President-elect Donald Trump’s day one agenda is shaping up to be one of the busiest starts to a term with reportedly more than 100 executive orders at the ready.
Presidential candidates often tout how much they plan to accomplish on the first day of their presidency, and President-elect Donald Trump is no exception.
His day one agenda is shaping up to be one of the busiest starts to a term, with reportedly more than 100 executive orders ready to be signed.
But how much do new presidents actually accomplish on their first day in office, and what should we expect to see from the new administration on Jan. 20?
Trump has a range of tools at his disposal beginning on day one, from signing executive orders to issuing pardons and new administrative guidance for the federal bureaucracy, says John Portz, professor of political science at Northeastern University.
“There’s really a broad range of things that a new president can implement on the first day,” Portz says. “But some of the things they want to do on the first day either require Congress to support them, or else will end up in the courts before they ever see the light of day.”
Trump has talked at length during the campaign about a mass deportation plan; reimplementing Schedule F, a plan to reclassify federal workers as political appointees, first set in motion during Trump’s first term before President Joe Biden nullified it; and implementing aggressive tariffs on U.S. imports. He could break ground on these agenda items as early as the first day, Portz says.
But Trump could also run into obstacles in pursuing some of these plans.
“I’d say particularly immigration is the one that will have a lot of attention,” Portz says. “And there are some things on immigration that he can change relatively quickly without legal pushback. For example, if there are things Biden did that aren’t embedded in regulations and existing programs, he could simply undo those with the stroke of a pen.”
In general, executive orders signed by the president carry the force of law, Portz says. They’re a broad tool that can significantly shape policy, with certain limits.
Biden’s humanitarian parole program, which allows for certain Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to come to the U.S. temporarily, could be nixed without too much of a problem, Portz notes.
Other items, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which grants immigration status to nationals from countries affected by armed conflict, environmental disaster or other conditions, would be harder to cut. (Trump is expected to scale back the federal program, according to CBS.)
“He couldn’t get rid of TPS simply by executive order,” Portz says. “It’s been around 30 years; there are hundreds of thousands of people that are in it, so that would end up in court.”
One way that Trump might pursue mass deportation is by allowing those immigration safeguards — such as TPS — to expire over the next couple years. If he does so, up to 2.7 million people could face deportation.
Portz says that officials in the incoming Trump administration are sure to exercise greater care in ensuring any executive orders can pass legal muster, citing the legal debacle that ensued after Trump signed the so-called Muslim ban in 2017, an executive order barring travel from eight largely Middle Eastern countries.
While some statutes purportedly give the president the power to set tariffs, the authority resides with the legislature. But since the 1930s, Congress has delegated that authority to the executive branch.
In December, Trump said on social media that he plans to implement a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports on day one until those countries stop the flow of illegal immigration and illicit drugs into the U.S. During his first term, Trump’s tariff rollout relied on legal authorities that led to lengthy investigations and comment periods that held up his plan for months.
This time around, it’s been reported that he could invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to impose those restrictions in less time. There’s also speculation that Trump’s advisers are searching for a way to invoke Title 42, a public health restriction that may serve as a rationale for closing down the border.
Regardless of what happens on Jan. 20, it is slated to be a busy day for the incoming administration. The number of executive orders on tap dwarfs that of previous administrations (Biden signed about 17 on his first day in office, and 37 total in the first week), and there are numerous ceremonial duties that attend the transition.
And it’s clear, Portz says, that Trump wants to move at breakneck speed to begin his second term.
“I think he’ll try to move on his agenda as fast as he can,” Portz says.