Trump starts term with spate of executive orders

President Donald Trump signs executive orders

Trump's team 'spent months assembling dozens of executive orders' to sign on his first day in office

(Image credit: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

published 21 January 2025

What happened

President Donald Trump signed dozens of executive orders Monday, starting at a rally soon after being sworn in for a second term and continuing in the Oval Office.

The "flurry of executive actions" was an effort to "roll back" many of former President Joe Biden's "most significant domestic policies, primarily on climate and immigration," and reimpose a Trump agenda focused on drilling oil and gas and fundamentally upending the United States' "global role as a sanctuary for refugees and immigrants," The New York Times said. Some of the orders "are almost certain to be challenged in court," like his effort to unilaterally cancel constitutionally enshrined birthright citizenship, and "others will be largely symbolic."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.