What to expect in Donald Trump's first 100 days in office

US President expected to begin sweeping changes from his first day in office

Then president-elect Donald Trump at a meeting with Republican state governors at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 9. AP

Live updates: Follow the latest on Donald Trump’s inauguration

President Donald Trump is expected to sign a number of executive orders as he enters office. He campaigned on a host of issues but focused on the economy, deporting migrants in the US illegally and trying to end global conflicts.

Mr Trump has said that he will begin enacting sweeping changes immediately. During his first term, Mr Trump issued a total of 220 executive orders. These are rules the President can make without consulting Congress.

Here are some of the issues Mr Trump is set to address with executive orders in the first 100 days of his presidency.

Immigration and travel bans

During his inaugural address, Mr Trump said he planned to declare a national emergency on the US southern border and that all illegal entry would be halted. He added that he would reinstate the "Remain in Mexico" policy from his first term.

Mr Trump made immigration a major focus of his campaign for the White House, accusing his predecessor Joe Biden of allowing “chaos” on the US southern border. He said that, on day one, he would send the National Guard to the southern border to seal it and declare immigration a national emergency. That move would unlock federal funds that could be used to resume construction of the border wall with Mexico.

He has also promised to launch the “largest deportation programme in American history”. There are more than 11 million undocumented people in the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security, although some estimates put the number much higher.

Mr Trump and his allies have said that people with criminal records or those who are already marked for deportation – more than a million people – would be the priority, but he did not rule out deporting other people, too. He has also said he would end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented migrants.

Migrants stand outside the Stewart Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Vacant hotels and office spaces have been turned into accommodation for arrivals. Adla Massoud / The National

The exterior of the Stewart Hotel in New York. Adla Massoud / The National

A group of migrants rest outside the former Roosevelt Hotel. EPA-EFE

Migrants wait outside of the former Roosevelt Hotel in New York. EPA-EFE

A migrant woman consoles her daughter as they leave a bus during their commute from Brooklyn to the Queens borough of New York. AP

A man carries a young girl on his shoulders as he and a group of several hundred migrants wade across the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass, Texas, from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. Reuters

A week after taking office in 2016, Mr Trump passed the so-called Muslim ban, which barred entry to the US of citizens of several Muslim-majority countries. It was met with legal challenges and Mr Biden reversed the measure on his first day in office. This time, Mr Trump and his team are likely to pass a limited ban that could bypass legal limitations. He has also vowed to ban resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza, calling it a “terror-infested area”.

Israel

Another of Mr Trump's possible first orders of business will be reversing the executive order Mr Biden signed into law in February 2024 allowing the State and Treasury Departments to issue sanctions against Israeli settlers for their involvement in harassing and threatening Palestinians in the West Bank.

During his first term, Mr Trump made a series of impactful policy changes in favour of Israel, including moving the embassy to Jerusalem and designating Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank as not against US law – both moves upending decades of American policy in the region.

The Biden administration eventually reverted to Washington's long-established line that settlement activity was inconsistent with US and international law. We should expect Mr Trump to at some point reverse that decision.

Speaking during his inaugural address, Mr Trump said he aimed to become a "peacemaker" and spoke of the recent ceasefire in Gaza.

ICC

Mr Trump will have the benefit of an all-Republican Washington, which is all but certain to take swift action against international efforts to hold Israel accountable for the scale of death and destruction wrought in Gaza. The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would issue sanctions against the International Criminal Court over its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.

Call for arrest warrant for Netanyahu over role in Gaza war

01:39

The new Middle East subcommittee chairman Mike Lawler, a Trump loyalist, declared during a House vote last week that the ICC has “demonstrated blatant hostility towards our allies and towards American values”. Republicans in the Senate have indicated they are mobilised to vote on the bill for final approval, including new Majority Leader John Thune who has indicated an imminent vote.

Mr Trump, who as president in 2020 issued his own round of sanctions against the ICC, is highly likely to approve new punitive economic measures.

UNRWA

There is similar enthusiasm in the Republican Party to shut down the main provider of humanitarian support for Palestinians, UNRWA. Mr Biden halted US-funding for the relief agency and Republicans have promised to make that pause permanent – and Mr Trump is unlikely to contradict them.

Republican Congressman Brian Mast has led the charge on Capitol Hill against UNRWA, and in this new government he has ascended to the powerful role of chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with key deciding power on foreign policy laws.

This could lead to the US more permanently withdrawing from UNRWA, and Mr Trump's cabinet appointments indicate the executive would endorse this move. In March, Mr Trump's choice for secretary of state Marco Rubio said in a statement that “UNRWA enabled Hamas's violence using American money. This organisation shouldn't receive one more penny from our nation”.

Pardons for January 6 participants

Pro-Trump supporters violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, while Congress was certifying Mr Biden’s win against Mr Trump. In the years after the insurrection, the Department of Justice took on the largest criminal investigation in history, prosecuting participants from crimes ranging from trying to disrupt an official government act and endangering elected members of Congress.

At least 1,500 people were charged with federal crimes related to the attack and about 1,250 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty. Mr Trump has called the January 6 rioters “warriors” and “patriots” who are “hostages” of the American criminal and justice system.

Donald Trump, the president at the time, speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as president in Washington on January 6, 2021. AP

A mob loyal to Mr Trump tries to break through a police barrier at the Capitol. AP

The mob waves pro-Trump flags in front of the Capitol building. AP

Riot police push back a crowd of rioters at the Capitol building. AFP

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol building. AFP

Insurrectionists loyal to Mr Trump try to open a door of the US Capitol building as they riot in Washington. AP

US Capitol Police push back rioters trying to enter the US Capitol. AP

Police and rioters confront each other in the Rotunda of the Capitol. US Capitol Police via AP

Smoke fills the hallway outside the Senate chamber of the Capitol. AP

Insurrectionists loyal to Mr Trump breach the Capitol in Washington. AP

Trump supporters, including Doug Jensen, centre, confront US Capitol Police in the hallway outside the Senate chamber at the Capitol. AP

Newly installed razor wire tops the fence surrounding the US Capitol following the January 6 riot. Reuters

Security agents and members of Congress barricade the door to the House chamber as the violent mob breaches the Capitol. AP

Rioter Jacob Chansley holds a sign referencing QAnon as supporters of Mr Trump gather to protest the early results of the 2020 presidential election. Reuters

During his first days in office, Mr Trump may follow through with his promise to pardon those involved in January 6. He did say in an NBC News interview in December that pardons may not be issued for those who acted “radical” or “crazy”.

Mr Trump on Monday said that Washington is "going to see a lot of action" on the January 6 cases.

Leaving the WHO

Mr Trump is expected to pull US support from the World Health Organisation, removing American recognition of the UN agency. In his first term, Mr Trump pulled financing for the WHO in 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and initiated the process to withdraw US membership. In 2021, Mr Biden ended that process and resumed funds to WHO.

The US has historically been the largest financier of the WHO in assessed and voluntary contributions. Leaving the body would complicate the US response to domestic health threats and US-based drug makers also depend on WHO assistance to sell products such as vaccines.

A full US departure would also endanger the international response to health emergencies ranging from mpox to cholera, investigations of outbreaks, and managing pandemic preparedness. Health crises sprouting in areas like Gaza and Sudan could also worsen.

Ukraine and leaving Nato

Mr Trump has promised to bring an end to the almost three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war as soon as he enters the White House. Given his warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, critics have speculated that the end of the war will involve Kyiv giving up vast areas of territory in exchange for an end to hostilities.

The American leader has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and expressed sympathy for the Ukrainian cause, saying that casualties in the conflict are much higher than Kyiv claims. Though his allies in Congress have attempted to block more assistance for Ukraine, Mr Trump has indicated that aid flows would continue but they would be “possibly” less than before.

What will happen to Ukraine under a Trump presidency?

01:55

On Nato, Mr Trump has routinely said that allied countries must commit to the benchmark of contributing 2.5 per cent of GDP to defence to ensure the ability to defend member nations. He has threatened to withdraw from the alliance and has even said he would not commit to protecting allied countries who were not paying their “fair share”.

Leaving Paris and 'drill, baby, drill'

While in office, Mr Biden enacted sweeping environmental measures, taking actions including integrating climate-friendly initiatives into his landmark Inflation Reduction Act.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement and campaigned on the promise that, on day one, the US would “drill, baby, drill”, referring to his intention to make the country energy independent by expanding oil and natural gas drilling.

He has gone on the attack against wind turbines and Mr Biden's efforts to put more electric vehicles on the roads, and it is expected that he will roll back more of the Biden administrations measures, although it is unclear when he might begin to do so.

"America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it," Mr Trump said during his inauguration.

Politicising civil roles

Among Mr Trump's first acts following his electoral win was naming billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a non-government commission focused on cutting waste. One of those areas of waste? Federal jobs.

“We expect mass reductions,” Mr Ramaswamy told Fox News in mid-November. “We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions-in-force in areas of the federal government that are bloated.”

Mr Trump has promised to back the agency and vowed to end merit-based civil-service protections from large parts of the federal workforce. While Mr Trump has frequently denied connection to the conservative government blueprint Project 2025, one of the measures outlined in the plan includes drastically reducing the number of federal employees, eliminating certain agencies and concentrating more power in the hands of the executive.