Policies & Analysis

This policy cuts off all foreign aid to South Africa and prioritizes refugee resettlement for white South African farmers.

This policy expresses outrage at the treatment of "ethnic minority Afrikaners" in South Africa experiencing "racially discriminatory property confiscation," i.e., white South African farmers whose land is being redistributed by the government to promote domestic policy goals. In response, the executive order directs the government -- including USAID, which the administration is attempting to dismantle -- to stop providing any foreign aid to South Africa. The Order also directs the Departments of State and Homeland Security to prioritize humanitarian relief, including refugee admission and resettlement, for white South African farmers, despite the fact that the President suspended the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program three weeks ago.

This order creates a new task force, led by the Attorney General, to review Biden Administration actions protecting civil rights that it considers "anti-Christian."

This order establishes a Presidential Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, housed within the Department of Justice and led by the Attorney General. The order justifies this task force by citing supposedly anti-Christian actions taken during the Biden administration, including: requiring schools, employers and foster parents to treat LGBTQIA+ students, employees, and foster children with respect; arresting protestors who unlawfully blocked patients' access to abortion clinics; and recognizing March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility. The Task Force's duties include reviewing the activities of the Biden administration and suggesting that agencies terminate or revoke actions.

This order directs a review of all federal funding to non-governmental organizations, risking vital services around healthcare, workers, families, and more.

This order directs all executive departments and agencies to review all federal funding provided to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to ensure it aligns with current administration priorities, including the executive orders already issued. While all administrations review their funding decisions, the breadth of this review is staggering, especially in light of the numerous harmful and illegal funding-related decisions the Trump-Vance administration has already made.

This Notice terminates a TPS designation protecting hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are lawfully present in the United States from deportation.

The Biden administration designated Venezuelans for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in 2021, and extended that designation in 2023, due to the "severe political and economic crisis" that had been occurring for years under the leadership of Nicolas Maduro. To terminate a TPS designation, the DHS Secretary must find that the conditions leading to the initial designation no longer exist. Here, Secretary Noem vacated the designation of TPS for Venezuelans without meeting that standard, and despite the fact that the State Department lists Venezuela as so dangerous that U.S. citizens should not travel there.

This order threatens to defund cities and states that choose not to spend their resources on immigration enforcement, prosecute state and local officials, and cut funding to NGOs.

This memo outlines how the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be targeting states and localities that choose not to expend their resources on federal immigration enforcement, which DOJ inaccurately describes as "willfully fail[ing] to comply with ... applicable federal immigration laws." First, DOJ will require all states and localities applying for federal law enforcement grants to certify their compliance with a narrow statute that prohibits states and localities from adopting a policy that prevents state or local officials from sharing with, or receiving, from the federal government "information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual." Existing "sanctuary" policies do not violate section 1373 and adding additional conditions to DOJ grants was widely found to be unlawful in the first Trump administration. Second, the memo directs DOJ to identify and pause for 60 days all funding to organizations that "support or provide services to removable or illegal aliens," while the Department reviews the funding to determine whether to end it entirely. The memo does not acknowledge the Department's obligation to spend money appropriated by Congress for the purposes identified by Congress. Finally, the memo threatens to prosecute state and local officials who decline to engage in federal immigration enforcement under a federal conspiracy statute, a statute that criminalizes the harboring or concealing of unauthorized noncitizens, and the non-criminal section 1373.

This order seeks to ban transgender girls from participating on girls' sports teams and from girls' locker rooms, and discourages trans inclusion in international competitions.

This executive order seeks to ban transgender girls from girls' sports teams and locker rooms in the name of protecting girls, but it does just the opposite. These bans harm all girls, including cisgender girls, by subjecting them to increased gender policing and arbitrary and invasive investigations. This order also harms intersex and nonbinary students as it increases surveillance of their bodies. The order directs the Secretary of Education to weaponize Title IX's protections against sex discrimination and bring enforcement actions against schools that allow transgender girls to participate on girls' sports teams or use girls' locker rooms, threatening the loss of federal funding for schools that do not comply. This is despite the fact that many federal courts have held that Title IX protects transgender students, and that the Supreme Court has held that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of sex discrimination in an analogous civil-rights context. The order also directs the Secretary of State to rescind support for and participation in sports programs that allow trans women on women's teams, including the Olympics (which the United States is set to host in Los Angeles in 2028). And, it directs the Secretary of State to promote these discriminatory interests internationally, including at the United Nations.

The Trump administration has targeted and purged FBI and DOJ officials who played a role in investigations and prosecutions related to January 6th.

Since Donald Trump took office on January 20th, 2025, the administration has summarily removed Justice Department (DOJ) prosecutors from their positions who played a role in investigations and prosecutions related to the January 6th insurrection. And there has been a concerted effort to target and remove Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who aided in these investigations and prosecutions, and even potentially to expose these agents' names to the public. This purge of law enforcement officials reinforces that no one will be held accountable for the events of January 6th. It also politicizes DOJ and the FBI. The potential exposure of the FBI agents' names could jeopardizes the lives of these agents and other federal government officials who have been unfairly attacked simply for doing their jobs.

This order largely repeats American policy on Iran, including sanctions and stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities.

This order largely restates longstanding U.S. policy towards Iran. It highlights sanctions, although Iran is already heavily sanctioned. It directs the UN Ambassador to highlight the Iranian threat, which ambassadors of both parties have routinely highlighted. And it states that U.S. policy is to deny Iran a nuclear weapon, although President Trump withdrew America from the successful Iran nuclear deal during his first term which likely accelerated Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon.

This order withdraws the U.S. from UNHRC, stops all U.S. funding to UNRWA and UNHRC, and orders a review of all international treaties and intergovernmental organizations.

This executive order directs the Secretary of State to reevaluate the United States’ commitment to three United Nations (UN) organizations: the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC); the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The United States will no longer participate in the UNHRC, and U.S. government agencies are directed to not use any funds for a contribution, grant, or other payment to UNRWA and to withhold UN funding that would go to UNHRC. Within 180 days of the issuance of the order, the Secretary of State and the U.S. Representative to the UN are directed to conduct a review of all international intergovernmental organizations of which the United States is a member and all conventions and treaties to which the United States is a party to determine which are contrary to the interest of the United States and whether they can be reformed.

"Department of Government Efficiency" officials have swept through federal agencies, compromising data systems and undermining the privacy of millions of Americans.

Since Donald Trump assumed the presidency on January 20th, staff with Elon Musk's so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) have swept through federal agencies across the government, compromising data systems, and undermining the privacy of millions of Americans. As examples, DOGE has accessed some of the most protected information systems housed at the Treasury Department, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services (including the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Social Security Administration, and numerous others. There is a risk that Musk will use this data to give an advantage to his own business ventures. There is also a risk that his team has fed the data into an AI system with unknown privacy protections.

The Trump administration has taken a series of actions to illegally dismantle USAID.

Since January 20th, President Trump and his administration have taken a series of actions to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in violation of federal law. Shortly after taking office, the administration issued stop-work orders on USAID foreign assistance awards. Secretary of State Rubio was subsequently named Acting Director of USAID. Elon Musk's so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) has played a key role in this effort. DOGE staff reportedly demanded access to classified USAID systems without requisite security clearances; USAID security officials who attempted to block them were placed on administrative leave. Elon Musk posted on February 3 that he spent the previous weekend “feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” and that same day, USAID headquarters shut down. The consequences of the above actions have been catastrophic. USAID provides life-saving food, medicine, and support to hundreds of thousands of people across the world. It also supports U.S. farmers by buying U.S. agriculture to distribute internationally.

This order calls on the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce to develop a plan to establish a sovereign wealth fund.

This order calls on the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce to develop a plan within three months to create a government-owned investment fund. The order directs the secretaries to investigate possible funding mechanisms, investment strategies, and governance models. We do not know how the fund will obtain money, as sovereign wealth funds are typically created by countries with little to no debt and which make an income from their country's natural resources. We also do not know what the plan is for the sovereign wealth fund, though President Trump suggested that it might be used to purchase TikTok. Without safeguards, sovereign wealth funds can be tools of corruption and conflicts of interest. This order is likely to continue to grow the role of the federal government in the economy, allowing Trump and his personal allies to use government money to support corporations they like at the expense of other Americans.