What Trump can do on the first day in the White House

Donald Trump promised to “make heads turn” on his first day back in office on Monday, as a number of orders are expected in the hours after he is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.

He will call for a “revolution of common sense” according to quotes released ahead of his inauguration. At Sunday’s meeting, Republicans pledged to take action on a number of issues, including illegal immigration, climate change and diversity policies.

It is common for presidents to sign a number of laws when they take office. Such orders have the weight of law but can be overturned by successive presidents or courts.

But the scale of what Trump has planned may be unprecedented, with legal challenges expected. “You will have a lot of fun watching television tomorrow,” he told his followers at the meeting.

Exile

Trump has vowed to “launch the largest deportation program in American history”, from day one.

He is expected to declare a state of emergency along the national border, and order the military to help secure the southern border, according to Fox News.

Trump also said he would end a long-standing policy that has kept immigration authorities from raiding churches and schools.

Any mass deportation program is expected to face operational difficulties, billions in costs and a host of legal challenges.

Live in Mexico

Trump may move quickly to resume his “Stay in Mexico” policy, which during his first term sent about 70,000 asylum seekers from outside of Mexico across the border to Mexico to await hearings.

End birthright citizenship

Trump has called the 150-year-old constitutional right that anyone born on US soil is an American citizen “ridiculous” and vowed to repeal it on day one.

But doing so is much more difficult than simply issuing an executive order, because the right to birthright citizenship is clearly guaranteed by the US Constitution.

Closing the border for health reasons

A 1944 measure called Title 42 allows the US government to restrict immigration to protect public health. It was last used during the violence, but US media reports that the incoming administration is looking for an epidemic to help justify their plans to close the southern border with Mexico.

Drug carts

Trump is expected to classify drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations”, listing them alongside groups such as Al Qaeda, the so-called Islamic State and Hamas.

Build a wall

When Trump was first elected president in 2016, he signed an executive order to build a border wall. Although parts of the wall have been built, there is still much left unfinished, and he may try to finish what he started.

Costs

Trump has vowed to pay tariffs on imported goods as part of his pledge to prioritize American manufacturing.

Trump has introduced tariffs in his first term, including some from China held by Joe Biden.

But this time he promises tariffs of 10% on all imports, 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico and 60% on goods from China. He said he will start signing the executive orders setting these on the first day.

Taxes are likely to make consumer goods more expensive and may fuel inflation, experts say. Some countries are considering retaliatory tariffs.

Crypto Collection

Trump championed cryptocurrency and his election saw the value of Bitcoin rise by 30%.

Some believe that Trump will move quickly to create a federal “Bitcoin stockpile” – a strategic storehouse similar to the stockpile of US gold and oil – which he said will serve as a “permanent national asset for the benefit of all Americans”.

Dump Joe Biden’s climate policies

The outgoing president sees a series of directives, laws and funding programs that he championed to boost green jobs, control pollution and fund infrastructure as some of his biggest accomplishments.

Trump has made it clear that he wants to undo much of it, including spending money on the Green New Deal.

He is expected to use executive orders to remove restrictions on offshore drilling and on federal land – to fulfill his promise to “drill, drill for the kids” and increase energy production and US independence.

He also promised to ban new wind projects and cancel the mandate for electric cars.

Exit the Paris Agreement (again)

Six months after taking office in 2017, Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement – a landmark international agreement designed to reduce global warming.

Biden moved to the deal on his first day in office in 2021, but Trump is expected to back out of it.

Free Jan 6 “captives”

Hundreds of people convicted after the US Capitol riots in 2021 are awaiting a possible pardon when Trump returns to office.

Trump called them “captives” and promised on Sunday that everyone would be “very happy” with his decision.

“I like to forgive a lot of them,” he told CNN earlier. “I can’t say for everyone, because a couple of them, maybe out of control.”

More than 1,500 people have been arrested in connection with this event. At least 600 have been charged with assaulting or obstructing government officials.

And at his rally on Sunday, Trump said he would release classified documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy, the subject of many conspiracy theories.

He said he would do the same with files related to the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

The war in Ukraine

Trump said during the campaign that he would end the conflict on the first day of his presidency. He indicated that he may need six months. It is not clear what he can do in his early days.

Cuba and Venezuela

Trump could use executive orders to reverse Biden’s recent decision to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. He can also restore sanctions against Venezuela. Both countries were often targeted by his anger during his first administration.

DEI

In recent years, schools and businesses across the US have adopted policies designed to support women and ethnic minorities.

These practices, often subsumed under “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI), have angered many conservatives and led to legal challenges. Trump has promised to repeal them and major companies including Meta, Walmart and Amazon have already started to roll back related programs.

Trump may use an executive order to block federal funding to schools or other institutions with DEI programs. He could also cut off funding for charter schools “critical race theory” (CRT).

During Sunday’s rally, he reiterated his commitment to “stand up” in the U.S. military.

Abortion

Like many Republican presidents before him, Trump is expected to restore the “Mexico City policy”, which restricts government aid to international groups that provide abortion counseling.

He is also expected to restore an abortion law that prohibits health care providers of Title X, the low-income family planning program, from discussing abortion with patients. The change stripped tens of millions of dollars from organizations that perform abortions or provide referrals.

Transgender women in sports

Trump has repeatedly criticized what he calls “transgender lunacy” in schools and health care, and has vowed to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports — a pledge he repeated at Sunday’s rally.

On Sunday morning, Trump promised to issue an executive order that would reverse a ban on the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok.

TikTok accepted the pledge, and began restoring services to its app in the US – after temporarily shutting it down to comply with the new US law.

Trump said his order would give TikTok’s parent company more time to find a US partner to buy a 50% stake in the app.

He previously supported a ban on TikTok, but recently reversed his stance, pointing to the billions of views he says his videos attracted on the platform during last year’s presidential campaign.