Immediately after taking office, President Trump took full advantage of his presidential powers as he followed through on some of the major promises he made during his campaign.
“Today, I am signing a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin a complete restoration of America and a revolution of common sense,” the country’s 47th president said Monday in a statement to the federal government. He took the oath in his inaugural address at the Capitol.
Hours later, President Trump signed an avalanche of executive orders in front of thousands of supporters at Capitol One Arena in Washington. This was the first time in U.S. history that it had been done in the more traditional Oval Office of the White House.
“This is pure Trump,” veteran Republican strategist Alex Castellanos told Fox News Digital. “He’s the first president in a new connected world where he has to govern from the outside in. We have to take the people with us,” he said.
Click here for the latest FOX News coverage of President Trump’s first day in office.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order in front of supporters inside Capital One Arena during the presidential inauguration ceremony for his second term in Washington, January 20, 2025. (Reuters/ Amanda Peroveri)
President Trump’s immigration pledge was the centerpiece of his successful campaign to win back the White House.
“On day one, I will begin the largest criminal deportation program in American history,” the then-Republican presidential candidate vowed at a late October rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
And President Trump took immediate action in his first hours in office.
First appearance on FOX: Trump vows more than 200 executive actions on first day
The new president declared a national emergency along the southern border with Mexico and ordered the deployment of the U.S. military to assist migrant workers. President Trump also ordered the reinstatement of the first administration’s policy that forced asylum seekers to wait at the Mexican border. But it is unclear whether Mexico will accept migrants again.
President Trump also directed the federal government to resume border wall construction, which was started during his first term but halted by President Biden.
President Donald Trump reviews troops during the inauguration ceremony in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Greg Nash/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
And President Trump signed an order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. But the U.S. Constitution enshrines birthright citizenship, and Trump’s executive order is certain to face immediate legal challenges in court from civil rights groups and immigration activists.
“I declare a national emergency on our southern border. All illegal immigration will cease immediately. And we will begin the process of returning millions of criminal aliens to their place of origin. “I will end the practice of catch-and-release and send in the military to repel this disastrous invasion of our country,” President Trump stressed in his inaugural address.
President Trump vows to act with ‘historic speed’ as inauguration brings relief
And the President also said, “We will also designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, we will exercise the full and sweeping powers of federal and state law enforcement.” We will instruct the government to eliminate foreign terrorist organizations.” Presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks. ”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Uniondale, New York, Wednesday, September 18, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
During his two-year campaign before returning to the White House, Trump repeatedly vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and promised to repeal the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate.
On Monday, President Trump followed suit by tying his energy executive order to efforts to curb inflation.
“I am directing all members of the Cabinet to marshal the enormous powers at our disposal to defeat record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices. The inflation crisis has been exacerbated by massive overspending and soaring energy prices. “It was caused by,” he claimed.
And he said, “So today I’m also declaring a national energy emergency. We’re going to drill, baby, drill. America will be a manufacturing nation again. And we’re going to make sure that no other manufacturing nation will ever “I have what I don’t have. It’s the biggest amount.” The amount of oil and gas in every country on earth. ”
During the 2024 cycle, President Trump and the Republican Party repeatedly targeted Democrats up and down the ballot over the Biden administration’s protections for transgender students.
Last May, President Trump vowed to “end it on day one.” “Remember, that was done as an executive order. It came down as an executive order. And we’re going to change that. On day one, that’s going to change.”
President Trump followed up with executive action based on what his advisers said was “protecting women from gender, ideology, and extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
President Donald Trump sings his second executive order during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on Inauguration Day for his second term in Washington, January 20, 2025 (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
“As of today, it will be the official policy of the United States government going forward that there are only two genders: male and female,” the president said.
The president also signed an order ending the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program (best known by the acronym DEI) within the federal government. The order directs the White House to identify and end programs within the government.
Another campaign promise was to pardon those accused of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who sought to block Congress’ certification of President Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. This is a reduction in the sentences of many people who have been convicted.
Trump did not mention pardons in his inaugural address, but minutes later, speaking to supporters gathered in an overflow room at the U.S. Capitol, he said the 2020 presidential election was “completely rigged.” repeated a long-standing unproven claim.
Hours later, to a crowd of cheering supporters in a downtown Washington, D.C., arena, Trump touted that he was “signing a pardon for a lot of people…and we’re going to get them out immediately.”
It wasn’t a joke.
Returning to the White House, the president ended up pardoning about 1,500 people, including some convicted of assaulting police officers, and the Justice Department’s efforts to punish those who stormed the Capitol on America’s darkest day was crushed.
“These people have been destroyed,” President Trump claimed while signing the pardon document. “What they did to these people was outrageous.”
President Donald Trump signs a pardon for the January 6 defendants in the Oval Office of the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington, January 20, 2025 (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
Mr. Trump also took action on issues not addressed during the campaign.
In his inaugural address, President Trump declared, “Soon, the name of the Gulf of Mexico will be changed to the Gulf of America.”
The president then pointed to Alaska’s Mount Denali, the highest peak in North America, and said, “We will restore the name of our great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it belongs, where it belongs.”
“He’s flooding into this zone. He’s calling for action. He’s showing action. He’s mobilizing a wave of American support for a major change in government,” said a number of Republican presidential candidates. Castellanos, a campaign veteran, told Fox News. “I think this is overwhelming, but Democrats don’t know what’s hitting them.”
“Can you imagine Biden doing something like this? I don’t think so,” the president said as he signed the executive order in front of thousands of supporters.
However, Mr. Trump has not fulfilled all of his campaign promises.
Trump envoy sets longer timetable for ending Russia-Ukraine war
One of his most notable vows, which he did not fulfill on his first day in office, was about immediately ending the deadly war in Eastern Europe.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly touted his intention to end the three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine “in one day.”
“Russians, Ukrainians, they’re dying. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll get it done — I’ll get it done in 24 hours,” Trump said at a May 2023 town hall. I swore.
And in September, in a solo debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump vowed to “fix this before I become president.”
Obviously, that didn’t happen.
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And earlier this month, President Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, offered a longer timeline.
“I like to set goals on both a personal and professional level,” he said in an interview on Fox News Channel.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
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