President Donald Trump rescinded 78 Biden-era executive actions, executive orders, and presidential memoranda as part of a slew of more than 200 executive actions on the first night of his second presidency.
There were a record 42 executive orders and 115 personnel actions on Trump’s “historic first day,” White House officials said.
Trump began by rescinding nearly 80 Biden-era actions following remarks Monday evening at an inauguration celebration at Washington’s Capital One Arena.
As the crowd looked on, Trump — seated at a desk at the edge of the stage — then signed a regulatory freeze to prevent the issuance of any more federal regulations pending their review, and a freeze on all federal government hiring.
Trump signed a memo that requires all federal workers to return to in-person work, as well as a directive to every department and agency in the federal government to address the cost-of-living crisis.
He then signed a letter to be delivered to the United Nations indicating the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty.
He next signed an executive order intended to restore “freedom of speech” to federal employees and end what he called “federal censorship.”
President Donald Trump holds up an executive orders after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
He also signed an executive order to end what he called the “weaponization of the government” against the political adversaries of the previous administration. As described to ABC News by multiple sources earlier Monday, the order would not explicitly direct any criminal investigations, but would direct the incoming attorney general and the heads of all departments and agencies to review law enforcement activity and actions taken by the intelligence community over the course of Joe Biden’s presidency — a sign that Trump would seek to “investigate the investigators,” as he has previously indicated he would.
Trump subsequently proceeded to the White House, where he signed additional executive actions including a sweeping series of pardons for defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — commuting the sentences of 14 individuals and offering a “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals” — approximately 1,500 people — “convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
The commutations for those who attacked police goes well beyond what many of his allies anticipated he would be prepared to extend to the Jan. 6 defendants.
The 14 individuals that Trump identified that he was commuting sentences for are those convicted or otherwise charged with engaging in the separate seditious conspiracies mounted by leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to thwart the lawful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021 — among the more grave and high profile charges brought in connection with Jan. 6 attack.
Trump also signed an executive order to delay the ban of TikTok for 75 days, as well as an executive order to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, and an order reinstating Cuba on the state sponsors of terrorism list, less than a week after the Biden administration removed Cuba from the list.
Among his other executive actions, the newly sworn-in president was expected to order a “national energy emergency” and issue a “presidential memorandum on inflation” as part of his executive actions on his first day in office, incoming White House officials told reporters Monday morning.
Also among the expected actions described by officials were orders related to immigration and transgender Americans, as well as actions aimed at the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies.
Trump’s top advisers, including his incoming DOJ leadership, are preparing for a storm of legal challenges to some of his most controversial actions, one top adviser told ABC News.
“We’re going to get sued on all of these things,” the adviser said, adding that the volume of litigation is expected to be a full-time job for Trump’s Department of Justice.
During Trump’s first administration, he faced upwards of 400 lawsuits challenging his actions. His advisers anticipate more than that this time around.
There will be a team inside the DOJ that is just dedicated to defending Trump’s actions in court, sources said.
Immigration actions
Among the Biden-era executive orders Trump rescinded was one that created a task force that helped reunite families separated by Trump’s Zero-Tolerance policy in his first term, which led to the intentional separation of thousands of children from their parents at the southern border.
A the White House, Trump signed an order declaring a national emergency at the southern border and declaring an end to birthright citizenship, stating that the U.S. would no longer recognize the citizenship of a child in the U.S. if their parents were not citizens or permanent residents in the U.S. — despite that being protected by the 14th Amendment.
On a call with reporters Monday morning, incoming White House officials previewed other executive orders and actions the new Trump administration planned to take relating to the border and immigration.
“We will protect the American people against invasion,” one of the incoming officials said. “This is about national security. This is about public safety. And this is about the victims of some of the most violent, abusive criminals we’ve seen enter our country in our lifetime. And it ends today.”
The orders would reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy, end the practice of “Catch and Release,” and complete the building of the wall at the southern border, officials said.
They would designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, end the ability for migrants caught between ports of entry to claim asylum, and suspend the resettlement of refugees for at least four months, they said.
Officials also said Trump would order “enhance vetting and screening” of migrants and direct agencies to provide recommendations for suspending entry for migrants from “countries of particular concern.”
He would also create Homeland Security task forces to target undocumented gang members and criminals, and restore the death penalty when a law enforcement officer is murdered by an undocumented migrant, officials said.
While one of the incoming officials said the call was a “preview” of the “actions to be taken today,” it was not clear from the call that all the orders would happen Monday. In addition, many of the plans would require help from international partners like Mexico and would almost certainly spark legal battles.
Economic actions
As part of Trump’s executive actions that were expected to be signed “as soon as possible,” officials said Trump would “put an end to the [Biden administration’s] electric vehicle mandate.” Another order would focus solely on Alaska, which officials said has “an incredible abundance of natural resources.”
Officials said these moves were not only intended to spur the economy and bring down costs, but also “strengthen our nation’s national security,” citing the impending “AI race with China.”
A primary order Trump was expected to sign was to focus on “unleashing” American energy, which officials said would emphasize “cutting the red tape and the burdens and regulations that have held back our economy, have held back investments, job creation and natural resource production.”
The national energy emergency Trump was expected to sign would “unlock a variety of different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce more natural resources, to create jobs, to create prosperity and to strengthen our nation’s national security,” officials said.
Officials did not share details on the presidential memorandum to address inflation, saying only that it would be an “all-of-government approach to bringing down costs for all American citizens.”
Drilling reached record highs during the Biden administration — but Biden he also took executive actions to ban future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea.
DEI actions
An incoming official said Trump’s orders related to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the federal government would be intended to create “equal treatment” and end DEI in the federal government.
The official said the orders would ask for the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management to coordinate with the various agencies to “terminate” all DEI programs in the agency, including positions that have been renamed.
This also includes environmental justice programs, equity related grants, equity action plans, and equity initiatives, according to the official.
There will also be a monthly meeting planned between members of the Department of Justice and Deputy Secretary of Trump administration agencies to assess any other DEI programs that officials plan to dismantle further, the official said.
Specific programs the orders would look to end include the Federal Aviation Administration recruiting “individuals who suffer from severe intellectual disabilities” and the USDA spending a billion dollars on environmental justice.
While the action would not address any private companies’ use of DEI programs, the incoming Trump official, when asked, said to “wait and see” regarding further action regarding private companies.
“Private business should wait and see. We have more actions on DEI very soon,” the official said.
Transgender actions
Incoming officials also outlined a series of first-day executive actions that they described as efforts to “restore sanity,” including executive orders declaring that the U.S. government would only recognize a person’s gender assigned at birth, prohibiting federal funds from being used in programs that acknowledge people who identify as transgender.
Among the most tangible changes Americans might see is a change to passports, rescinding a rule under Biden that allowed Americans to mark “X” as their gender marker on their U.S. passport applications.
Trump also planned to rescind rules set by Biden that withheld federal money from schools, including colleges, unless they followed certain rules to protect trans students from harassment.
Entities that receive federal dollars like prisons and shelters also would have to designate “single sex” spaces, officials said, assigning people to certain areas based on their gender assigned at birth.
In announcing the changes, which could have sweeping implications, officials took few questions from reporters and did not provide specifics.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These are sexes that are not changeable, and they are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” one official said.
The incoming White House officials did not share the specific text of Trump’s planned executive orders. They will be circulated to the press once they are signed by the president, officials said.
ABC News’ Will Steakin and Mike Levine contributed to this report.
