Yahoo News What is an executive order and what has Trump said about them?
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to issue a large number of executive orders on the first day of his second term, but what are they?
Donald Trump has promised a wave of executive orders ahead of his inauguration on Monday.
He will be sworn in for his second term as US president in Washington DC, where about 200,000 of his supporters are expected.
Questions remain over what Trump's second stint in the White House will mean for the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.
He has already stated his intent by vowing to push through dozens of executive orders to put his immediate stamp on the presidency.
Yahoo News UK examines what he is planning and how executive orders work.
What is an executive order?
An executive order is a signed, written and published directive issued by the US president that manages the operations of the federal government.
Because executive orders are not legislation, they do not require approval from Congress, which cannot simply overturn them.
Congress can pass legislation in an attempt to slow down or block an executive order, but only a sitting US president can overturn one, by issuing another executive order to do so.
An executive order is first issued by the White House, then published in the Federal Register, the official journal of the federal government.
What has Trump said about executive orders?
Trump has vowed to act with "historic speed and strength" when his second stint as president begins, and executive orders form a substantial part of his plan.
He told a victory rally in Washington DC on Sunday: "You’re going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy, lots of them. We have to set our country on the proper course.
"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."
“Every radical, foolish executive order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office. You’re gonna have a lot of fun watching television. Somebody said yesterday, 'Don’t sign so many in one day, let’s do it over a period of weeks'. I said, 'like hell... no, we’re doing them tomorrow'.”
What executive orders could Trump sign?
According to reports, Trump is expected to issue somewhere between 100 and more than 200 executive orders on Monday.
Many of those could be designed to reverse or scrap executive orders implemented by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
While the contents of his planned executive orders aren't known, Trump is expected to focus on a number of key areas:
Immigration
Trump is expected to declare illegal immigration a national emergency and order military funds to be used to construct the uncompleted border wall between the US and Mexico.
He will also end a ban on immigration authorities being allowed to conduct raids on schools and churches.
He could also give immigration officers more scope to arrest people who have no criminal records and send more troops to the border.
Trump has previously vowed to end automatic citizenship for those born in the US to parents in the country illegally, but an executive order would not be sufficient to do so, as birthright citizenship is guaranteed in the US Constitution.
Climate
Trump is expected to once again pull out of the Paris climate agreement aimed at tackling rising global temperatures, as he did after first taking office in 2017, a move that was reversed on Biden's first day as president in 2021.
Trump and his team are also considering cutting support for electric vehicles and charging stations, as well as blocking the import of cars, parts and battery materials from China.
He will also try to back up his election campaign promise of "Drill, baby, drill" by removing offshore drilling restrictions and those on federal land.
Capitol riot
Trump has indicated that he will issue pardons for hundreds of his supporters who were convicted over the 6 January 2021 US Capitol riots.
Gender and diversity
Trump has vowed to sign an executive order ending transgender rights in the military and inside schools.
He told the rally on Sunday he would act on his first day to stop the participation of trans athletes in women's sports.
In a campaign video, Trump said he would use his first day in office to revoke Biden's policies that provide information and resources to those seeking medical care so they can align their bodies with the gender they identify with.
Trump is also expected to reinstate an executive order he made in his first term to curtail efforts to promote diversity in the workplace, and has also criticised "diversity, equity and inclusion" policies inside universities.
What are recent examples of executive orders?
In his first term as president, Trump signed 220 executive orders, the most in a single term since Jimmy Carter between 1977 and 1981, almost three quarters of which were revoked.
Among Trump's executive orders were his attempt to weaken Obamacare, increasing US-Mexico border security measures, pursuing undocumented immigrants and restricting entry into the US by foreign nationals from predominantly Muslim populations.
Biden spent much of the early part of his presidency using executive orders to revoke Trump's policies, such as rejoining the Paris climate agreement, but he also pledged relief and support to Americans during the coronavirus pandemic and vowed to reunify families separated at the US-Mexico border.
Only one US president in history did not issue an executive order, and that was William Henry Harrison, who died three weeks after his inauguration in 1841.
Some presidents only issued a single executive order, while Franklin D Roosevelt signed 3,721 in his four terms in office.
