In his first day back on the job, President Donald Trump kicked off his second term with a slew of executive orders and actions that could reverberate through Colorado
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.” he said during his inaugural address.
At a rally in front of his most ardent supporters, Trump revoked some of former President Joe Biden’s policies, including immigration and climate change executive orders Biden issued in 2021.
He also signed an order requiring federal employees to return to in-person work, urging the termination of remote working arrangements, directed all federal agencies to address the “cost of living crisis” and withdrew, again, from the Paris Climate Accord.
When Trump arrived at the White House, he signed pardons to almost all individuals convicted of offenses related to the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, and commuted the sentences of 14 others. More than a dozen Coloradans have been convicted for their actions that day, including assaulting police officers, with many serving federal prison sentences.
Trump also signed several more executive orders around the issue of immigration and border security, even as he inherited a border that has seen a sharp decrease in crossings over the last six months after record arrivals during the Biden administration.
Declaring a national emergency on the southern border, Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to take operational control of the southern border and finish construction of a wall all along it.
Another order would allow Trump to deploy U.S. troops, including the National Guard, to the border in a mission headed by NORTHCOM, the Colorado Springs based combatant command.
Trump also terminated former President Joe Biden’s humanitarian parole policies and programs, including the CBP One app that allowed foreign nationals arriving at the border to make appointments for screening and to enter the U.S. legally while their asylum case is pending. Shortly after taking office Monday afternoon, CBP One appointments were canceled. Trump also plans to end “catch and release” and reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy.
Trump designated international cartels and gangs, such as MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations. People associated with TdA have been accused of murders, robberies and a kidnapping in the Denver area. Many of their alleged victims are also new arrivals.
“We will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said. “By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks.”
The other immigration-related orders include suspending the refugee resettlement program, restoring the federal death penalty if an undocumented person kills a police officer and ending birthright citizenship, currently protected by the 14th Amendment. Trump is reinterpreting the Amendment’s phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof" to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents with no legal status. Legal scholars expect that action to be challenged in court.
Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, who represents Aurora, said on social media, “Our immigration system needs reform. But targeting refugees, asylum seekers fleeing violence, and ending birthright citizenship is cruel & wrong.”
While Trump has not ordered an immediate start to mass deportations, at a rally the day before his swearing in he said he’d soon “begin the largest deportation operation in American history.”
A host of order and actions around energy also on tap
The new president declared a National Energy Emergency, even as the U.S has seen record levels of oil production over the last year.
A White House official said the order intends to “unleash” American energy and lower costs for consumers, cut red tape and regulations that Trump believes have held back energy production.
“We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth. And we are going to use it,” Trump said in his speech.
Another order ends what Republicans have described as an electric vehicle mandate: financial incentives for Americans to buy EVs. Colorado has been one of the top states for EV sales in recent years. Gov. Jared Polis recently said he believes that trend will continue even without the federal rebates or tax credits.
Trump is also taking aim at increasing production in Alaska with an executive order specifically for the state, which has much in the way of natural resources.
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it with,” Trump said.
Among the roughly 100 orders, much that could impact Coloradans
Among the additional orders is a presidential memorandum on inflation, which Trump blamed on “massive overspending.” Economists disagree over what drove the spike in inflation coming out of the pandemic, pointing to increased demand after COVID-19 and a lack of goods due to supply-chain disruptions, as well as federal relief packages.
While complaining about the size of the federal government on the campaign trail, Trump said he’d establish an External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs duties and revenues, as well as establish the Department of Government Efficiency. That office had seemed to be taking shape as an external advisory body, but according to Trump in his inaugural speech, will actually operate within the U.S. government.
Trump is also ordering the federal government to only recognize two biological sexes. That could end the State Department policy of allowing people to use a nonbinary designation on official documents. Coloradan Dana Zzyym was the first American to receive a passport with a nonbinary 'X' marker.
Trump signed an order Monday that requires federal workplaces to halt all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, a change that could be felt by the nearly 40,000 civilian employees based in Colorado. He also signed one that institutes a federal hiring freeze.
In an attempt to end what he and his supporters call the ‘weaponization’ of government. Trump also directed all federal agencies to review the last four years of federal actions for any conduct that “appears to have been contrary to the purposes and policies of this order.”
The president also said he’d reinstate military service members discharged for refusing a COVID vaccine, with full back pay. The military requires its members to have a variety of vaccinations.
This could be the largest number of executive orders ever signed on the first day of a presidency.
One Republican senator described this avalanche of early orders as an exercise in “shock and awe.” According to the federal register, Trump signed a total of 220 EOs during his first term in office, while president Joe Biden signed 161.
Colorado GOP Rep. Gabe Evans said he didn’t have any concern about the number of executive orders Trump is ready to deploy. “I think there are a lot of problems we’ve got to get fixed in this country. As we start to parse through all of those, we’ll see some of the detailed plans that he has.”
Evans’ fellow Republican freshman, GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd, also said he was waiting to see the details of the presidential actions. He added the EOs are “certainly the things he campaigned on — border security, growing our energy economy, lowering the cost of the things that we buy every day” and that Trump won on.
Many of Trump’s orders and actions are expected to face legal challenges.
