congress, narrow margins of majority remain in both chambers which will, at times, necessitate bipartisanship. As such, we expect President Trump to continue working to take action on issues in which he can act unilaterally so as to narrow the scope of policies that congressional Republicans must work to either enact via the budget reconciliation process, or build consensus with their Democrat counterparts. 

Additional Authors: Lauren E. Hamma, Neeki Memarzadeh, and Jasper G. Noble