Editor’s note: This story will be updated.
WASHINGTON — While Inauguration Day will have plenty of pomp and celebration (though it’s been downscaled because of frigid temperatures), Donald Trump plans to get down to work fulfilling a dizzying number of campaign promises on the first day of his return to the White House.
Trump told supporters at an inaugural event Sunday night that he would sign “dozens” of executive orders that would overturn Biden administration policies and establish some new ones of his own. Using his executive authority so broadly would fulfill Trump’s wish to be a “dictator on day one.”
With a stroke of a pen, Trump is expected to pause all offshore wind leases, abolish the electric vehicle mandate, withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord and end all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government.
Trump has also said he would pardon those serving sentences for their roles in the January 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol.
But the most sweeping and immediate actions will focus on the U.S.-Mexico border. An incoming White House official said 10 executive actions regarding immigration would be signed today, with more following.
The official said the new secretary of defense, which if confirmed would be Pete Hegseth, would deploy National Guard and active military troops to the border to aid federal immigration officials who would be given emergency deportation powers.
She also said the new administration would end what it derisively calls a “catch and release policy,” under which immigrants seeking asylum or other ways to remain legally in the United States would not be allowed to stay in this country while their claims were adjudicated.
Besides declaring an emergency on the Southern border, Trump will also designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, raising the question of whether U.S. troops would be deployed in Mexico. The White House official said that has not been determined but could be at the discretion of the new defense secretary.
Trump also plans to pause refugee resettlement programs for at least four months and end asylum claims and birthright citizenship, which grants all who were born in the United States, including the children of undocumented immigrants, U.S. citizenship.
Ending birthright citizenship and other proposals, including the establishment of new federal security task forces to work with state and local law enforcement officials to carry out deportations, are expected to be challenged in court as violations of the U.S. Constitution.
Yet the official said the steps were needed to end an “invasion” of immigrants and “widespread chaos.”
Trump said he would expand on his executive orders in his inaugural address.
“Within hours of taking office I will sign dozens of executive orders, close to a hundred to be exact, many of which I will be describing in my address tomorrow,” Trump said at a candlelight dinner Sunday evening for those who donated to the inauguration festivities or Trump-aligned political action committees.
Trump’s swearing in and other inauguration ceremonies have been moved indoors because of concerns over chilly weather. Trump will be sworn in in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and his supporters have massed in the Capital One Arena that usually hosts professional hockey and basketball games to watch inauguration ceremonies on big screens.
The inaugural parade that usually winds down Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol to the White House has also been moved to the sports arena.
After Friday’s decision to move inaugural activities indoors, Minnesota’s lawmakers advised constituents they could still drop by the lawmakers’ Capitol Hill offices to pick up their tickets to the inauguration, but they were now merely “commemorative.”
“While I am sure Minnesotans would have braved the cold to watch President Trump’s inauguration, unfortunately the Inaugural Committee will no longer hold the inauguration outdoors and constituents who had secured tickets will no longer be granted access to the ceremony,” Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, posted on X.
