Donald Trump is officially the 47th president of the United States of America. And with him came a tidal wave of executive orders. First things first, what is an executive order?
An executive order is NOT the law, but it could carry the weight of the law. EOs act as direct commands from the president without consultation from Congress, which is the opposite of how new laws are implemented. However, these orders are enforced like a law, with judicial review handled by the court systems to ensure they’re constitutional. From there, the judicial review determines whether or not this order overstepped the president’s power. If not, the EO is implemented. If there is a power overreach, then the order is withdrawn. As for Congress, they can stop an executive order by passing legislation to counter the document.
Again, a president can only pass an executive order if it’s deemed constitutional.
Now, back to Trump.
The controversial figure was sworn into office on Monday (Jan. 20), coinciding with the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Inauguration Day was teeming with well-known figures, with most of the focus on billionaires such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman, Tim Cook, and more, who were seated in the front row at the Capitol rotunda— ahead of actual lawmakers and politicians. And while the inauguration was full of viral moments — like Elon giving a Nazi salute to an array of rappers like Nelly and Snoop Dogg cozying up to Trump — the commemoration was capped off by the new president inking over 40 executive orders tackling topics such as immigration, the LGBTQIA+ community, and pardons for the infamous January 6 rioters.
If you’re wondering what these executive orders detailed or how many there were, VIBE has got you covered.
Look through the executive orders below.
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Pardons For January 6 Rioters
Image Credit: Cherry/Getty Images The executive order titled GRANTING PARDONS AND COMMUTATION OF SENTENCES FOR CERTAIN OFFENSES RELATING TO THE EVENTS AT OR NEAR THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6, 2021—I mean…this one speaks for itself, right?
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Reinstating Mount McKinley
Image Credit: King/Getty Images Under the executive order titled RESTORING NAMES THAT HONOR AMERICAN GREATNESS, Trump demanded that Mount Denali be renamed Mount McKinley, after 25th president William McKinley. This same order asserted that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed to the Gulf of America. This executive order was signed to “promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes. The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past,” as per The White House.
Former president Barack Obama changed the name from Mount McKinley to Mount Denali in 2015 to honor the indigenous Koyukon people, who inhabited Alaska’s valleys of the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers before they were brutally murdered and driven out of their land by white settlers. Before the hostile takeover, the Koyukon people referred to the mountain peak as Denali in their Athabascan tongue.
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Cartel as Terrorists
Image Credit: Somodevilla/Getty Images In connection to Trump’s foreign policy, Trump has inked an executive order labeling drug cartels as actual terrorist groups. The EO titled Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists states its purpose, reading, “This order creates a process by which certain international cartels (the Cartels) and other organizations will be designated as Foreign Terrorists or Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”
Additionally, the executive order details why cartels are being targeted, stating, “The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests, but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.”
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Ending DEI
Image Credit: Somodevilla/Getty Images 2024 showed diversity, equity, and inclusion programs being slashed left and right at various companies due to political backlash from the right. Well, now, Donald J. Trump is looking to end the program within the federal government. Under REFORMING THE FEDERAL HIRING PROCESS AND RESTORING MERIT TO GOVERNMENT SERVICE, Trump’s order will look to “make our recruitment and hiring processes more efficient and focused on serving the Nation.”
“American citizens deserve an excellent and efficient Federal workforce that attracts the highest caliber of civil servants committed to achieving the freedom, prosperity, and democratic rule that our Constitution promotes,” the order reads. “But current Federal hiring practices are broken, insular, and outdated. They no longer focus on merit, practical skill, and dedication to our Constitution. Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of “equity,” or one’s commitment to the invented concept of “gender identity” over sex. Inserting such factors into the hiring process subverts the will of the People, puts critical government functions at risk, and risks losing the best-qualified candidates.”
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Temporary Hold On Wind Energy
Image Credit: Bell/Getty Images An executive order titled Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal, puts a hold on wind energy leasing projects in the OCS for “the purpose of generating electricity.”
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Hitting Back At Rivals
Image Credit: Somodevilla/Getty Images Make no mistake: Trump is focused on getting vengeance for being convicted. As proof, the current president has issued an executive order titled, HOLDING FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ACCOUNTABLE FOR ELECTION INTERFERENCE AND IMPROPER DISCLOSURE OF SENSITIVE GOVERNMENTAL INFORMATION, to revoke any active security clearance from “the former intelligence officials who engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign.” It’s worth noting here that there is no proof that former president Joe Biden engaged in election tampering or interference in his win against Trump. However, Trump was charged and convicted for interfering with the Georgia election in that same year.
The order also explicitly names John R. Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor. Bolton, who the United States Secret Service has protected, was infamously targeted by an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 in a hit. Now, with Trump’s executive order looming, the man will be without any national protection.
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Delaying TikTok Ban
Image Credit: Harnik/Getty Images So, let me break this down for you.
Understand that Donald J. Trump actually started and participated in talks of banning TikTok back in 2020 after receiving a report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. During this time, PIIE found that the application posed a “Huawei-sized” national security problem, insisting that TikTok allegedly has the ability to transfer and relay image and biometric data to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Trump’s Administration then issued two executive orders calling for TikTok to be banned in August 2020, first for 45 days and then 90 days. Fast forward 5 years, and TikTok was hit with a ban in the United States of America on January 19. However, it was then “saved” by Trump after he signed an executive order titled APPLICATION OF PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLICATIONS ACT TO TIKTOK. His new executive order is delaying the TikTok ban for 75 days, giving ByteDance and Shou Zi Chew a chance to divest the app to a potential American buyer. So, remember Trump didn’t “save” TikTok.
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Two Genders
Image Credit: Harnik/Getty Images Trump also took aim at non-binary people. The DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT executive order declares that the Trump administration will “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” The document insists that there are only two genders and that these sexes will only be acknowledged as a part of their “restoring sanity agenda.”
As a part of the executive order’s policy implementation, the federal government will solely use terms like “sex” when referring to gender. The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security will require government-issued identification to “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
“Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong,” the order declares. “Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”
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And Much, Much, Much More
Image Credit: Pool/Getty Images REEVALUATING AND REALIGNING UNITED STATES FOREIGN AID
- “It is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
DECLARING A NATIONAL ENERGY EMERGENCY
- “The integrity and expansion of our Nation’s energy infrastructure —- from coast to coast -— is an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States’ national and economic security. It is imperative that the Federal government puts the physical and economic wellbeing of the American people first.”
RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CAREER SENIOR EXECUTIVES
- With this executive order, Trump has moved to improve “accountability” in senior career executive positions in the federal government. Senior officials are demanded to be “responsive to the needs, policies, and goals of the public.”
Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture
- “Federal public buildings should be visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage in order to uplift and beautify public spaces and ennoble the United States and our system of self-government.”
RESTORING THE DEATH PENALTY AND PROTECTING PUBLIC SAFETY
Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California
- This executive order intended “[reroute] more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.”
Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis
- “Over the past 4 years, the Biden Administration’s destructive policies inflicted a historic inflation crisis on the American people. The Biden Administration not only exploded Government spending, artificially and unsustainably stimulating demand, but it simultaneously made necessary goods and services scarce through a crushing regulatory burden and radical policies designed to weaken American production. Hardworking families today are overwhelmed by the cost of fuel, food, housing, automobiles, medical care, utilities, and insurance.
PUTTING AMERICA FIRST IN INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS
- In particular, the assault on plentiful and reliable American energy through unnecessary and illegal regulatory demands has driven up the cost of transportation and manufacturing. In addition, the unlawful regulatory mandate on companies to effectively eliminate many or most gas-powered vehicles has resulted in artificial price increases on those popular vehicles to subsidize electric vehicles disfavored by consumers.
WITHDRAWING THE UNITED STATES FROM THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
- Moreover, many Americans are unable to purchase homes due to historically high prices, in part due to regulatory requirements that alone account for 25 percent of the cost of constructing a new home, according to a recent analysis. In sum, unprecedented regulatory oppression from the Biden Administration is estimated to have imposed almost $50,000 in costs on the average American household, whereas my first-term agenda reduced regulatory costs by almost $11,000 per household. It is critical to restore purchasing power to the American family and improve our quality of life.”
Federal Hiring Freeze
- “A freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees, to be applied throughout the executive branch. As part of this freeze, no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law.”
UNLEASHING ALASKA’S EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCE POTENTIAL
- They want to suck Alaska’s natural resources dry for money.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts during inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States.
Somodevilla/Getty Images
PROTECTING THE MEANING AND VALUE OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP
REALIGNING THE UNITED STATES REFUGEE ADMISSIONS PROGRAM
CLARIFYING THE MILITARY’S ROLE IN PROTECTING THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF THE UNITED STATES
RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY TO POLICY-INFLUENCING POSITIONS WITHIN THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE
Regulatory Freeze Pending Review
RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ENDING FEDERAL CENSORSHIP
INITIAL RESCISSIONS OF HARMFUL EXECUTIVE ORDERS AND ACTIONS
ESTABLISHING AND IMPLEMENTING THE PRESIDENT’S “DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY”
AMERICA FIRST POLICY DIRECTIVE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
PROTECTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AGAINST INVASION
DECLARING A NATIONAL EMERGENCY AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Tax Deal (Global Tax Deal)
Organization of the National Security Council and Subcommittees
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