Trump's Executive Orders

What Executive Orders does Trump plan to issue on day one, and when will we get to hear what they are?

Trump plans to sign over 100 Executive Orders, starting on day one. I expect he will sign a lot of them on Monday, to achieve a shock-and-awe effect, and so that his opposition and the so-called 'liberal media' cannot possibly spend much time objecting to each one. But there will be others later, whenever he feels the need to reclaim the news cycle or somebody else bribes or otherwise influences him.

So, how and when will we get to hear about them, and what will they be??

How Executive Orders are published

Trump may sign each Executive Order (EO) with a fanfare, in which case the media will report on them. If you are interested in a particular issue, follow the streams and sites of organisations and individuals you know who keep on top of the news in that area.

Once signed, whether with great publicity or quietly, the executive order should be posted on the White House site, though there is no telling how long that will take. Biden's have been posted under executive orders, and they and other presidential actions (which are also worth watching) under presidential actions. They will be transferred to an archive site on Monday. Here is Trump's first term presidential actions archive. If the second Trump administration uses the same format for its whitehouse.gov site as the first, the new presidential actions will be here, but best to check after the inauguration.

The executive order is then sent to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR). The OFR gives it a number and publishes it. At the OFR you can see how many EOs each president signed and download them. According to the OFR, "Because the White House cannot deliver a document to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) until after the President signs a document, there is always a delay (of at least one day, typically of several days) between when the President signs a document and when it is published."

The OFR's National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents, and the data is summarised by year/date/affected department.

The American Presidency Project is a collection of official document, speeches and remarks by the president and administration officials, broken down into categories

Wikipedia also keeps track. For example, here's a list of Trump EOs.

Trump may also announce Executive Orders on Truth Social or X or on the White House lawn, or on his way to a helicopter, or at Mar-a-largo.

Thom Hartmann has an interesting article out today, "Trump’s Hit List: Who Will Be His First Victims?". Executive Orders may well be one of the tools he uses to go after them.

So, what will be in the Executive Orders?

Some will be revocations of Biden's orders, just as Biden revoked some of his, so looking at the revocations among Biden's EOs should give some clues. A lot will reflect Project 2025, which I wrote about in a series of articles: introduction, what's in it, what else they intend, the list. Some of his campaign promises will be quietly dropped, as they were lies intended to win him the election. And now that a lot of rich people and organisations have paid their $1m to play (or given him his own personalised bottle of diet coke), they will have had some influence too - if not to drop or keep promises, then to carve out exceptions for themselves.

Presidents (other than Trump, at least) can only use EOs to direct how powers and funds delegated to them by Congress can be used. So, some of his plans will have to wait until Congress has passed new laws. Those new laws will most likely be forthcoming, but may take time. Some can be implemented immediately, others may take time for the relevant department(s) to implement them. He may ignore limits to what he can do and rely on his Supreme Court to give him immunity.

According to the AP, Trump's day one EOs may involve the border with Mexico, deportations, energy, schedule F, school gender and vaccines. Trump gave Republican senators a briefing on 8 January. There are lots of articles covering that meeting and/or making their own suggestions.

Some of his EOs will be struck down by the courts, as they were last time, like his "Muslim ban". He will either not care as they were only performance theatre, or he will rely on a corrupt Supreme Court to put him on the winning side this time.

Unless we get a reliable leak, all we can do is watch and wait, next week and beyond.