Editions
Los 40 USA
Scores
Follow us on
Hello

US News

These are the first actions Donald Trump will sign into effect when he takes office

A look at what Donald Trump has floated as his priorities upon taking office on January 20. 2025.

Trump could announce 2024 bid tonight, top aide claims
MARCO BELLOREUTERS

The U.S. is divided, and as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take power on Monday, January 20, much of the country is ecstatic while the remainder braces for what is to come. But what is to come? What has Donald Trump and his team announced he will do as some of his first acts as Commander-in-Chief?

The actions that the president-elect and his administration will take can be divided into two categories. The first includes actions he can enact through executive orders or rule-making powers within the agencies that fall under the executive branch. The second involves legislation passed through Congress. On January 6, Donald Trump took to X, formally known as Twitter, to announce that the GOP was working on “one powerful bill,” which will include many of his priorities that he will not be able to carry out through executive action, including the extension changes to the U.S. tax code passed during his first that was set to expire this year.

Parsing through the president-elect’s plans, it’s difficult to predict what executive orders Donald Trump will issue versus what he claims he can achieve, as his political persona is marked by high levels of bravado. For example, in May 2023, the president-elect conducted a town hall on CNN, where he claimed that regarding the war in Ukraine, he would “have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.” However, in press conferences last week, the president-elect said plans were in the works for him to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Still, he delayed the timeline, expressing hope that hostilities would end within the first six months of his administration.

Trump’s Day 1 Agenda: Executive Orders

As President, Donald Trump will have unilateral powers to issue executive orders on topics such as pardons, economic sanctions and tariffs, immigration, and many other critical issues. The Associated Press has reported that over 100 executive orders are being drafted as the Trump adminstration prepares for inauguration day.

Executive orders on tariffs

In recent weeks, Trump’s threats to other countries have shifted away from tariffs, but he has not said he plans to shift away from imposing these taxes on imported goods.

It is difficult to predict how severe these tariffs will be—or if they will materialize at all—until the orders are signed. In September 2024, the then-GOP candidate floated the idea of a blanket tax of up to 20 percent on all imports into the country, with higher taxes on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China. The threat of tariffs has prompted stern responses from allies and neighbors.

The president-elect announced soon after his election that he would impose tariffs as high as, or higher than, 25 percent on Mexico and Canada for what Trump describes as failures to prevent migration and the influx of drugs into the U.S.

The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, warned Trump that she would be willing to go tit-for-tat with him on tariffs and reminded him that trade between the U.S. and Mexico ties together workers across supply chains, making his threats a risk to that relationship. President Sheinbaum highlighted the efforts of immigration authorities to curb migration into the U.S., which brought the number of border crossings down in 2024. Lastly, when it comes to the smuggling of fentanyl, the vast majority is brought through legal ports of entry by U.S. citizens.

Donald Trump’s Immigration Plan

One of the central components of Donald Trump’s immigration plan, which he plans to begin on his first day in office, focuses on decreasing the ports of entry for migrants to claim asylum and initiating a program of mass deportation. What remains unclear is how much support from Congress he will need to carry out his deportation program. If he plans to detain individuals, beds, food, water, and other essential goods will be needed.

At a rally last month, the president-elect said that he would reimpose travel bans and limit the intake of refugees. During his first term, the adminstration imposed a travel ban on seven countries, the majority of which were Muslim majority, as well as North Korea.

Could Donald Trump end birthright citizenship?

Trump has vowed to end birthright citizenship on Day 1, meaning that a child born to undocumented parents would not automatically become a U.S. citizen. However, such an order would not be enforceable due to the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which enshrines the right:

“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.”

US Constitution

Altering this right to citizenship would require amending the Constitution—a process unlikely to pass through Congress or be approved by the three-fourths of state legislatures required for ratification.

What Donald Trump has planned for climate and energy?

One of Trump’s main talking points in this area has focused on attacking electric vehicles and what many Republicans refer to as President Biden’s EV mandate. Though Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a strong proponent of EVs, is one of his top advisors and donors, Trump has attacked EVs and has said he will roll back rules imposed by the Biden adminstration. However, much of the funding and incentives to promote EVs were passed by Congress, meaning he will need legislative action to be taken to remove them.

The GOP has also used the expansion of oil and gas extraction as a vehicle to reduce costs for American households. Donald Trump has vowed to do everything in his power to “unleash American oil,” neglecting the fact that production levels reached record levels under Presidnet Biden.

Rules