Policies & Analysis

This order reinstates servicemembers who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic.

This order directs the Secretary of Defense to allow servicemembers who refused the COVID-19 vaccine during the military's 2021-2023 mandate to seek reinstatement and backpay. The order claims that the short-lived vaccine mandate was a burden on the military, but provides no evidence. Moreover, the mandate was lifted in 2023, so these members could already have sought to re-enlist without getting vaccinated.

This action purports to fire a Senate-confirmed member of the NLRB for the first time in the Board's 90-year history.

The National Labor Relations Board was created 90 years ago as an independent federal agency after Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act to protect employees from unfair labor practices and to adjudicate labor disputes. NLRB members are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate for staggered five-year terms. Gwynne Wilcox was confirmed by the Senate as a member of the NLRB in August 2021 and later designated Board Chair, making her the first Black woman to hold either role. On January 27, 2025, President Trump purported to fire Wilcox via a late-night email. In clear violation of the NLRA, the termination email did not identify any purported neglect of duty or malfeasance and did not provide for notice and a hearing. Without Wilcox, the NLRB lacks a quorum and cannot adjudicate labor disputes.

This order claims that being transgender is incompatible with military service and directs the Secretary of Defense to take steps to erase the existence of transgender troops.

Falsely claiming that the acceptance and inclusion of transgender people within the Armed Forces is detrimental to unit cohesion, this order seeks to revive President Trump's trans military ban, which was challenged and blocked numerous times under the first Trump administration. The order states that the policy of the United States Government is to exclude from military service people with gender dysphoria and people who use pronouns that do not reflect their sex assigned at birth. The order directs the Secretary of Defense to promptly issue directives to the Department of Defense revoking inclusive pronoun usage and states that the Armed Forces shall not allow people to use sex-segregated facilities that do not align with their sex assigned at birth.

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This memo indefinitely and illegally pauses billions or more in congressionally approved funding that supports people and communities in every state in America.

This harmful and illegal memo from the temporary head of the Office of Management and Budget puts an indefinite pause on billions, possibly more, in congressionally approved funding that supports people in every state in the country. This could pause research on cures for childhood cancer, halt housing and food assistance, shutter domestic violence and homeless shelters, close suicide hotlines, block funding for schools, shutter essential services for small businesses like workforce training and childcare programs, and more.

The White House terminated 17 different Inspectors General across the government

On January 24th, President Trump fired 17 Inspectors General (IG) across the US government. In the wake of the abuses of the Nixon administration, Congress created IGs in order to serve as independent watchdogs who could audit and investigate their agencies when allegations of waste, fraud and abuse arose. Their role is essential to holding corrupt actors to account, and their unlawful removal should be seen as an attempt by the Trump administration to avoid accountability with the American people. According to the law, before removing an IG, a president must give Congress a 30-day notice and substantive reasoning for the firing.

This order rescinds key protections enacted after Dobbs to ensure access to abortion.

This order rescinds two Biden administration EOs — issued weeks after the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade — that strengthened or clarified abortion protections nationwide. This Trump order rests on false claims that the rescinded Biden EOs required "forced" federal funding of abortions. The first rescinded EO directed agencies to seek ways to expand access to and share information about reproductive healthcare, and created an interagency task force to coordinate those efforts. That task force made significant gains for people whose rights had been stripped, including clarifying rules for hospitals required to provide emergency care by federal law. The second rescinded Biden EO promoted non-discrimination in, and data collection for, reproductive healthcare.

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This order reinstates a policy that prevents organizations from receiving U.S. foreign assistance funds if they provide, counsel, refer, or advocate for abortion in their country.

This order reinstates the expanded global gag rule that President Trump ordered during this first administration. The rule, also known as the "Mexico City" policy, blocks U.S. funding to any organizations that provide, counsel, refer, or advocate for abortion in their country, even if they are using non-U.S. funding to do so. The global gag rule is a dangerous policy that threatens the lives of women and pregnant people across the globe and undermines the work and speech of global health organizations.

This order ends President Biden's efforts to protect workers by regulating Artificial Intelligence

This order ends President Biden's efforts to regulate Artificial Intelligence and sets a 180-day deadline for a new plan to "sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance." This order rejects priorities for AI set by the Biden administration, including a commitment to support American workers, protection of individual privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties, and the responsible development of technology at home and abroad. The order also withdraws guidance for federal procurement of AI resources, and sets a 60-day deadline for a new plan.

This order reconstitutes the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to focus on maintaining "unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance."

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) was first convened by President George W. Bush to provide advice to the President on science policy. Instead of prioritizing "evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data," like previous versions of the PCAST, President Trump's PCAST is directed to ensure that the United States maintains "unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance." While this might sound reasonable in the abstract, this order is an attempt to insert right-wing ideology into the PCAST. The order asserts, without basis, that the pursuit of scientific truth in America is now under threat from "ideological dogmas that prioritize group identity over individual merit, enforce conformity at the expense of innovative ideas, and inject politics into the heart of the scientific method." Trump's PCAST will be co-chaired by Elon Musk, creating an additional conflict of interest for Musk.

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These pardons grant clemency to 23 people convicted of threatening reproductive rights by violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

The FACE Act, which became law in 1994, was designed to protect clinics that provide abortion, as well as the people seeking care, from violence. President Trump and other far-right groups have characterized the Biden administration's enforcement of the law as another example of a "weaponized" Justice Department. These pardons advance that narrative and undermine federal support for reproductive rights.

This new EO promotes the untested cryptocurrency industry through a variety of mechanisms.

This new EO promotes the cryptocurrency industry through a variety of mechanisms, including by revoking President Biden's EO entitled "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets" and by establishing a new cryptocurrency working group chaired by David Sacks, which will, among other things, consider the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile. Much is still unclear about the cryptocurrency industry and blockchain technology, but there are serious downsides associated with both, from the environmental impacts of bitcoin mining, to the potential for cryptocurrency to be used to launder money, to the highly volatile and uncertain nature of cryptocurrency investments.

This order seeks to fully declassify records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

This memo orders the public release of all records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. — all killed while playing leading roles in the civil rights movement. President Trump has ordered agency heads to present plans for full declassification of remaining secret records. Members of the Kennedy family have called the order a political stunt. The King family has asked to review the records before full declassification.