What do Trump’s early decrees signal? Premium

President Trump's controversial executive orders in his second term impact immigration, climate, and foreign policy, facing legal challenges.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a number of executive orders and actions into force in the early days of his second term in office, which began when he was sworn in on January 20. Following multiple promises made on the campaign trail leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Mr. Trump controversially issued a spree of executive orders in the first week itself.

Mr. Trump issued over 1,500 pardons to individuals prosecuted for their role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, alongside orders mandating the U.S.’s exit from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO). He also signed an order ending birthright citizenship, protected under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, for children of undocumented migrants and those on temporary visas. He proposed a 100% conditional tariff on BRICS nations and a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, from February 1, while declaring a national emergency on the U.S.’s southern border with Mexico.

He also reversed 78 executive orders and memoranda of his predecessor, Joe Biden. While each of these decrees will likely impact the governance paradigm of the U.S., some, if not most, of these executive orders will face legal challenges and may ultimately be reversed. The broader Trump political agenda is nevertheless expected to significantly change the status quo in the U.S. over the coming four years, in the realms of domestic and foreign policy.

Speaking at a news conference regarding his “blanket pardon that effectively freed all the rioters and erased the work of the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history”, Mr. Trump said, “These people have already served years in prison, and they have served them viciously. It’s a disgusting prison. It’s been horrible. It’s inhumane. It’s been a terrible, terrible thing.”

The grant of clemency came despite the January 6 Congressional investigation running for two years, between 2021-23, and its committee interviewing over 1,000 people and reviewing more than a million documents. At the end of the enquiry, the courts charged more than 1,500 people associated with the attack on the U.S. Capitol, including former leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, convicted of seditious conspiracy and violent acts.

Lawyers for these defendants were themselves said to be “pleasantly surprised” by Mr. Trump’s pardons given that Vice President J.D. Vance had recently said that only non-violent offenders would get relief, and Mr. Trump’s Attorney General pick Pam Bondi noted in Congress earlier that she did not believe that violent rioters ought to be pardoned.

On the one hand, the attempted reading down of the 14th Amendment has already been challenged in court by 22 States, and is likely to fail, according to legal experts. A federal judge in Seattle, Washington, has already described Mr. Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship as “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it for at least two weeks while awaiting further briefings on the overall legal challenge.