PARIS: Since returning to the White House on Jan 20, President Donald Trump has signed a whopping 79 executive orders touching on issues from transgender rights to foreign policy, with one of the latest being declaring English as the official language of the United States.

No US president has signed so many executive actions so quickly since 1937, according to the federal register.

With his Republican Party only holding narrow majorities in Congress, and seeking to move quickly to remake the US government, Trump has brandished his pen as a weapon targeting trade, civil rights and federal bureaucracy.

The 47th president of the United States has also met fierce resistance in the form of legal challenges as well.

Over a dozen orders challenged in courts

The federal register has published the orders made since Jan 20.

By Feb 27, 16 of the orders had been challenged in court, according to monitoring by Just Security at the New York University School of Law.

Economy and trade

Economy is one of Trump’s biggest priorities, with 27 related orders ranging from customs duties and support for fossil fuels to creation of a sovereign fund so far.

Twelve concern trade and customs duties, such as threats of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 10 per cent levy on Chinese goods.

He also ordered a “national energy emergency” among other moves to keep his campaign promise to “drill, baby, drill” for oil.

The billionaire, who says the green energy transition is a “scam”, also signed orders against electric cars, wind projects, and dumping paper straws in favour of plastic.

No less than 14 orders concern diversity and gender, casualties of Trump’s crusade against transgender people and his crackdown on programmes targeting racism, sexism and inequality in the workplace.

Another priority, immigration, is covered by 15 orders. One signed in January put a halt to refugee admissions, calling them “detrimental to the interests of the United States”.

The administration then froze funding for organisations in the refugee programme. A US court has since blocked the order.

Trump also signed an order seeking to reinterpret the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which decrees anyone born on US soil is a citizen. That also ignited a legal battle.

In his 77th order, Trump made English the official language of the United States.

Six of his executive orders have given authority to the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk, his cost-cutter-in-chief.

Withdrawal from WHO

A total of 13 orders concern health. One of his first moves after taking office was to withdraw the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and rescind orders issued under his predecessor Joe Biden that protected access to abortion pills and abortion data privacy.

Ten decrees were related to technology, including two on cryptocurrencies.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2025