Trump Prepares To Issue ‘Day 1’ Executive Orders On Key Issues

Donald Trump has promised to act swiftly when he returns to the White House on Monday, January 2025 — and he’s made a slew of statements about what he plans to do on “day one.”

His agenda prioritizes sealing the border and stopping the migrant invasion, carrying out the largest deportation operation in American history, ending inflation, making America the dominant energy producer in the world, and turning the United States into a manufacturing superpower.

But when it comes to “day one” priorities, Trump has mentioned settling the Russia-Ukraine war, closing the border, beginning deportation plans, cutting federal funding to schools pushing Critical Race Theory and gender ideology or vaccine mandates, and more.

“I’ve been told that it’s going to be shock and awe as far as executive orders and all the list, the things that are going to happen on January 20th and that they’re going to throw a lot in the first day and maybe a couple of days that will have to be digested,” Fox News host Bret Baier said earlier this month.

On Wednesday night, Trump and his top advisers met with Republican senators and discussed plans for 100 executive orders, Axios reported Thursday. It’s not clear if those orders will all be issued on day one — but here is a breakdown of the issues they will likely deal with.

Illegal Immigration

It’s very clear that a main focus of the Trump administration will be stopping the border crisis.

“On day one of the Trump presidency, I will restore the travel ban, suspend refugee admissions, stop the resettlement and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country,” the president-elect said in July.

“We know he promised to sign an executive order to secure the southern border,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in December on Fox News. “We know that on day one he is going to launch the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants in American history.”

Longtime Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller reportedly told senators on Wednesday night that they plan to use executive power towards fixing the border on the very first day.

That includes building the border wall, constructing facilities to hold migrants, imposing new asylum restrictions, and reimplementing Title 42, the COVID-era rule that allows authorities to rapidly remove migrants apprehended at the border. It also includes using part of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows local law enforcement and state law enforcement to help assist ICE, according to Axios.

He’s expected to begin the process of mass deportations, suspend refugee admissions, end the visa-free parole process for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (which allowed 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to enter the United States as of August), and to roll back a memo from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directing ICE officers to learn “the totality of the facts and circumstances” about illegal immigrant’s criminal convictions before deciding to deport them, according to POLITICO.

Trans-Identifying Military Members

Two people reportedly familiar with Trump’s plans told NBC that he plans to put a stop to taxpayer-funded transgender procedures for service members, including hormones and surgeries that make members temporarily un-deployable.

Trump reversed an Obama-era policy allowing trans-identifying troops during his first administration, citing concerns that these troops required “substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery,” which often take several months to recover from. The Supreme Court sided with Trump on the matter in January 2019.

President Joe Biden, however, repealed that ban shortly after taking office, and Biden’s Pentagon has promoted radical gender ideology both online and within military ranks. Trump has pledged to reverse that trend, warning ahead of the 2024 election: “There’s woke at the top…You need people that want to win. They want to win wars. That’s what their purpose is, to win wars not to be woke.”

“If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force, or the United States Marines,” he promised on the campaign trail in August. He’s also put forward veteran Pete Hegseth, who has been outspoken in condemning woke ideology within the military, as his choice for Secretary of Defense.

Taxpayer-Funded Abortions For Military Members

Trump will also reportedly end travel reimbursements for military members who want to get abortions, according to NBC News. The topic was highly publicized by Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who held up approval of mass military promotions for months over the DOD policy reimbursing military members who travel for out-of-state abortions of unborn babies.

Ending DEI Programs

Trump may also issue a day one executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and personnel within the federal government, according to Axios, which fulfills his campaign promise to root out “all Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats.”

Trump has also promised to end funding for any schools pushing “critical race theory, radical gender ideology and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

Pardons For January 6 Defendants

The president-elect has repeatedly said that he may pardon many of the 1,600 people charged for their involvement in the January 6 Capitol Riot. Hundreds of these individuals have been jailed, and Trump has frequently spoken out against the treatment they have received.

“Most likely, I’ll do it very quickly,” he said in a December interview with NBC News. “I’m looking first day.”

Banning Men Who Think They Are Women From Female Sports

Trump’s campaign poured millions into ads that exposed former presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s stances on gender ideology, and as part of Trump’s campaign promises, he repeatedly said he would ban men who identify as transgender women from female sports.

Axios reports that Trump plans to stop men in women’s sports through an executive order, though it is not clear if this will happen on his first day in office.

Energy and the Economy

Trump promised in October that, “on day one,” he will “sign an executive order directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods.”

And this week, he said at a press conference: “I will revoke the offshore oil, gas drilling ban in vast areas on day one.”