President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly sign upwards of 200 executive actions when he enters the White House on Monday, moving quickly to shape the federal government to his will and erase the presence of the Biden administration.
Fox News and The Washington Post both reported Sunday that Trump’s slate of orders will touch on many of his broad campaign promises, including vast changes to border policy and a declaration calling migrant crossings a “crisis.” The Trump administration will move to rescind many of President Joe Biden’s environmental policies in Alaska and “fully unleash” the state’s energy reserves. And he will once again remove the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and end clean energy efforts like offshore wind leases and electric vehicle programs.
“The president is issuing a historic series of executive orders and actions that will fundamentally reform the American government, including the complete and total restoration of American sovereignty,” an incoming senior administration official told Fox News of Trump’s upcoming plans. The official described them as “omnibus” executive orders that will each include dozens of executive actions.
Trump confirmed his day one plans at a victory rally in Washington on Sunday night, the eve of his inauguration, hinting as well that he plans to take action to grant broad clemency to those charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
Other actions will institute a hiring freeze as part of the new Department of Government Efficiency, Fox added.
“The American people have given us their trust, and in return, we’re going to give them the best first day, the biggest first week, and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history,” he declared.
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Executive orders can be a powerful tool for an incoming president to revamp the role of the White House from a previous administration, but the power is not infinite. Democrats and civil rights groups will likely file legal challenges in opposition, a tactic that saw some of Trump’s far-reaching executive orders — like the first iteration of his travel ban targeting people from several Muslim-majority nations — overturned during his first administration.
Still, Trump and his allies likened his upcoming flurry of executive action as an effort to “take America back.”
Lawmakers are expected to see a list of the upcoming orders before Trump officially takes office on Monday, the Post reports.