Policies & Analysis

Underway

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This memo exploits loopholes to enable hiring of an unlimited number of temporary political staff across federal agencies

Typically, there are limitations on the number of temporary political appointees that a new Administration can hire. There are exceptions, which are intended to be limited. Under this guidance, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has exploited the exceptions to allow agencies to hire an unlimited number of temporary political staffers (known as "Schedule C" positions) who can work for 120 days, with the agency able to extend for another 120 days. The guidance also allows agencies to fill up to 25% of positions at the "Senior Executive Service" (SES) level with temporary noncareer appointments not to exceed 30 days. In other words, the Administration claims it can leverage previously narrow exceptions to bring unlimited numbers of temporary political appointees into the highest levels of government.

Underway

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This order encourages agencies to put career staff on paid leave or reassign them new or vague duties, and requests a list of easily-terminated federal workers.

Under this guidance, agencies have until Friday, January 25, to provide to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) a report of all employees who are subject to termination without cause (i.e., those on probationary periods and temporary appointments). Agencies are further directed to consider which of them should be retained. This guidance also encourages agencies to make broad use of administrative leave (paid time off) in connection with agency restructuring or to manage the agency’s work. The guidance also encourages agencies to reassign employees, including to an unclassified set of duties, to facilitate agency restructuring or management.

Underway

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This order creates a process to designate drug cartels or gangs as global terrorists to allow the Administration to use national security tools in immigration and border issues.

This executive order creates a process to designate certain drug cartels and criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. Such designations could provide a pretext for the Administration to use sweeping national security or military authorities in Latin America, along the border, and in immigration matters – including possibly against American citizens. It could also disqualify many asylum seekers from getting asylum, since it is almost impossible for asylum seekers from Latin America to complete their dangerous journey to the United States without paying a fee to cartels.

Underway

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This order is a vague and ineffectual pronouncement that has little impact, but signals a desire to pursue an isolationist foreign policy.

This order calls for the Secretary of State to issue guidance explaining how the State Department will implement an "America First" foreign policy, and suggests that multilateralism and alliances are contrary to American interests. The order will weaken America's standing in the world. It will reduce other countries trust in the U.S., weaken relationships with our allies, and impact our ability to find common ground to solve pressing global issues, including on trade, climate change, nuclear security, and migration.

Underway

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This order reinstates President Trump's anti-environment first term policies related to oil and natural gas production, logging, mining, hunting, and fishing in Alaska.

This order rescinds all Biden regulations and policies limiting the production, transportation, and sale of oil and natural gas in Alaska and reinstates related policies from Trump's first term. It also aims to increase logging, mining, hunting, and fishing, including on federal land, while denying the creation of an indigenous sacred site in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The order does not mention the harmful environmental effects that increased drilling, road construction, and destruction of nature will cause to plants, animals, and the communities that rely on them across Alaska.

Challenged

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This order seeks to significantly weaken the government's progress on equity programs that support historically underserved communities.

This order seeks to end all equity programs in the federal government, including those that aim to create a more level playing field for communities that have experienced racial or economic discrimination, and support for historically underserved communities of all kinds. It targets all agencies, departments, personnel, expenditures, federal contractors, and grant recipients that have any equity actions, initiatives, or programs. This will harm countless people who have faced discrimination and move our government away from equity and opportunity for all.

Challenged

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This order suspends all refugee entries indefinitely, starting on Jan. 27, 2025.

Starting on Jan. 27, 2025, all refugee entries into the U.S. under the auspices of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) will be suspended indefinitely until President Trump decides to resume them. The Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) must submit a report to the president within 90 days, and then every 90 days thereafter, analyzing whether resumption of the USRAP would be in line with the priorities outlined in the order. Given how those priorities are set out, a recommendation to resume the program would be highly unlikely. Refugees can be admitted on a case-by-case basis, if the Secretaries of State and DHS jointly determine it is in the national interest and doesn't pose a threat. Finally, DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are directed to examine whether states and localities can play a larger role in determining where refugees are placed; this emboldens an anti-immigrant argument that states and localities should have essentially veto power over the placement of refugees in their communities.

Underway

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This order requires the State Department to increase screening of all noncitizens, including those already in the U.S., and to suggest countries that should be banned entirely.

This executive order directs the Secretary of State to begin applying the vetting and screening procedures in place at the end of the first Trump administration "to the maximum degree possible" to all noncitizens applying for a visa or immigration benefit, seeking admission or entry, or who are already here in the United States. Given that millions of noncitizens live here, it is unlikely that the government will actually be screening noncitizens already in the country. Foreign nationals seeking visas and other immigration benefits from abroad should expect more intensive screening almost immediately. This order also directs the Secretary of State, working with the Attorney General, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, and the Director of National Intelligence, to submit a report to Stephen Miller within 60 days identifying countries to which travel bans should be applied, and how many of those countries' citizens are currently in the U.S. Finally, this order directs the Secretary of State, and those same officials, to take various steps within 30 days including auditing and changing the Foreign Service Manual and other guidance documents discussion of the criminal and security grounds of inadmissibility, ensuring stringent identity verification of refugees and stateless people before admission to the country, and evaluating visa programs to ensure they are not being used by other countries or non-state actors to harm the United States. The order also contains a vague directive to the Secretary of State that seems to indicate that the federal government should deny or revoke visas or benefits from noncitizens whom the government deem hostile to our constitutional rights, or who provide aid or support for foreign terrorists.

Underway

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This memo functionally removes the United States from the OECD Global Tax Deal negotiated with about 140 countries.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Tax Deal, negotiated by the Biden administration with about 140 countries, is a 15% global corporate minimum tax that addresses tax avoidance by multinational corporations and a race to the bottom on corporate tax rates. Congress never passed a law to bring the United States in compliance with the deal, but President Trump's commitment to withdraw our nation from it will undermine its effectiveness at combatting tax avoidance, including in the United States. Additionally, this memo orders an investigation into whether any foreign countries are not in compliance with any tax treaty with the United States, and if so, orders the development of protective measures the United States should take in response.

Challenged

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This order declares a national emergency to increase energy production, transportation, refining, and generation.

This order invokes the National Emergencies Act to remove supposed legal and regulatory barriers to the expansion of domestic energy production. Declaration of a national emergency for energy is unprecedented. Emergency authorities can include the use of Federal eminent domain to seize private property and the Defense Production Act to direct private industry responses, and can suspend protections for clean water, endangered species and other environmental regulations to expedite permitting. The order identifies "dangerous State and local policies" in the Northeast and West Coast as harmful to the entire country. The national emergency declaration could be used to expand domestic production of fossil fuels including coal and make improvements to the electric grid.

Challenged

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This omnibus order covers various aspects of interior immigration enforcement, including criminal prosecutions, expanded enforcement, and threats to sanctuary jurisdictions.

This is an expansive, omnibus-style executive order focused on interior immigration enforcement, and touches on a number of discrete policy issues. First, it revokes the Biden administration's priorities memo, so the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not focus its resources on people with criminal convictions or people who pose threats to national security. In addition, this order directs the Department of Justice to prioritize prosecuting immigrants for unlawful entry and reentry — which already consumes significant resources for Assistant United States Attorneys along the U.S.-Mexico border. The order directs DHS to expand expedited removal (a fast-track deportation scheme) to its maximum extent, increase fine collection from noncitizens here without authorization, try to expand detention, and re-establish an office focused on crimes committed by noncitizens that existed in Trump's first term. DHS and DOJ are directed to establish a Task Force in each state, and prosecute noncitizens who don't register with the government (which would apply to all undocumented people). The order directs DHS to freeze funding to organizations that serve migrants until an audit is complete, cancel contracts, and even try to take back funds if the organizations don't pass the audit. On the issue of "sanctuary" jurisdictions, this order tells the Attorney General and DHS Secretary to deny them funding to the extent the law allows (which is contested), and tells DHS to issue guidance on existing law. DHS is instructed to expand 287(g) agreements, which allow state and local law enforcement organizations to enforce certain immigration laws in specific circumstances. The order also hints that a type of 287(g) agreement that allows local police and sheriffs to enforce immigration law in the community, while carrying out their law enforcement duties, could be revived after many years. The order directs the State Department, DOJ, and DHS to take a hard look at Temporary Protected Status and work permits, but doesn't rescind them. State and DHS are directed to pressure recalcitrant countries to take their citizens back when the U.S. wants to deport them.

Underway

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This memo does not impose any tariffs, but instead directs agencies to review current trade policies and evaluate proposals that could harm American consumers by raising prices.

This memorandum does not impose any tariffs on foreign countries directly, contrary to President Trump's promise to do so on Day 1. Instead, it directs cabinet officials and agency heads to review several existing trade policies with countries like Mexico, Canada, and China to investigate the causes of our trade deficit and look for unfair trade practices. It also directs cabinet officials to investigate the feasibility of creating an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs and duties, and make recommendations on several new proposals that could drastically increase prices for American consumers, including a global tariff.