President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday night restoring the sex binary to federal policy, rooting out the Biden administration’s promotion of progressive gender ideology in a move that will have broad implications for the maintenance of female-only public facilities, anti-discrimination litigation, and the use of taxpayer funds for “gender-affirming” procedures.
After taking the oath of office Monday, Trump said he will end the efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” Later that day, he unveiled an executive order, called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” that restores the biological definitions of male and female to the federal government.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the order reads. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
“Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” will mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively, while “Men” or “man” and “boys” or “boy” will mean adult and juvenile human males, respectively.
Government forms, official agency business, and communications will no longer make reference to the idea that gender exists independent of the sex binary. Gender identity will be removed as a protected category for agencies that enforce laws against sex discrimination. These agencies and all federal employees acting in an official capacity on behalf of them are obliged to use the term “sex” and not “gender” in all applicable federal policies and documents.
Passports, visas, and other government identification will not allow for gender preference and will reflect the biological reality of the holder.
In the order, Trump slammed the Biden administration’s manipulation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to allow gender identity-based access to single-sex spaces, such as school sports under Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act.
Former president Biden radically revised Title IX to include gender identity as a protected category in institutions that receive federal funding, such as K-12 schools. The Biden rule allowed students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that aligned with their gender identity.
However, a slew of lawsuits from 26 Republican attorneys general put the Title IX overhaul on hold in their states and at hundreds of colleges. Earlier this month, a federal judge dealt the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite another blow when he ruled it was unconstitutional. Trump in the order said he will direct his Attorney General, likely to be his personal lawyer Pam Bondi pending Senate confirmation, to correct Biden’s statutory abuse to make distinctions in agency activities purely sex-based.
The order also directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services — likely to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pending Senate confirmation — to provide to the government and public clear guidance expanding on key sex-based definitions within 30 days. Trump also within 30 days expects a bill on his desk that would codify the sex-based definitions into law, according to the order.
Gender radicalism was a salient and alienating issue for many voters in the November election, especially independents. It has moved even some Democrats to reject the trans craze after they saw its electoral consequences. Last week, the House of Representatives voted to pass a bill, with the help of two Democratic members, that would prohibit men from competing in women’s school sports. It now goes to the Senate, where the GOP also has a majority, unlike when the bill was first introduced during Biden’s term.
Another major frontier of the trans war is the prison system, where men claiming to be women have been housed among the vulnerable female inmate population across the country. Under Trump’s order, transgender-identifying men cannot request transfers to live in federal prisons designated for females. Federal taxpayer dollars will also no longer subsidize sex change procedures, including for male prisoners.
The attorney general will ensure that “the Bureau of Prisons revises its policies concerning medical care to be consistent with this order, and shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex,” the order reads.
On the campaign trail, Trump noted Kamala Harris’s support for taxpayer funded gender transition surgeries for illegal aliens. His campaign capitalized on that negative hype with a scathing ad that declared of Harris: “She’s for they/them. I’m for you.”
Every agency of the federal government, the order says, must promptly rescind all guidance documents that perpetuate gender ideology. The order named over a dozen documents to be removed, such as “The White House Toolkit on Transgender Equality,” “U.S. Department of Education Toolkit: Creating Inclusive and Nondiscriminatory School Environments for LGBTQI+ Students,” and “Supporting Transgender Youth in School.”
Unleashing American Energy
President Donald Trump signed executive orders Monday night to “unleash” American energy production and Alaska’s natural resources by reversing Biden-era restrictions.
Trump also signed an order declaring a national energy emergency, claiming that the nation’s energy supply and infrastructure are “inadequate” and caused by “shortsighted policies of the previous administration.”
Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” order seeks to “encourage energy exploration and production on Federal lands and waters” and to protect the nation’s economic and national security “by ensuring that an abundant supply of reliable energy is readily accessible in every State and territory of the Nation.” The order also eliminates the Biden administration’s electric-vehicle mandate and seeks to safeguard “the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods,” including lightbulbs, gas stoves, and shower heads.
An order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential” aims to tap into Alaska’s energy, mineral, timber, and seafood resources. “Unlocking this bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our Nation’s economic and national security for generations to come,” the order states. It is “imperative,” according to the order, “to immediately reverse the punitive restrictions implemented by the previous administration that specifically target resource development on both State and Federal lands in Alaska.”
Trump also signed memorandums on Monday night to temporarily prohibit new wind-energy leases on the offshore continental shelf and to restart work to route more water from Northern California to Southern California and the Central Valley.
The offshore-wind order calls for a comprehensive assessment and review of the federal government’s wind leasing and permitting practices. It says offshore wind projects could have “negative impacts on navigational safety interests, transportation interests, national security interests, commercial interests, and marine mammals.”
The California memo, coming as Los Angeles is still struggling through devastating wildfires, says Trump’s previous plans to send more water south were halted “allegedly in protection of the Delta smelt and other species of fish.”
“The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply and sound vegetation management practices,” the memo states.
Trump Launches Executive Order Blitz by Declaring National Emergency at the Border
Trump wielded his newfound executive authority to declare a national emergency over the crisis at the southern border just hours after being sworn in, immediately reversing the lenient Biden-era policies that allowed record numbers of illegal immigrants to enter the country.
Trump began the process of signing an expected 200 day-one executive orders in front of tens of thousands of supporters at the Capital One Arena Monday evening, making good on his inaugural address promise to “completely reverse” the “horrible betrayal” of the Biden years. At least ten of those orders are expected to focus on immigration and include directives to revive the defunct “Remain in Mexico” policy and designate drug cartels Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
“As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do,” Trump said in the Capitol Rotunda after he was sworn into office Monday afternoon. “We will do it at a level that nobody’s ever seen before.”
The newly inaugurated president quickly ordered the deployment of American troops under U.S. Northern Command to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in defending the southern border.
Within two hours of Trump taking office, federal agents equipped with riot shields closed the port of entry in El Paso, Texas, where a surge of illegal immigrants have crossed the border in recent years.
Trump also signed an order Monday night ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and suspending refugee resettlement for at least four months in a move that is sure to draw legal challenges based on the guarantee of birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment.
Trump signed an order authorizing mass deportations, directing federal law enforcement agents to arrest over 1 million immigrants who have committed crimes or are otherwise staying in the U.S. illegally. During his 2024 campaign, Trump ran on sealing the border and carrying out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, which were the top two priorities on the Republican Party’s platform last year.
By declaring a national emergency, the new administration can unlock additional authorities and resources from the Defense Department to help launch the mass deportation campaign, which poses logistical and financial challenges.
The large-scale deportation raids will reportedly start Tuesday morning in Chicago, where 1.7 million immigrants reside, and will continue all week.
“By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt, and all the illegal border trespassers will in some form or another be on their way back home,” Trump said at his pre-inauguration rally Sunday night.
About 11 million immigrants were living in the U.S. without legal status as of 2022, according to an April 2024 report from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics. That figure is likely higher now due to record border crossings under Biden.
Former ICE acting director Tom Homan, whom Trump appointed as his “border czar,” confirmed the new administration will prioritize on deporting those 1.4 million illegal immigrants who are ineligible for legal status in the country.
In another order, Trump is expected to direct the federal government to finish construction of the border wall, which was mostly built before Biden halted the project shortly after taking office four years ago. In October 2023, the Democratic president resumed construction on certain parts of the wall due to a surge in border crossings.
That executive order will also end Biden’s parole policies, including the CBP One mobile app, which allowed nearly 1 million migrant entries into the U.S.
The same order also reinstates Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols, which directed asylum seekers who arrive at the southern border to remain in Mexico until their court dates. Implemented in 2019, Remain in Mexico ended in 2022 after the Supreme Court ruled the Biden administration held the authority to reverse the policy, despite the legal pushback from Republican states.
A separate order designates international cartels and gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, labeling them a threat to national security. The order invokes the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime power, to “eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks” in the U.S., Trump said during his inaugural address.
Payback for the Hunter Biden Defenders
In one of his first acts after returning to the White House, Trump suspended the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who penned a letter in the lead-up to the 2020 election alleging that reporting stemming from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
The intelligence officials — including former CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta, and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence — released the letter in October 2020 after the New York Post published a front-page story based on emails from the laptop, which had been discovered in a Delaware computer shop.
In its scoop, the Post reported that Hunter Biden had introduced his father, Joe Biden, when he was vice president, to a top executive of a Ukrainian energy firm while the younger Biden was on the company’s board. Joe Biden, who was running for president against Trump when the Post’s story ran, denied meeting with the executive. He had long denied allegations of influence peddling and maintained that he’d never spoken to his son about his foreign business dealings. The laptop also contained images of Hunter Biden smoking crack, engaging in sex acts, and holding a gun.
The intelligence officials who signed the letter had no additional evidence about the veracity of the laptop and its contents, but they wrote that they were “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
“If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this,” they added.
Major news outlets initially refused to report on the laptop and its contents, and Big Tech platforms, including Facebook and Twitter (now X), censored and suppressed it.
Even after the Post’s reporting was determined to be accurate, several of the signers of the intelligence letter stood by their decision to release it. They said they didn’t lie in the letter but were merely raising legitimate concerns about potential disinformation.
Several Republican lawmakers had called for the letter’s signers to have their security clearances stripped as an act of accountability, according to a November report from the Washington Times.
“What they have done is highly unethical, immoral, and it’s terrible for democracy and terrible for our country,” Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina told the outlet, adding that they “lied about Trump and targeted him.”
Last year, America First Legal, a conservative legal firm, sued the Federal Election Commission for declining to charge Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee for coordinating with the intelligence officials behind the letter.
“Federal enforcement is necessary when federal campaign finance and support turn from a private civic act to election interference and public corruption,” the firm said.
“By failing to act on America First Legal’s administrative complaint,” the firm added, “the Commission has harmed America First Legal by allowing a campaign for President of the United States to benefit from undisclosed contributions and coordinated in- kind expenditures in furtherance of using a campaign platform misrepresented as an unbiased and non-political report.”
TikTok Reprieve
Trump threw a lifeline to China-affiliated TikTok on Monday, ordering the attorney general not to enforce a Congressional ban on the popular app for 75 days and to allow his administration “an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward.”
The ban on the app, owned by China-based ByteDance, technically went into effect on Sunday and the app temporarily went dark. But it came back online with then-president Joe Biden announcing he would not enforce the ban, leaving the issue for Trump to resolve.
In his order Monday, Trump called the timing “unfortunate.”
“I intend to consult with my advisors, including the heads of relevant departments and agencies on the national security concerns posed by TikTok, and to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans,” Trump’s order states. “My Administration must also review sensitive intelligence related to those concerns and evaluate the sufficiency of mitigation measures TikTok has taken to date.”
To avoid the ban, ByteDance was supposed to have sold TikTok by January 19. Trump, a one-time critic of the app who tried to ban it himself during his first term in office, has since flip-flopped on the issue.
Rolling Back Biden DEI, Climate Policies
President Trump signed a suite of executive orders Monday evening, rolling back nearly 80 Biden-era orders with a stroke of his pen just hours after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.
In addition to rolling back 78 executive orders issued by President Biden, Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreements, froze federal hiring and the drafting of new regulations, and mandated that all federal workers return to the office full time. He also signed orders barring the “government censorship of free speech” and the “weaponization of government” against “political adversaries of the previous administration.”
The “equity” orders that Trump rescinded included broad orders aimed at ensuring equity in Covid-19 pandemic recovery, the federal workforce, and through support for “underserved communities,” along with Biden-era orders aimed at advancing equity for specific minority groups — Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, blacks, and sexual minorities.
In addition to rescinding Biden’s orders, Trump also signed an order specifically aimed at ending “wasteful” government DEI programs and preferences. The order calls for federal agencies “to coordinate the termination of all discriminatory” DEI programs “under whatever name they appear,” and to review and revise employment practices, union contracts, and training policies to end DEI.
“Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great,” the order states.
Trump was expected to take aim with some of his first executive orders at ending the federal government’s DEI bureaucracy that ballooned under Biden. Conservative civil rights lawyers and activists who spoke to National Review after Trump’s win in November said that rooting out illiberal and unconstitutional racial preferences would be a years-long effort and will require more than executive orders — it will likely also require congressional action, rulemaking, and continued lawsuits from civil rights groups opposed to the discriminatory measures.
Soon after his November win, Trump vowed to weed out “Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats” from the nation’s universities and to take aim at schools that continue to discriminate by race “under the guise of equity.”
Trump’s moves to end federal equity programs came just hours after he promised during his inauguration address to bring back hope and prosperity for “citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed.” During his address, he specifically thanked the black and Hispanic communities for what he called “the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote.”
Inaugurated on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Trump vowed to make “true” King’s dream of a society where people are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. “We will forge a society that is color blind and merit based,” he said.