President Trump’s first 24 hours

On day one of this presidency, Trump signed a flurry of executive orders. What are they, do they have staying power, and what do they mean for the working class?

January 21, 2025 by Peoples Dispatch
Trump signs a flurry of executive orders on his first day in office (Photo: The White House)

On Monday, January 20, as thousands were taking to the streets to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration, Trump himself signed a barrage of executive orders with broad implications. These orders were largely an attempt to reverse many of the moves of the Biden administration, in particular Biden’s most progressive policies on immigration, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and efforts to combat climate change.

Public sector workforce under attack

The US government is the largest employer in the country. Some of Trump’s executive orders followed through on the right-wing promise to attack the federal work force, as mentioned in both the 2024 Republican Party platform, which pledges to “fire corrupt employees” and the infamous Project 2025.

Among the many policies Trump enacted having to do with the federal workforce, Trump signed an executive order to freeze hiring for federal civilian employees, which does not apply to members of the military or “positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety.” A separate executive order reinstated Schedule F, which reclassifies thousands of federal employees, would make them easier to fire if they do not show sufficient loyalty to the president, according to those critical of the order.

“Accountability is essential for all Federal employees,” Trump wrote in his executive order reinstating Schedule F. “Any power they have is delegated by the President, and they must be accountable to the President, who is the only member of the executive branch…In recent years, however, there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership,” the order states.

Trump also rolled back policies intended to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” within the federal workforce. At workplaces across the country, commitments to diversity and equity in hiring and in workplace conditions were made especially following the 2020 uprisings against racism and police brutality. Since then, these initiatives have faced major conservative backlash. The federal workforce is generally more diverse than the wider US workforce, employing more from historically oppressed groups

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the labor union representing over 750,000 employees of the federal government and around 5,000 employees of the District of Columbia, denounced this move to target DEI programs. 

“The federal government has the lowest gender and racial pay gaps of all employers, precisely because employment decisions are made based on one’s ability to do the work and not on where they went to school or who they supported in the last election,” the AFGE stated. “Undoing these programs is just another way for President Trump to undermine the merit-based civil service and turn federal hiring and firing decisions into loyalty tests.”

Trump also signed an order to implement the “Department of Government Efficiency,” (DOGE) an initiative to be led by the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, tasked with broadly slashing government spending and eliminating regulations. DOGE has been directly tasked with reducing “the size of the Federal Government’s workforce.”

Mass deportation efforts begin

Given Trump’s promise to conduct the largest mass deportation operation in US history, many of his executive orders signaled the first steps in Trump’s attacks on migrant workers. This included a highly controversial move to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the constitution, and 22 states have already sued to stop this executive order. Trump also barred asylum for those new arrivals at the southern border of the US, or, as Trump refers to them, “aliens engaged in the invasion” of the southern border. 

Trump also suspended the refugee admissions program, putting refugees at risk including thousands of Afghan refugees who had been previously approved to resettle in the US. Trump also declared a “national emergency” at the southern border, which paves the way to send US troops and allows Trump to unlock government funding to continue building the border wall without approval from Congress. Trump also resumed a policy that would require people to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum, and designated drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Of the latter move, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that this designation would only impact Mexico and said her country would seek to defend its sovereignty and independence in the face of this executive order.

One of Trump’s most controversial acts as president during his first term was to issue a travel ban from Muslim majority countries—dubbed the “Muslim ban” in popular discourse. This move during Trump’s first administration inaugurated a wave of protests at airports as people around the country rallied to stop the ban’s implementation. 

One of Trump’s latest executive orders, entitled “Protecting The United States From Foreign Terrorists And Other National Security And Public Safety Threats,” “revives his Muslim Ban but is also much much worse,” according to legal scholar Maryam Jamshidi. 

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has also denounced this executive order, which would lay “the groundwork for another discriminatory policy that targets individuals from predominantly Muslim and Arab countries—essentially replicating the notorious 2017 Muslim Ban.”

The new order goes a step further than its 2017 predecessor by adding language that opens the door to ideological exclusion by allowing the government to deny visas or entry based on perceived political opinions, religious beliefs, or cultural backgrounds,” the ADC states

Attacks on transgender rights

In line with his right-wing agenda, Trump also signed an executive order that his administration claims would defend “women from gender ideology extremism and restore biological truth to the federal government.” This order proclaims there are only two biological sexes, signalling a far-reaching attack on the rights of transgender people in the US. It requires that the federal government use the term “sex” instead of “gender,” and directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.” 

The Biden administration had allowed citizens to select a gender-neutral option on US passports—an initiative which Trump’s latest order does away with.  

Climate change efforts rolled back

Trump also has broadly attacked any Biden administration attempt to reverse the effects of climate change. This includes withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, as well as declaring the first national energy emergency in US history, which would give Trump additional powers to suspend some environmental regulations and expedite the permitting of some mining projects. 

In line with Trump’s campaign promise to “drill baby, drill,” Trump issued an executive order attempting to reverse Biden’s ban on offshore drilling, and to open Alaska’s Arctic wilderness to more oil and gas drilling. Other regulations that Trump attacked include regulations on pollution from cars and trucks and energy-efficiency regulations on some appliances. Trump has also implemented a review of all federal regulations which “Potentially Burden the Development of Domestic Energy Resources.” Trump also broadly eliminated environmental justice programs aimed to protect impoverished communities from pollution. 

Trump inaugurates new tone

With his first day, Trump has inaugurated a new tone which recalls the most brazen of US colonial policies against Indigenous people and neighboring countries. Trump also signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” as well as renaming Mount Denali in Alaska “Mount McKinley” in tribute to former President William McKinley. Denali, the tallest mountain peak in North America, had originally been named Mount McKinley in the eyes of the US government since 1917, before President Barack Obama switched the name back to Denali in 2015, the name which the Indigenous Koyukon Athabaskans had been using for centuries.

Other notable executive orders include one which ensures that states which carry out the death penalty have a “sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”