WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump planned to sign dozens of executive orders Monday in a sweeping move to reimagine the country’s relationship with immigration, its economy, the environment and even gender roles.
Incoming White House officials – speaking on condition of anonymity shortly before Trump took the oath of office – previewed the directives, which included the declaration of at least two national emergencies targeting the border and the energy sector.
The orders are expected to include mandates for how the U.S. government recognizes gender on federal documents and the names Americans use for a mountain in Alaska and the body of water known as the Gulf of Mexico since the 17th Century, the officials said.
The orders could undo with the flourish of a pen many of former President Joe Biden’s key efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, protect federal lands from oil drilling and enshrine the civil rights of transgender people. And they could grant the second Trump administration expansive authority to enforce border security and immigration laws.
Under the national border emergency declaration, the Trump administration intends to use the U.S. military to crack down on illegal immigration, combat transnational gangs and drug trafficking and execute his promised mass deportations of undocumented migrants.
Officials said Trump will also declare a “national energy emergency” to end the so-called “electric vehicle mandate,” Trump’s phrase for an Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring automakers cut greenhouse gas emissions in some new vehicles.
Under the national energy emergency declaration, Trump will also prioritize oil drilling, officials said.
Trump to declare ‘border emergency,’ send troops to the border
Trump is expected to sign nearly a dozen executive orders on border security and immigration under the auspices of a national border emergency.
Incoming White House officials said the president will order U.S. armed forces to “repel forms of invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border, including illegal migration and drug trafficking.
The administration will suspend refugee resettlement, finish building the border wall, suspend entry of nationals from “countries of concern” and attempt to end the constitutionally guaranteed right to citizenship for children born in the U.S. to some foreign nationals.
Trump also plans to use the military to target drug cartels as “global terrorists” and use the military to combat them, though officials declined to provide details on the rules of engagement.
Declaring a ‘national energy emergency’
The orders include terminating what Trump calls the “electric vehicle mandate,” an Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring auto manufacturers cut greenhouse gas emissions by half in new light- and medium-duty vehicles beginning in 2027.
By calling a national emergency on energy, Trump plans to prioritize domestic oil and gas production – even as U.S. crude oil production hit an all-time high over the past year.
‘Male and female’ only
Trump will declare that the federal government only recognizes two sexes − male and female − in a move an incoming White House official described as “restoring sanity.”
The State Department, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will be tasked with enforcing the directive, which applies to passports, visas and other government documents, according to the incoming White House official.
New names from the mountains to the Gulf
In one of the orders, Trump is expected to rename Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X, formerly known as Twitter, Monday morning.
Leavitt’s tweet also signaled Trump would rename Mount Denali, the highest peak in North America, back to Mount McKinley. The Alaskan government had long recognized the mountain as Mount Denali, and President Barack Obama renamed it at the federal level in 2015. Trump’s action will revert to the pre-Obama name.
Mexico, which also borders the gulf that bears its name, is unlikely to go along with the renaming. After Trump initially floated the idea, President Claudia Sheinbaum noted the body of water that separates Miami from Cancun has been known as the Gulf of Mexico since the 17th century.
This is a developing story.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Erin Mansfield and Elizabeth Wiese
