Joe Biden is expected to waste no time before working to unravel President Donald Trump’s policies.


What You Need To Know

  • President-elect Joe Biden is planning to sign a series of executive orders in the hours immediately after his inauguration on Jan. 20, according to multiple reports

  • Many of Biden's edicts will seek to reverse Trump policies that he and his party view as destructive

  • Among Biden’s first orders of business will be rejoining the Paris climate accord and rescinding Trump’s travel ban on mostly Muslim countries

  • In his first days on the job, Biden could also begin to reimplement environmental regulations that Trump dismantled and call allies to rewin their trust

According to multiple reports, the president-elect is planning to sign a series of executive orders in the hours immediately after his inauguration on Jan. 20. Among Biden’s first orders of business will be rejoining the Paris climate accord, rescinding Trump’s travel ban on mostly Muslim countries and temporarily halting deportations while reviewing the deportation system, the reports said. 

Tackling the coronavirus pandemic will also be a top priority for Biden. He has signaled he will ramp up production of pandemic-related supplies such as masks, face shields and other personal protection equipment, and issue a mask mandate on federal property. On Monday, the president-elect revealed the members of his coronavirus advisory board.

According to The Washington Post, Biden’s advisers have been quietly working for months on plans to best implement his agenda.

While some items on Biden’s wish list, such as creating a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers and repealing Trump’s tax cuts on the wealthy, will require congressional cooperation, executive orders will allow him a quick and easy way to achieve some of his goals, especially considering there is the strong possibility that Republicans will retain control of the Senate.

Many of the edicts are expected to be reversals of executive orders signed by Trump.

In his first days on the job, Biden could also begin to reimplement the environmental regulations that Trump dismantled, restore the rights of government workers to unionize and impose tougher ethics requirements on federal employees. The incoming president is also expected to begin calling America’s closest allies in an attempt to rewin their trust and ensure the nation’s role as a global leader.

The New York Times reported that Biden and Democrats are eager to erase what they view as Trump’s destructive policies on the environment, immigration, health care, gay rights, trade, tax cuts, civil right, abortion, race relations and more. 

However, some observers wonder if pledging to unite the country and then immediately and aggressively pursuing an anti-Trump agenda will send mixed messages to a country where more than 71 million people voted for Trump. 

“If you want to show that you want to work on a bipartisan basis, then you don’t go out right away and sign all the executive orders on immigration and bypass the Congress,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said on CNN on Saturday.