Trump and his advisers have pledged to issue more than 100 executive orders or related unilateral actions on his first day in office. Many of these orders will be designed to reverse or eliminate ones implemented by the Biden administration.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, previewed some of those actions Sunday afternoon on a call with senior congressional Republicans.
Two sources briefed on the call described it as a rundown of what lawmakers should expect, rather than an in-depth policy briefing. Trump’s policy operation is expected to deliver more details to Capitol Hill allies later Sunday, the sources said. They cautioned the scale and pace of the hours leading up to the inauguration have made communication and information fluid over the past several days.
Miller, in the briefing with lawmakers, confirmed elements of a long-planned, sweeping suite of immigration actions, including Trump invoking a national emergency at the border as a way to unlock funding from the Defense Department for the administration’s use.
Trump will also move to designate a series of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and direct his administration to move to reinstate his first-term Migrant Protection Protocol policy, which is more commonly referred to as “Remain in Mexico.”
Trump will act to reinstate a series of his first-term immigration policy directives and actions that President Joe Biden rescinded on his own first day in office in 2021.
Moves on energy, government operations
The federal government and its operations will also be a central focus in the first hours of Trump’s second term, with the actions Miller previewed including an executive order, known as Schedule F, that would curtail or eliminate job protections for federal workers. Trump signed a version of the executive order shortly before the 2020 election, but it was rescinded by Biden.
Actions will also be taken to officially outline the role and authorities of the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk’s operation, which has been working out of the Washington office of one of his companies, SpaceX, has been quietly staffing up and integrating with the Trump transition operation’s agency landing teams over the last several weeks.
Trump will sign executive orders rescinding federal government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, Miller told the lawmakers, as well as actions to remove specific gender-related executive orders put into place by Biden.
Trump is also expected to declare a national emergency related to energy as part of a significant number of actions targeting domestic energy production and the industries, permitting rules and lands that operate in the sector, according to Miller’s briefing.
