On his first day in office, President Trump issued a slew of Executive Orders and Memoranda. These Executive Orders and Memoranda spanned a broad range of topics including immigration and border security, energy and climate, trade, the federal workforce, gender, healthcare, the justice system, taxation, national security, foreign aid, TikTok and federal civic architecture, among others.

So let’s take a look at many of the Day 1 actions and pronouncements of relevance to ESG legal and compliance professionals, which will inform and in some cases transform their work in 2025.

Force of law

Executive Orders are one way in which a President may exercise their authority, directing the actions of government officials and agencies. They have been used by all Presidents since George Washington, with approximately 14,000 issued to date. Executive Orders historically related to routine administrative matters and the internal operations of federal agencies. Recent Presidents have used Executive Orders more broadly to carry out policies and programs. Sometimes they break new ground, while in other cases they overturn policies of the prior administration. In his first administration, President Trump signed more than 200 Executive Orders. The most – more than 3,700 – were issued by Franklin Roosevelt.

Executive Memoranda are similar to Executive Orders, except that they do not need to follow some procedural requirements. They are not required to be printed in the Federal Register or cite the President’s legal authority and the Office of Management and Budget is not required to issue a Budgetary Impact Statement.

Executive Orders and Memoranda have the force of law. In some cases, implementation is quick. In other cases, it occurs over time as agencies undertake the detailed work required. Some Executive Orders and Memoranda are challenged in court as exceeding the President’s authority.

The Trump Day 1 Executive Orders and Memoranda will fall into all of the foregoing categories: quick implementation, implementation over time and challenged in court. Also expect more Executive Orders and Memoranda in the coming days and weeks.

For additional context – on both the first round of Executive Orders and Memoranda and additional Executive Orders and Memoranda and Congressional action that may come – see the following additional Ropes & Gray posts:

• Article 1: ESG in 2025 for Legal and Compliance Professionals: 25 Predictions for ‘25
• Article 2: ESG in 2025 for Legal and Compliance Professionals: US Federal Anti-ESG Legislation to Watch For
• Article 3: ESG in 2025 for Legal and Compliance Professionals: A Closer Look at Project 2025

President Trump’s America First Priorities

Shortly after the inauguration, the White House posted the President’s America First Priorities, which was the first policy statement to go live on the new White House website. Among others, they include the priorities below. These are addressed in the Executive Orders and Memoranda issued later in the day. 

• “The President will unleash American energy by ending Biden’s policies of climate extremism, streamlining permitting, and reviewing for rescission all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use, including mining and processing of non-fuel minerals.”
• “President Trump’s energy actions empower consumer choice in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers.”
• “President Trump will declare an energy emergency and use all necessary resources to build critical infrastructure.”
• “President Trump’s energy policies will end leasing to massive wind farms that degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve American energy consumers.”
• “President Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.”
• “The President will usher a Golden Age for America by reforming and improving the government bureaucracy to work for the American people. He will freeze bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas to end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried into the federal workforce. He will pause burdensome and radical regulations not yet in effect that Biden announced.”

Day 1 Executive Orders and Memoranda

Selected stated policy rationales from and actions contemplated by President Trump’s Day 1 Executive Orders and Memoranda are described below. Many of the actions – which represent a significant change from Biden Administration policy – were widely expected. The headings below are the titles from the applicable Executive Orders and Memoranda.

Initial rescissions of harmful Executive Orders And Actions

Purpose and policy

• “The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government. The injection of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy. … Climate extremism has exploded inflation and overburdened businesses with regulation.”
• “To commence the policies that will make our Nation united, fair, safe, and prosperous again, it is the policy of the United States to restore common sense to the Federal Government and unleash the potential of the American citizen. The revocations within this order will be the first of many steps the United States Federal Government will take to repair our institutions and our economy.”

Actions

• The following executive actions, among others listed, are revoked:
  • E.O. 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.
  • E.O. 13990, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis.
  • E.O. 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.
  • E.O. 14027, Establishment of the Climate Change Support Office.
  • E.O. 14030, Climate-Related Financial Risk.
  • E.O. 14037, Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks.
  • E.O. 14052, Implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
  • E.O. 14057, Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability.
  • E.O. 14082, Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
  • Presidential Memorandum of March 13, 2023, Withdrawal of Certain Areas off the United States Arctic Coast of the Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Gas Leasing.
  • E.O. 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All.
  • Presidential Memorandum of January 6, 2025, Withdrawal of Certain Areas of the United States Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Natural Gas Leasing.
• To effectuate the foregoing revocations, the heads of each agency are to “take immediate steps to end Federal implementation of unlawful and radical DEI ideology.”

Regulatory freeze pending review

Actions

All executive departments and agencies are ordered to take the following steps:

• Not propose or issue any rule until a department or agency head appointed or designated by President Trump, or their delegate approved by the President, reviews and approves the rule, except that rules deemed necessary to address emergency situations or other urgent circumstances may be exempted.
• Immediately withdraw any rules that have been sent to the Office of the Federal Register but not published in the Federal Register, so that they can be reviewed and approved as described above. 
• Consider postponing for 60 days from January 20 the effective date of any rules that have been published in the Federal Register or any rules that have been issued but not taken effect, to review any questions of fact, law and policy that the rules may raise. During the 60-day period, consider opening a comment period and reevaluating pending petitions involving such rules. In addition, consider further delaying or publishing for notice and comment proposed rules, further delaying such rules beyond the 60-day period.

Delivering emergency price relief for American families and defeating the cost-of-living crisis

Policy rationale

• “[T]he assault on plentiful and reliable American energy through unnecessary and illegal regulatory demands has driven up the cost of transportation and manufacturing. In addition, the unlawful regulatory mandate on companies to effectively eliminate many or most gas-powered vehicles has resulted in artificial price increases on those popular vehicles to subsidize electric vehicles disfavored by consumers.”

Action

• The heads of all executive departments and agencies are ordered to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker. This includes among other things (1) eliminating “counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances” and (2) “eliminating harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.”

Putting America first in international environmental agreements

Purpose and policy

• “In recent years, the United States has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives. Moreover, these agreements steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.”
• “It is the policy of my Administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy. These agreements must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States.”

Actions 

• The United States will immediately submit formal written notification of withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. The withdrawal will be considered effective immediately upon notification. 
• The United States will immediately submit written formal notification of withdrawal from any agreement or commitment under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and any financial commitment made under the Convention will immediately be revoked.
• The US International Climate Finance Plan is revoked and rescinded immediately. 
• Within 30 days, the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Energy and Agriculture and the Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and US Agency for International Development, Chief Executive Officers of the International Development Finance Corporation and Millennium Challenge Corporation, Director of the US.Trade and Development Agency, President of the Export-Import Bank and head of any other relevant department or agency will submit reports to the Assistants to the President for Economic Policy and National Security Affairs that detail their actions to revoke or rescind policies that were implemented to advance the International Climate Finance Plan.
• The Secretaries of State and Commerce and the head of any department or agency that plans or coordinates international energy agreements will going forward prioritize economic efficiency, the promotion of American prosperity, consumer choice and fiscal restraint in all foreign engagements that concern energy policy.

Declaring a national energy emergency

Purpose

• “The energy and critical minerals (“energy”) identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs. We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries, and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness. Caused by the harmful and shortsighted policies of the previous administration, our Nation’s inadequate energy supply and infrastructure causes and makes worse the high energy prices that devastate Americans, particularly those living on low- and fixed-incomes.”
• “The integrity and expansion of our Nation’s energy infrastructure – from coast to coast – is an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States’ national and economic security. It is imperative that the Federal government puts the physical and economic wellbeing of the American people first.”
• “Moreover, the United States has the potential to use its unrealized energy resources domestically, and to sell to international allies and partners a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy. This would create jobs and economic prosperity for Americans forgotten in the present economy, improve the United States’ trade balance, help our country compete with hostile foreign powers, strengthen relations with allies and partners, and support international peace and security.”
• “The policies of the previous administration have driven our Nation into a national emergency, where a precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply, and an increasingly unreliable grid, require swift and decisive action. Without immediate remedy, this situation will dramatically deteriorate in the near future due to a high demand for energy and natural resources to power the next generation of technology. The United States’ ability to remain at the forefront of technological innovation depends on a reliable supply of energy and the integrity of our Nation’s electrical grid. Our Nation’s current inadequate development of domestic energy resources leaves us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and poses an imminent and growing threat to the United States’ prosperity and national security.”

Actions

• The heads of executive departments and agencies will identify and exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them, as well as all other lawful authorities they may possess, to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining and generation of domestic energy resources, including on Federal lands. 
• To facilitate the Nation’s energy supply, agencies are to identify and use all relevant lawful emergency and other authorities available to them to expedite the completion of all authorized and appropriated infrastructure, energy, environmental and natural resources projects that are within the identified authority of each of the Secretaries to perform or to advance.

Temporary withdrawal of all areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing and review of the Federal Government’s leasing and permitting practices for wind projects

Actions

• All areas within the Offshore Continental Shelf are withdrawn from disposition for wind energy leasing. The ecological, economic and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases will be reviewed.
• No new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases or loans for onshore or offshore wind projects will be issued, pending the completion of a comprehensive assessment and review of Federal wind leasing and permitting practices.

Unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential

Background

• “The State of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber, and seafood. 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. By developing these resources to the fullest extent possible, we can help deliver price relief for Americans, create high-quality jobs for our citizens, ameliorate our trade imbalances, augment the Nation’s exercise of global energy dominance, and guard against foreign powers weaponizing energy supplies in theaters of geopolitical conflict.”

Policy

It is the policy of the United States to:

• fully avail itself of Alaska’s vast lands and resources for the benefit of the Nation and the American citizens who call Alaska home;
• efficiently and effectively maximize the development and production of the natural resources located on both Federal and State lands within Alaska;
• expedite the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska; and
• prioritize the development of Alaska’s liquified natural gas (LNG) potential, including the sale and transportation of Alaskan LNG to other regions of the United States and allied nations within the Pacific region.

Actions

• Rescind any regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies and similar agency actions inconsistent with the foregoing policy.
• Prioritize the development of Alaska’s LNG potential.
• Withdraw Secretarial Order 3401, Comprehensive Analysis and Temporary Halt on All Activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Relating to the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, and rescind the cancellation of leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, initiate additional leasing through the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program and issue permits necessary for the exploration, development and production of oil and gas from leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.