Between 20 January and 1 February 2025, President Donald Trump issues 45 Executive Orders (Eos) that imposed sweeping changes in government policies.[1] President Joe Biden had issued only 26 EOs ordering sweeping changes in the same period following his inauguration and didn’t hit the 45 mark until 14 May 2021.[2]
Some of these EOs struck a nerve with Democrats. Among many other things, Trump withdrew–more accurately re-withdrew–the United States from the Paris Climate executive agreement[3]; ordered the immediate dismantling of any and all government programs promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity; ordered any federal workers employed on such programs to be placed on paid leave; reversed a Biden EO permitting transgender troops to serve in the military; changed the name of the tallest mountain in the United States from “Denali” back to “McKinley”[4]; ordered that the “Gulf of Mexico” be renamed the “Gulf of America”; and reversed an EO originally issued by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 which allowed government to lean on private contractors to take “affirmative action” in hiring.[5] In short, a bunch of sacred cows went to Bovine University.
More substantively, Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, (W.H.O.); said that the United States would “take back” the Panama Canal; reduced restrictions on oil and gas production that had been imposed by the Biden administration; created a “Department of Government Efficiency” (D.O.G.E.) to be led by Elon Musk; and ordered an end to “birthright citizenship.”[6]
More orders followed hard on the heels of the first few days. He issued, then quickly rescinded, an order temporarily halting the payment of federal grants, loans, and other forms of assistance to a wide range of groups outside the federal government. “The order sparked chaos at universities, charities, local government, and other bodies reliant on federal funding,…”[7] Not satisfied with shaking hearts and minds with such dramatic action, the administration also issued a warning to federal employees that there were going to be big job cuts. The e-mail message offered many of them the choice between retiring immediately and being paid for eight months or risking being laid off when Musk got around to them. “Which will you have?”[8]
To top off the disruption, Trump fulfilled his pledge to pardon the 1,600 convicted rioters from 6 January 2021. Or, in the words of the WSJ, “Cop Beaters.” He’s good for his word, alas.
[1] List of executive orders in the second presidency of Donald Trump – Wikipedia
[2] List of executive actions by Joe Biden – Wikipedia Biden issued his final EO, his 162nd, on 19 January 2025.
[3] Like the Iran agreement, President Barack Obama had known that he couldn’t get a treaty through the Senate because the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of approval for any treaty. So, in both cases, he settled for executive agreements whose durability depended upon retaining control of the White House.
[4] Still, if you go to a GMC dealer, you won’t be offered a test drive in the “exciting new McKinley.”
[5] Commonly believed to mean quotas.
[6] He did not exactly end “birthright citizenship.” He restricted it to exclude children born of parents who were illegal immigrants, and to exclude children born to a foreign national mother in the United States on any kind of short-term or temporary visa and whose father was also not a citizen. Furthermore, the change was not retroactive and applies to children born after 19 February 2025. The 14th Amendment had been adopted long before there had been any idea of illegal immigration.
[7] “Trump orders cause whiplash in Washington,” The Week, 7 February 2025, p. 4. See also: “Trump returns with a barrage of orders, pardons,” The Week, 31 January 2025, p. 4.
waroftheworldblog 