Shock and awe’:

Trump plans 100 immediate executive actions. Here’s what could be coming.

WASHINGTON ― President-elect Donald Trump intends to start his second White House term with a bang through a flurry of executive orders and directives that leave no doubt a major transformation is underway.

“Shock and awe,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., recently predicted after Republicans members of Congress received a preview of the activity to come.

Convinced he has an election “mandate” from American voters, Trump is planning to surpass the century mark in executive actions over his first few days of office after getting sworn in as the 47th president on Monday ‒ a moment he’s called a “liberation day for America.”

“There will be over 100 executive actions ‒ commands to the bureaucracies to change their ways,” Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, told Fox News last week.

The orders will bypass Congress to undo President Joe Biden’s policies ranging from climate to diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce while carrying out Trump’s campaign promises to secure the southern border, expand domestic energy production and target transgender Americans.

Many of the actions will be controversial and draw protests from Democrats and others on the political left. Some orders, particularly involving immigration, are expected to invite lawsuits.

It could be a busy few days and weeks of signatures from Trump, who has also also promised “major pardons” for people convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Here’s a look at some of the executive actions that Trump and his top advisers have signaled the incoming president might take:

Ending birthright citizenship

Trump has also promised to end birthright citizenship on Day 1 of his presidency ‒ and will do so through executive action “if we can” ‒ likely setting up a constitutional legal fight.

Birthright citizenship refers to anyone born in the U.S. being considering a U.S. citizen based on the 14th Amendment, which says “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

If he decides he can’t end birthright citizenship through executive action because of constitutional constraints, Trump would seemingly have to pursue an amendment to the Constitution, which would require support from two-thirds of Congress and ratification from two-thirds of state legislatures.

Border wall and empowering local law enforcement

Trump has promised to restart construction of the border fence at the U.S.-Mexico border, an original staple of his first term policy agenda that the Biden administration halted.

About 452 miles of barriers along the southern border were constructed during Trump’s presidency, but only 40 miles of wall were placed where a barrier didn’t previously exist.

Trump advisers also have signaled plans to direct the federal government to more aggressively use 287(g) ‒ a federal program that empowers local law enforcement to carry out some immigration enforcement duties.

Trump turned to the federal program often in his first term. Biden campaigned on ending the Trump-era agreements during his 2020 campaign. Although Biden did not embrace the program at the same level as Trump, immigration activists have accused Biden of not fulfilling his original pledge.

Tariffs

Trump has promised major new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China on his first day in office.

Three weeks after his election victory, Trump said one of his first executive orders would be to sign all the necessary paperwork to levy a 25% tariff on all products arriving from Canada and Mexico.

‘Drill, baby, drill’ agenda

Trump, who campaigned on a mantra of “drill, baby, drill,” is expected to take multiple executive actions aimed at fulfilling his pro-oil agenda to boost the production of domestic energy, even as it’s already at an all-time high.

Trump has promised to swiftly overturn Biden’s recent action to ban offshore drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. He also wants to reopen drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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