Heritage Foundation Experts Analyze Trump’s Executive Orders

President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders his first day in office. His executive orders covered policies related to the economy, the border, gender ideology and more.

Below, we round up analysis from The Heritage Foundation’s policy experts on these executive orders. This article will be regularly updated to include new analysis.

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Military’s Role in Protecting Territorial Integrity

President Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order, “Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States,” to ensure that the U.S. armed forces prioritize the protection of U.S. sovereignty and territorial integrity along our national borders.

The president ordered the U.S. Northern Command to deliver its plan to seal the borders and maintain U.S. sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security by repelling forms of invasion and mass migration, as well as narcotics and human smuggling and trafficking. The order also requires USNORTHCOM to provide a steady-state campaign plan and continuous assessments to achieve those goals.
Securing Our Borders

—Lora Ries, director of Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

‘Securing our Borders’

Another Trump executive order, “Securing Our Borders,” calls for the federal government to take all appropriate action to, as the title implies, secure the U.S.’s borders.

The order notes that we now have millions of illegal aliens in our midst “including potential terrorists, foreign spies, members of cartels” and other threats who need to be identified and removed.

Consistent with Heritage’s recommendations, the president ordered many specific measures, including the resumption of building the wall at the southern border and ending “catch and release” of aliens caught entering illegally. His order also ends the Biden administration’s “categorical parole programs” and the Department o abuse of the CBP One application to allow aliens to schedule illegal entry into the U.S. 

—Simon Hankinson, Senior Research Fellow, Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

Rescinding Biden EOs on gender identity, DEI, and more

In his executive order, “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” President Donald Trump revoked 67 executive orders issued by his predecessor and 11 “Presidential” memoranda. 

They cover everything from “gender identity,” the “climate crisis,” and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” to withdrawing areas of the country from “oil or gas leasing,” rescinding Cuba’s designation as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” and weakening enforcement of our immigration laws.

In revoking these orders and memoranda, Trump says that the Biden administration “embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government.” 

The “injection” of DEI “into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.”  On immigration, Trump says Biden’s orders opened “the borders” and “endangered the American people.”  The orders on the climate amounted to “extremism” that “exploded inflation and overburdened businesses with regulations.”

Executive orders are not the legal equivalent of laws passed by Congress. They are orders from the president as the chief executive directing the behavior and actions of federal agencies and employees in carrying out their responsibilities under those laws and the duties of the president as the commander in chief.

—Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation

Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions

President Trump issued an executive order, “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce,” which reinstates Trump’s EO 13957 of Oct. 21, 2020. Trump’s original EO created—and this EO restores—Schedule F, or Schedule Policy/Career, which is a new class of Excepted Service, for career civil servants in “positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.”

The directive also calls for guidance from the director of the Office of Personnel Management about additional categories of positions that the administration should consider for Schedule Policy/Career.

The EO specifies that employees in Schedule Policy/Career positions “are not required to personally or politically support the current President or the policies of the current administration.”

But “[t]hey are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the President. Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.”

Because the Biden administration finalized a rule to undo Trump’s initial creation of Schedule F, much of this new EO is inoperable until the Trump administration reverses the Biden-era rule. Thus, the EO specifies: “The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (Director) shall promptly amend the Civil Service Regulations to rescind all changes made” by the Biden administration’s final rule “Upholding Civil Service Protections and Merit System Principles.”

The purpose of the rule is to ensure accountability for individuals who hold policy-influencing roles so that they cannot resist, undermine, and slow-walk administrative directives without consequence.

—Rachel Greszler, senior research fellow, workforce and public finance with the Roe Institute of The Heritage Foundation

Realigning Refugee Admissions

Another of Trump’s executive orders, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” suspends the USRAP until the further entry of refugees aligns with U.S. interests.

The suspension takes effect Jan. 27 to allow traveling refugees to arrive in the U.S. The order directs the secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to: (1) propose how state and local jurisdictions can have greater involvement in determining the placement or resettlement of refugees; and (2) submit a report to the president every 90 days regarding whether resumption of refugee entries would be in the U.S. interests.

Heritage has called for the suspension of immigration benefit applications when unmanageable application backlogs exist.

—Simon Hankinson, senior research fellow, Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

More Stringent Screening of Foreign Nationals

Trump on Monday issued an executive order, “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” which directs the departments of State and Homeland Security to enhance the vetting of aliens both before they come to the U.S. and while they are here.

The order seeks to return to the more stringent screening of foreign nationals that was in place when Trump left office in January 2021. It requires U.S. security officials to identify any countries for which “vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension” on allowing their nationals into the U.S.

This order requires a review of visa programs to ensure integrity and assess risks. It also requests that U.S. senior security officials recommend actions to protect Americans from aliens who advocate sectarian violence, preach hate, or aid terrorists.

Heritage has explained the legality of enhanced vetting and travel restrictions during Trump’s first term, and it also supports enforcing immigration laws against temporary visa holders who support terrorist organizations.

—Simon Hankinson, senior research fellow with the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

Reversing Biden’s ‘Radical Anti-Energy Agenda’

President Donald Trump issued an executive order, “Unleashing American Energy Resources,” which will begin reversing the energy crisis created by the previous administration through its radical anti-energy agenda.

This executive order lays out a bold policy agenda that encourages resource development, including rare earth minerals; prioritizes access to abundant energy supplies; eliminates the electric vehicle mandate; protects consumers’ choices of appliances; and eliminates federal funding for programs that stand in the way of these objectives.

To achieve these goals, the order calls for an immediate review of all regulations, orders, guidance, policies, settlements, and other federal actions that create barriers to American energy development and creates a process to implement reform.

Critically, the order also brings former President Joe Biden’s disastrous climate policies to an end. It starts by disbanding the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, which provided the highly questionable framework for most federal actions related to global warming policies.

It also revokes, rescinds, or reverses all or most aspects of nearly every executive action taken on climate, including pausing any actions associated with the Green New Deal as implemented by the Inflation Reduction Act. It then terminates, defunds, and abolishes the offices and programs associated with those activities.

Finally, the order begins the process of cutting the red tape facing America’s energy and infrastructure industries. That includes directing federal agency and council heads to take all available actions to eliminate permitting delays and to expedite the adjudication of federal permits.

It also begins the process of implementing long-term reform by ordering White House officials to prepare recommendations to Congress for more sweeping reforms of the permitting and environmental review process for energy and infrastructure projects.

The order also rescinds EO 11991 (1977), which is the only explicit authority for the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s so-called regulation of the National Environmental Policy Act; therefore, the order arguably leaves the CEQ regulation without force and effect. That sets the stage for White House guidance for agencies that is prescriptive and mandatory for agencies, but not judicially enforceable.

The Heritage Foundation has consistently argued that the United States should develop its untapped rare earth mineral and energy resources and that doing so would result in significant and broad economic benefits. Heritage research has also detailed how the path set by Biden would lead to foreign dependence, restrictions on consumer choice, scarcity-induced price inflation, and blackouts.

Heritage has further argued that the CEQ regulation should not be judicially enforceable and that the U.S. needs sweeping permitting reform for more efficient and predictable permitting.

—Jack Spencer, senior research fellow for energy and environmental policy with the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation

‘Total and Efficient Enforcement’ of Immigration Laws

President Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” to achieve “total and efficient enforcement” of immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens.

The order directs the attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security to establish Homeland Security task forces in all 50 states to provide logistics, intelligence, and operational support to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking networks throughout the U.S.

The order directs a long list of tools to be used to enforce immigration laws, including alien registration, visa sanctions, and incentives to self-deport. It also requires a pause and analysis of contracts and grants given to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that hav\e facilitated mass migration, including termination and claw back authority, if appropriate.

Heritage has consistently called for a return to fully enforcing immigration laws and defunding the NGOs that have been enriched for implementing mass illegal immigration to, and throughout, the U.S.

—Lora Ries, director of Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

Undoing Biden’s Illicit ‘Promoting Access to Voting’

Among the many prior “illegal and radical” executive orders of former President Joe Biden that his successor, President Donald Trump, revoked on the latter’s first day in office in his “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions” was Executive Order 14019 (March 7, 2021). That EO, which Biden misleadingly titled “Promoting Access to Voting,” should have been titled “Illegally Using the Federal Government to Manipulate Election Outcomes for the Democratic Party.”

Biden’s EO ordered federal agencies and federal employees to implement a get-out-the-vote operation using government resources and taxpayer funding that was clearly intended to benefit his political party. He had no constitutional or statutory authority to engage in such reprehensible actions and, in fact, spending federal funds on such activity violated federal law. 

Biden’s Justice Department used its resources in court to fight all attempts to get the administration to disclose what it was actually doing and to stop its misbehavior.

More information about this attempted election interference can be found at The Heritage Foundation, “Biden Executive Order 14019: Unlawful interference in State Election Administration,” and at The Daily Signal, “Latest Federal Takeover of Elections Violates Federal Law.”  

The new administration should ensure that all information hidden by the Biden administration is now publicly disclosed.

—Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation

Putting Jan. 6 Behind Us With Pardons, Commutations

President Donald Trump’s proclamation, “Granting Pardons and Commutations of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events At or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” ends, as Trump says, “a grave national injustice” and “begins a process of national reconciliation.”

Such an action is authorized under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides the president with the “Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States.” That power only extends to federal crimes, not state crimes. A reprieve or commutation only reduces the sentence a defendant has received, while a pardon completely voids a conviction.

This proclamation commutes the sentences of 14 named individuals convicted of various offenses related to what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, allowing their immediate release from prison. It grants a “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to Jan. 6, also allowing the immediate release of any individuals still incarcerated. 

Finally, the proclamation directs the attorney general “to pursue dismissal with prejudice of pending indictments against” any other individuals, ending all further Justice Department actions.

—Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation

Curbing Biden’s Inflation Wrecking Ball

President Donald Trump’s executive order on price relief shows that he’s serious about reversing the damage done by the Biden administration on American family finances.

The order recognizes the tremendous increase in the cost of living that has resulted from Biden’s reckless government spending, war on energy production, and regulatory onslaught that has needlessly increased the cost of everything Americans need to thrive—including that 25% of the cost of building a new home is due to regulations.

The order pledges, over the next four years, to reduce the annual cost of federal regulations by $11,000 per household and instructs all federal agencies to work to identify and remove regulations and restrictions that increase the cost of living for all Americans—including removing onerous regulations on the cost of appliances, homebuilding, and the production of affordable energy.

—Richard Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation

‘Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential’

President Donald Trump issued an executive order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which rescinds the previous administration’s efforts to stop resource development in Alaska, clears federal bureaucracy, and empowers Alaskans to develop their resources for the benefit of Alaska and the United States.

This executive order will help lower energy prices and empower Alaskans to develop their resources while protecting critical habitat and Alaska’s cultural heritage. It opens the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve to development, expedites permitting and leasing in Alaska, prioritizes the development and sale of liquefied natural gas, orders federal agency heads to facilitate Alaskan resource development, and essentially clears a path for energy development in the state.

The Heritage Foundation has consistently argued that developing Alaskan resources will benefit Alaska and the country. The gas and oil industry, for example, supports nearly 50,000 Alaskan jobs, accounted for 35% of the state’s economy at $19.4 billion, and generally provides nearly 90% of the Alaskan government’s general fund, putting over $180 billion in the state’s coffers since Alaska became a state in 1959.

Heritage has also argued against the false premise that Americans must choose between economic development on one hand and environmental protection and cultural traditions on the other. Indeed, responsible resource development provides the means to protect the natural environment and cultural traditions.

To that end, rather than use alleged environmental concerns to justify federally imposed anti-energy policies, this executive order empowers Alaskans to drive policies forward that protect the state’s natural beauty, cultural heritage, and economic interests.

—Jack Spencer, senior research fellow for energy and environmental policy with the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation

Pulling Out of World Health Organization, Again

Shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). That was expected. In 2021, Trump initiated the process for withdrawal after heavily criticizing the WHO for mismanaging the international response to COVID-19 and for failing to hold China to account for its lack of cooperation and transparency.

As he signed the EO, he referenced these past complaints, but also highlighted that the U.S. was unfairly and disproportionately charged for the costs of the organization.

The EO is broader than the 2021 action in that it would immediately terminate all U.S. engagement and support for the WHO. Specifically, the order announces the intent of the U.S. to withdraw, suspends transfer of all U.S. funds to the WHO, recalls all U.S. government personnel seconded or contracted to work in the WHO, and terminates U.S. participation in the negotiations for the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the amendments to the International Health Regulations.  

The process for withdrawal takes a year, but the aforementioned restrictions take immediate effect. That will impair the operations of the WHO. However, it does not mean that the U.S. will no longer support international health. In FY 2024, funding for U.S. global health was about $12 billion—roughly 12 times the amount that the U.S. provided to the WHO last year. Most of that was provided on a bilateral basis to dozens of low- and middle-income countries around the world.

In addition, the EO does not mention the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; UNICEF; or Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The U.S. government works with and provides funding for all of these multilateral efforts and that engagement presumably will continue. Indeed, the EO directs the secretary of State to “identify credible and transparent United States and international partners to assume necessary activities previously undertaken by the WHO.”   

Finally, while the EO is definitive in terminating the U.S. relationship, Trump appeared open to reconsidering if the WHO and its member governments adopt changes to address his complaints. “They [the WHO and its member governments] wanted us back so badly; so, we’ll see what happens,” he said. The ball is in their court.

‘National Emergency at the Southern Border’

President Donald Trump on Monday issued a proclamation, “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,” in which he invoked Title 10 of the U.S. Code for military support in the federal government’s emergency response at the southern border.

The president directed the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to deploy personnel and resources, construct additional physical barriers, counter unmanned aerial systems, and prioritize the impedance and denial of aliens’ illegal entry across the southern border.

Heritage has consistently warned about America’s increased national security threats caused by the Biden administration’s open-border policies.

—Lora Ries, director of Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

‘Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture’ 

President Donald Trump on Monday signed a “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” memorandum to revive traditional architectural standards for government buildings. 

The memorandum directs the administrator of the General Services Administration, along with other U.S. department heads, to submit recommendations within 60 days to advance this policy.

The order comes after the Biden administration revoked Trump’s first-term executive order to promote classical architecture for future federal buildings, over the modern brutalist style that emerged in the 1950s. 

Heritage has supported Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ efforts to restore traditional civic buildings, which uplift our public spaces and foster respect for our American heritage.

—Gillian Richards Augros, research associate in the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies

Deep-Sixing International Tax Deal

President Donald Trump wasted no time in torpedoing the Biden administration’s tax deal with the 38-country Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that saddled American companies with extraterritorial taxes to foreign governments.

Trump signed an executive order Monday that notified the OECD that any commitments made by the Biden administration with respect to the tax deal would have no effect. The executive order also warned that the secretary of Treasury would consider protective measures against OECD countries that continue these discriminatory taxes against U.S. companies.

Biden’s secretary of Treasury, Janet Yellen, in 2021 traveled to the OECD in Paris and negotiated a global minimum tax deal with the mostly European OECD countries that were eager to get a larger cut of tax revenues from U.S. multinational companies. Under the Biden-Yellen deal, large multinational companies—disproportionately based in the U.S.—were subjected to an “undertaxed” profits rule that arbitrarily allocated taxable income to higher-tax countries adopting the OECD tax framework.

The OECD global tax framework relies on wide-scale adoption by OECD countries. Trump’s strong rejection of the Biden-Yellen tax deal is intended to make countries reconsider their support for it.

—Richard Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation

Cartels

On Monday, Trump issued executive order, “Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” which declares a national emergency, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), to address cartels and transnational organizations that have flooded the U.S. with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs, including Tren de Aragua and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).

Within 14 days, the order requires: (1) the secretaries of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security, the attorney general, and the director of national intelligence to make a recommendation regarding the designation of any cartel or other organization as a foreign terrorist organization and/or a Specially Designated Global Terrorist; and (2) the attorney general and the secretaries of Homeland Security and State to make operational preparations regarding implementation of any presidential decision invoking the Alien Enemies Act, any qualifying invasion or predatory incursion against U.S. territory, and to prepare facilities to expedite the removal of such designated aliens.

The Heritage Foundation has explained the tools available to an administration to pursue cartels, including the implications of designating cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

—Lora Ries, director of Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements

One of the first executive orders posted on the White House website, Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements, withdraws the United States from the Paris Agreement immediately and sends the withdrawal request to the United Nations.

This action will save American taxpayer trillions of dollars, increase economic growth, lower electricity and transportation costs, and preserve freedom of choice in vehicles and appliances.  

China’s President Xi Jinping withdrew from the Paris Agreement in July 2023, when climate envoy John Kerry was visiting, but no one complained. The Paris Agreement is an excuse for the federal government and radical environmentalists to impose burdensome and costly rules on Americans. One example is the Environmental Protection Agency’s tailpipe rule, which would require 70% of cars sold to be battery-powered electric or plug-in hybrid by 2032, up from a mere 8% today. Another example is the power plant rule, which requires some power plants to close in 2040 if they cannot sequester 95% of their emissions by the early 2030s.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement will not affect the climate. Even if the United States were to get rid of all fossil fuels, this would only make a difference of two-tenths of one degree Celsius in the year 2100, according government models on The Heritage Foundation website.

—Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation, and Steven Groves, director of policy campaigns at The Heritage Foundation

Eradicating DEI

Trump’s Executive Order ending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the federal government, its contractors and grantees takes a necessary sledgehammer to these racist practices. Trump signed “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” in his first day in office, demonstrating the importance of the issue and fulfilling a campaign promise. 

The private sector began to move away from the divisive DEI practices three years ago, but Biden’s federal apparatus had remained DEI’s main line of support. 

All that ended in the early evening of Inauguration Day 2025 with a stroke of Trump’s pen. Trump accomplishes his purpose by immediately rescinding Biden’s EO 13985, which he too signed in his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2021. Trump revoked Biden’s EO 13985 in a separate EO issued earlier in the day. 

Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” may have been the most fateful act of the Biden years, with reverberations throughout his term. It had mandated that all departments and federal agencies issue “Action Plans” that detailed how deeply they were implementing DEI practices.

Because of Trump’s action, the director of the Office of Management and Budget will coordinate with the attorney general and director of personnel management to ensure that all these program, as well as all “chief diversity officers,” are now terminated.

“Federal employment practices, including Federal employee performance reviews, shall reward individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work, and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements,” Trump’s order said.

—Mike Gonzalez, Angeles T. Arrendo E Pluribus Unum senior fellow, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

Birthright citizenship

On Monday, Trump issued Executive Order, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which ends “universal birthright citizenship” by prohibiting U.S. government agencies from issuing or accepting documents recognizing U.S. citizenship for children born in the U.S. if neither the mother nor father were a lawful permanent resident or a U.S. citizen at the time of the child’s birth.

This new policy is prospective, not retroactive; it only applies to children born within the U.S. after Feb. 19, 2025. The secretaries of state and homeland security, the attorney general, and the commissioner of Social Security are responsible for issuing regulations and policies and enforcing them.

The Heritage Foundation has long criticized the erroneous “universal birthright citizenship” interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment and explained that children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens or temporary visitors should not be considered U.S. citizens because the parents are not “subject to the jurisdiction of” the United States, a requirement of the Amendment.

—Lora Ries, director of Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation

Gender Ideology

Trump’s executive order on gender ideology draws precisely the line that Joe Biden and the gender ideologues advising him spent four years trying to erase. In place of confusion and equivocation about “gender identity” and “sex assigned at birth,” this executive order seeks to ground federal law and policy in the bedrock of biology.

In human beings, there are two, and only two sexes—male and female. They are immutable and complementary but not interchangeable.

Given this basic truth, the madness of gender ideology collapses. This executive order seeks to expunge the federal promotion of gender ideology that Biden called for on his first day in office.

It protects private spaces, including federal prisons, for women. And it calls for an end to federal funding of gender “transition” procedures for federal prison inmates.

Trump has thrown down the gauntlet and made clear that his administration will protect women and girls and fight the gender ideologues who have enjoyed free rein for the past four years.

Of course, what can be done by executive order can be undone in the same way. I hope that this executive order will motivate the new Congress to establish, in law, a precise definition of male and female for all federal purposes, and to do whatever is in its constitutional purview to protect minors from the madness of gender medicine.

—Jay Richards, director of Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation.

DOGE

On Monday, Trump issued an executive order establishing the new Department of Government Efficiency.

This executive order, which is effective immediately, renames an existing federal office, the United States Digital Service, as “the United States DOGE Service,” and stands up a new organization within USDS named “the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization” to pursue what the executive order describes as the president’s “18-month DOGE agenda.”

The order likewise instructs agency heads to stand up DOGE teams within each agency to coordinate with USDS and advise the agency heads on carrying out regulatory reform. And it directs the head of USDS to begin a software modernization program to improve the federal government’s efficiency.

Trump has also revived many of his first-term executive orders on the regulatory process, such as E.O. 13771 (the 2-for-1 order), E.O. 13891 (on guidance), and E.O. 13892 (on administrative enforcement). He has followed standard practice by pausing regulations that have not yet issued and by urging agencies to delay recently-issued regulations pending reconsideration by his team.

—Paul Ray, director of the Roe Institute at The Heritage Foundation

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