A little over a year ago, Donald Trump claimed he would be a “dictator”—but only for the first 24 hours of his presidency. Now, as his Jan. 20 inauguration approaches, the President-elect’s plans for his first day in office are becoming clearer.
Trump told Republican Senators that he is preparing around 100 executive orders for the first day of his presidency, designed to strike swiftly at the heart of the Biden Administration’s legislative agenda. He has spent months teasing an ambitious list of measures he would take on Day One, including shutting down the U.S.-Mexico border, ending the Russia-Ukraine war, and pardoning Jan. 6 prisoners, among others.
“Look, I can undo almost everything Biden did, he through executive order. And on Day One, much of that will be undone,” Trump told TIME in a November interview.
While some of Trump’s first-day promises can be achieved through executive action, others may require months—or even years—of negotiation with Congress. Legal battles over several of his proposed orders are inevitable, particularly regarding issues like birthright citizenship and federal mandates on transgender rights. And it’s not clear that Trump will follow through on everything he’s vowed to do in his first hours back in the Oval Office.
Here are the main promises Trump has said he would roll out on Day One of his presidency.
Close the border and reinstate travel bans
Trump’s plans to overhaul immigration enforcement are among the most sweeping of his Day One promises. He has vowed to close the U.S. southern border, reinstate his controversial travel bans, and suspend refugee admissions into the country—actions that would likely be performed through a series of executive orders soon after he is sworn in as President.
“I want to close the border,” Trump said in December 2023 of his Day One plans. He went even further on the topic at a campaign rally in July: “On Day One of the Trump presidency, I will restore the travel ban, suspend refugee admissions, stop the resettlement and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country,” he said.
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Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who was recently tapped to serve as White House deputy chief of staff for policy, told Fox News last month that Trump would issue a series of executive orders on the first day to “seal the border shut and begin the largest deportation operation in American history.” While the contours of those executive orders are currently unclear, ideas floated by Republicans include mandating the federal government to finish the unbuilt area of the southern border wall and depriving sanctuary cities of federal resources.
Mass deportations and end birthright citizenship
Trump said that he intends to launch what he calls the “largest mass deportation operation” in U.S. history on his first day in the White House. He says his focus will be on removing criminals, recent border crossers, and individuals who have been ordered deported by the courts. Under his proposed system, parts of federal law enforcement would be shifted to immigration duties, and the Biden-era migrant app, CBP One, would be discontinued.
Trump has also pledged to end birthright citizenship on his first day, which would mean children born to undocumented immigrants would not automatically gain U.S. citizenship—a move that is expected to face immediate legal challenges. “On Day One of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship,” Trump said in May 2023.
Pardon Jan. 6 prisoners
One of Trump’s most personal promises is to pardon those convicted for their roles in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Trump has repeatedly indicated that he will act quickly, issuing pardons for many of the more than 1,500 individuals convicted of crimes related to their involvement in storming the Capitol in protest of the electoral certification. Asked by TIME in December what the first 24-to-48 hours of his Administration would look like, Trump said: “I’ll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes.”
The move will be deeply controversial and likely to reignite the political battle over the Capitol attack. While most participants were charged with misdemeanor offenses for illegally entering the Capitol, others were charged with felony offenses, including assaulting police officers. Trump has said that he would consider pardons for some individuals charged with violent offenses. In addition to pardoning individuals, Trump has suggested he may establish a task force to review other cases of Jan. 6 participants still imprisoned.
“I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished,” Trump told TIME in November. “And the answer is I will be doing that, yeah, I’m going to look if there’s some that really were out of control.”
End the Russia-Ukraine war
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said that before taking office he would put an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine before taking office—a violent conflict which has raged for nearly three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours,” Trump said at a CNN town hall in May 2023. “It will be over. It will be absolutely over.”
He reiterated that promise at the September 2024 presidential debate, claiming that his relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would help him broker peace between the two nations: “I will get it settled before I even become President… When I’m President-elect, what I’ll do is I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other, I’ll get them together.”
However, after winning the presidency, Trump appears to have walked back on that promise. “I hope to have six months,” Trump said at a January press conference when asked how soon he could resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “I hope long before six months.”
End the ‘electric vehicle mandate’ and Green New Deal policies
On his first day, Trump has said that he will reverse many of the climate-related policies instituted by the Biden Administration. His plan includes ending the so-called “electric vehicle mandate” and scrapping the Biden Administration’s climate subsidies. “I will end the electric vehicle mandate on Day One,” Trump said in his address at the Republican National Convention in July, referring to a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that limits tailpipe pollution so automakers are compelled to sell more electric and hybrid models.
At a campaign rally in October, Trump said that these policies are part of a “Green New Scam” that hurts American energy producers and families. His Day One executive orders would likely focus on lifting restrictions on fossil fuel production and reversing mandates on electric vehicles, while he also pledges to expand domestic oil drilling, including the reversal of offshore drilling bans imposed under the current administration.
Roll back federal regulations
In a bid to lower the cost of living for Americans, Trump has promised to eliminate numerous federal regulations, which he argues have driven up the cost of goods and services. “On Day One, I will sign an executive order directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods,” he said at a campaign rally in October 2024. His goal is to ensure that for every new regulation introduced by a federal agency, 10 regulations would be eliminated.
Trump has tasked billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former rival for the Republican nomination Vivek Ramaswamy with running a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which is aimed at cutting rules and reducing the size of the federal government.
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Ban transgender individuals in women’s sports and the military
Trump has vowed to make moves on his first day in office to protect what he describes as “women’s rights” by banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports. “With the stroke of my pen, on Day One, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said at a Turning Point USA event in December. “I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.” (In his first term, Trump had instituted a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, which was overturned by President Joe Biden during his first year in office.)
He added: “Under the Trump Administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”
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Trump has also signaled that he will convene a panel with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review whether hormone treatments for transgender individuals are linked to violent behavior, adding fuel to the ongoing debate over gender-affirming care for minors. “Upon my inauguration, I will direct the FDA to convene an independent outside panel to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression and even violence,” Trump said in April 2023.
Cut federal funding for ‘woke’ schools
Trump has vowed to take a stance against what he calls “woke” educational policies, particularly the teaching of critical race theory (CRT). On Day One, he has said that he plans to cut federal funding to schools that teach CRT or enforce vaccine mandates. Trump also aims to ban CRT from being taught in the armed forces.
His Administration will also focus on removing any federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) requirements, which he claims are divisive and harmful to the nation’s unity. His education policies are expected to face significant opposition from public school advocates and civil rights groups. “On his first day back in office, President Trump will immediately revoke Joe Biden’s sinister executive order mandating that federal departments establish an ‘equity’ enforcement squad to implement a Marxist takeover of the federal government—and he will urge Congress to create a restitution fund for Americans who have been unjustly discriminated against by such ‘equity’ policies,” Trump’s campaign website says.
