| President Donald Trump opened his second term with a record number of moves to turn the nation sharply to the right — just as he said he would. Trump’s first day in office “was definitely ambitious and aggressive, and some of [the executive orders] are more consequential than others,” said Andrew Rudalevige, who studies the modern American presidency at Bowdoin College and wrote a book on the limits of presidential power. He said some orders, like “protecting women from gender identity discrimination,” are little more than news releases. But other actions, like Trump’s ordering his Justice Department to not enforce a federal law banning TikTok, or his order to stop recognizing the citizenship of some babies born in the United States, are more consequential and will probably face legal challenges. This was just Day One, but his opposition is prepared for this pace for the next four years. “We learned discipline and are more prepared: We have had months to think about how to be ready with litigation, activism and research,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the liberal consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen. Let’s focus on the most controversial policies Trump launched Monday — and what opponents of these policies are doing about them. What executive orders do, real quick The main thing to know about them is they aren’t lasting. They can easily be overturned by the next president — the United States has bounced in and out of the Paris climate agreement, for instance, based on whether Trump was president. Executive orders also change policy only within the executive branch. They are, as The Washington Post’s Rachael Pannett and Frances Vinall explain, “official statements from the president about how U.S. federal agencies are to use their resources, within the parameters set by Congress and the Constitution.” Legislation is much more difficult for a president to overturn. In his first administration, Trump and Republicans tried for more than a year to repeal the Affordable Care Act and failed. This time, legal scholars say he’ll probably need Congress to get involved to stop enforcement of a federal law that banned TikTok. And the Constitution is out of reach of a president’s pen: “The president can’t amend the Constitution by issuing an executive order,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law expert at South Texas College of Law, in a recent interview. What Trump did — or is trying to do — with his executive orders He’s granting clemency to Jan. 6 defendants, trying to end birthright citizenship and sending troops to the border, among many other actions: He’s signed 26 executive orders and counting. The Washington Post is tracking them all. Here’s what to know about the more controversial ones. He pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants: That means people convicted of assaulting police officers and even of trying to forcefully overthrow the United States government are getting out of jail. Legal experts warn that this amounts to an endorsement of political violence when it’s in Trump’s favor. It’s a move so extreme that Trump’s vice president and his pick for attorney general had each said he wouldn’t do it. And it’s potentially unpopular with the American public, The Post’s Aaron Blake notes. But it’s not something that can be undone. Presidential pardon powers are pretty absolute. He’s trying to end birthright citizenship: Trump issued an executive order to end the constitutional right giving anyone born in the United States citizenship, regardless of their parents’ legal status. This one is likely to face major legal hurdles. His executive order pulls on language in the 14th Amendment that says babies born in the United States are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” which some on the right have interpreted to mean that only children born to citizens and permanent residents should get citizenship. That’s probably a misinterpretation that won’t hold up in court, said Saikrishna Prakash, a constitutional law professor at the University of Virginia, in an interview before Trump was inaugurated. Following that logic would also mean that undocumented immigrants can’t be punished for committing crimes in the United States, he said, because they are subject only to their home country’s laws. On Tuesday, nearly half of the states sued to stop his executive order from going into effect. He’s trying to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border: Trump announced a federal emergency at the border, which will allow him to build more wall along it and to send federal troops to make it harder for migrants to cross illegally and seek asylum, said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration analyst with the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. This isn’t immediately being challenged like many of his other executive orders. But Nowrasteh said the troops can serve only in a support capacity to Border Patrol agents, so they can’t arrest migrants. It’s also not clear if Trump can stop the practice of migrants crossing illegally and then requesting asylum. President Joe Biden severely restricted this, and he faced lawsuits from civil rights groups that argued that U.S. law says anyone who comes to the country can request asylum, even if they cross illegally. (Though few actually end up getting it.) | 
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