Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- President-elect Donald Trump plans to sign executive orders on energy deregulation and immigration on Day 1.
- His promises include cutting regulations, ending electric vehicle mandates, and revoking offshore drilling bans.
- Trump aims for mass deportations and reinstating the travel ban, facing potential legal challenges.
SALT LAKE CITY — President-elect Donald Trump vows to waste little time in rolling out his policy priorities.
Trump will take the oath of office around noon on Jan. 20. On the campaign trail, he joked he would set up a "tiny little desk" on the Capitol steps during the inauguration to sign "four or five" executive orders on the spot.
"I'm not going to wait to get to work," he told a crowd in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in November 2023.
In the subsequent months — at campaign rallies, in interviews, in his victory speech, in press releases and on social media — Trump has pulled back the curtain on which executive actions he plans to unroll on Day 1 of his administration.
Some of his promises will require legislative action in Congress; others will likely face legal challenges or demand action far beyond Inauguration Day.
Here is what Trump will likely attempt on his first day in office.
Energy and the economy
Trump: "On Day 1, I will sign an executive order directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods." (Oct. 21, 2024; campaign rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Trump has promised to reduce household energy costs by 50% in his first year. That clock will start when he is sworn in on Jan. 20. His plan will likely center around cutting federal regulations in the energy and economic sector: he wants 10 regulations eliminated for each new regulation federal agencies install.
While Trump could order federal agencies to slash regulations, the process of eliminating regulations could take much longer — around a year, George Washington University's Regulatory Studies Center explains.
Trump: "I will terminate Kamala's insane electric vehicle mandate, and we will end the Green New Scam." (Oct. 21, 2024; campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina)
Trump's push against electric vehicles goes hand-in-hand with his plans to reverse the Biden administration's climate subsidies. But it also will be guided by Trump's tough-on-China trade policy, Reuters reports: The Trump transition team is "recommending sweeping changes to cut off support for electric vehicles and charging stations and to strengthen measures blocking cars, components and battery materials from China."
Trump: "I want to be a dictator for one day because I'm gonna get going with 'drill, baby, drill.' ... After that, I'll never be a dictator." (Sept. 4, 2024; interview with Dr. Phil)
Trump: "I will revoke the offshore oil, gas drilling ban in vast areas on day one." (Jan. 7, 2025; news conference in West Palm Beach, Florida)
Trump has long promised to expand domestic oil drilling and expand tax breaks for coal, gas and oil energy producers. A major part of his effort to undo Biden-era policy will be an attempt to revoke Biden's expanded offshore drilling ban, announced just this week. Trump pledges to undo the ban — but such action may require an act of Congress, Reuters reports.
In other areas, the Biden administration's drilling policy may be worth emulating. Domestic oil production under Biden hit record highs, surpassing production under Trump's first term — something the Biden administration "doesn't brag about," conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg noted in The Dispatch, "since Biden promised to wean the country off fossil fuels."
Immigration
Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt: "We know he promised to sign an executive order to secure the southern border. We know that on day one he is going to launch the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants in American history." (Dec. 22, 2024; interview on Fox News)
Trump adviser Stephen Miller: Trump "will issue a series of executive orders that seal the border shut and begin the largest deportation operation in American history." (Dec. 8, 2024; interview on Fox News)
Immigration enforcement will be a central focus of Trump's first day. According to recent comments from Trump's top immigration adviser and his press secretary, it appears day-one executive orders will include some combination of border security and deportation enforcement. Trump's transition team is taking care to "craft executive actions aimed to withstand the legal challenges from immigrants' rights groups," Politico reported, as several of Trump's first-term executive orders related to immigration were held up in court.
Trump has already received support from many local law enforcement and government leaders, who will likely be involved in carrying out the deportation operation. Tom Homan, Trump's incoming "border czar," said "public safety threats and national security threats" will be prioritized in early deportations.
Trump: "On Day 1 of the Trump presidency, I will restore the travel ban, suspend refugee admissions, stop the resettlement and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country." (July 27, 2024 ; campaign rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota)
Trump: "As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala's illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration)." (Sept. 15, 2024; social media post)
Trump has promised to reinstall his travel ban on migrants from Muslim-majority countries. When Trump attempted to install the ban during his first term, he faced legal challenges and criticism from human rights and religious freedom organizations.
Trump has also promised to suspend all refugee resettlement within the country. The U.S. president has unilateral authority to set the ceiling on refugee admissions each year: in 2020, Trump set the refugee cap at 15,000, the lowest mark since the Refugee Act of 1980 granted power to the president to determine the ceiling; in fiscal year 2024, under Biden, 100,000 total refugees were resettled within the U.S. for the first time since 2016.
"On Day 1 of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship" (May 30, 2023; video statement)
Trump's promise to "end" birthright citizenship — one he has repeated in recent months — is unlikely to withstand scrutiny. "He doesn't have that authority, in a legal sense," said Ediberto Roman, a law professor at Florida International University. An executive order based on a different interpretation of the 14th Amendment would be quickly challenged in court.