The Trump Administration has taken back federal money that it already distributed to the City of New York while threatening to deprive other cities and states of funding.

The Trump Administration seemingly illegally seized money from a City of New York bank account. FEMA had distributed the funds to New York through a program to keep migrants from becoming homeless. Trump and Elon Musk had been critical of the housing program, but have pointed to no authority that would allow them to seize funds from the bank account.

This order gives the Trump White House direct control over agencies that Congress created to be independent from politics.

This order gives the White House direct control over agencies that Congress decided should be independent and insulated from politics, like the Federal Election Commission and Government Accountability Office. This order forces all rulemaking and other regulatory actions from independent agencies to go through the White House and Attorney General, which is not the current process. It threatens to hold up funding to independent agencies that don't implement “the Presidents policies and priorities.” It allows the White House to set performance standards for independent agency heads, which could create pretexts to unlawfully fire them. One concerning example might be the Federal Election Commission: this EO attempts to unlawfully change the definition of "agency" to include the Federal Elections Commission without Congressional approval.

This Notice immediately reduces the validity of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to citizens and nationals of Haiti by 6 months.

This DHS Notice immediately reduces the time period of the temporary protected status (TPS) designation and extension for Haitians that the Biden administration granted in June 2024. Now, instead of expiring in February 2026, Haitians' TPS will expire in August 2025. The Trump-Vance administration's main justification for this decision is that "the ever-increasing population of Haitian TPS recipients" is contrary to the national interests of the United States. Although the Notice does not explain why the presence of Haitians is contrary to the national interest, it alludes to false narratives of gang violence and negative effects on U.S. workers and communities. These narratives build on the debunked claims made by then-candidates Trump and Vance about the Haitian community in Springfield, OH.

This order attempts to deny all federal benefits to undocumented immigrants and "sanctuary" cities and states.

This executive order instructs agencies to identify all programs that allow "illegal aliens" — a term that does not designate any specific population in immigration law — to obtain any benefits, and to cut off access to those benefits. The order also instructs agencies not to make payments to states and localities that might "abet" "sanctuary" policies, which is somewhat duplicative of past executive orders and DOJ memos. Finally, this order instructs Russell Vought at OMB, Elon Musk at DOGE, and Stephen Miller, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, to look for any sources of "funding for illegal aliens" and suggest ways to align federal spending with the goals of this order. Existing law already determines which benefits noncitizens are eligible for and in what circumstances they can qualify; any attempts to deny benefits to people who qualify for them would be illegal. Additionally, past attempts to deny federal funding to states and localities that choose not to spend local tax dollars on immigration enforcement have been declared unconstitutional by multiple courts.

This order imposes additional tariffs on imports from China based on President Trump's expanded declaration of a national emergency.

This executive order further expands President Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the Southern border (EO 10886) to include the flow of fentanyl from China. It uses this emergency declaration to impose additional tariffs on all goods imported from the country. This EO has already caused confusion, with USPS stopping and then restarting the acceptance of packages from China and Hong Kong. Along with expected increases in the prices of imports that would increase costs for U.S. consumers, China has already announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports and an antitrust investigation into Google.

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.