President-elect Donald Trump will waste no time working to undo the efforts of his predecessor, President Joe Biden, when he retakes office next January.
Much of what Trump is expected to do will simply be undoing what Biden did to him upon winning the White House four years ago. Biden was very aggressive in January 2021, signing 24 executive orders during his first eight days in the Oval Office.
The moves attracted criticism from Republicans, who accused Biden of hypocrisy after saying on the campaign trail that executive orders should be limited “unless you’re a dictator.”
Trump has promised an extensive Day One agenda on Jan. 20, 2025, attracting controversy for joking that he’d serve as a dictator “only one Day One.” Not all of that work will involve executive orders, though they will be part of the mix as he flexes his newfound powers.
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt promised Sunday on Fox News that “there will be tens of [executive orders], I can assure you that.”
“We know that he promised to sign an executive order to secure the southern border, something the Harris-Biden administration has refused to do,” Leavitt said. “We know that, on Day One, he’s going to launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants in American history.”
Leavitt also said an executive order can be expected to bring back the Remain in Mexico program for migrants seeking asylum, along with one that will expedite permitting for fracking and drilling.
Biden’s 2021 pace was higher than any of his predecessors. Trump signed just four executive orders during his first week in the White House in 2017, Barack Obama signed five in 2009, and George W. Bush did not sign any during his first week in 2001.
Trump is unlikely to match Biden’s pace this time around either. Much of Biden’s work involved pandemic-related executive orders, including one requiring masks and another reviving the National Security Council’s global health unit, reflecting his campaign’s heavy focus on combatting the virus.
Trump is also unlikely to take any executive action undoing Biden’s extensive efforts to forgive student loans, according to CATO Institute scholar Andrew Gillen.
“The courts have already put a pause on things and are likely to rule against Biden’s plans,” said Gillen, a research fellow at CATO’s Center for Educational Freedom. “By doing nothing, he can focus on higher-priority issues.”
Gillen does expect Trump to move on Title IX regulations regarding transgender students, particularly with regard to women’s sports.
“The cultural stuff is what I think we’ll see on Day One,” he said. “Fighting against what Trump calls wokeness and being anti-DEI. I wouldn’t be surprised to see executive action on those.”
Trump may also look to reimplement what he calls Schedule F, which would allow him to fire some federal employees who previously enjoyed job protections. Biden rescinded Schedule F upon taking office, and the Office of Personnel Management finalized a rule this spring against reclassifying workers as part of an effort to Trump-proof the federal government. While Trump can begin the process of unwinding the rule, it could take a year to fully rescind it.
Trump’s border actions will probably draw the most attention as he seeks to fulfill a campaign promise to launch the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history. He has already moved in that space by naming former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan as “border czar.”
Biden signed 94 border-related executive orders during the first months of his administration, which led to a vast increase in the number of illegal crossings and fed Trump’s campaign before Biden took action to rein it in earlier this year.
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Republican strategist John Feehery was upset about Biden’s actions four years ago and looks forward to Trump doing as much as legally possible next January.
“He should reverse every single Biden EO, especially the ones regarding immigration, the border, and crime,” Feehery said. “Then he needs to reverse every executive order that has anything to do with COVID-19 and education. Then he needs to dive deep into any of the transgender stuff. I think he needs to be as aggressive as legally possible. The election was a mandate, and Congress will move too slow for the American people.”
