Resisting the Onslaught of Trump Executive Orders 

Since his inauguration, we have seen a record flurry of Donald Trump Executive Orders (EO), which as of last count stand at 103. Trump has signed more executive orders in his first 10 days than any recent president has in their first 100 days, issuing directives on civil rights rollbacks, the expansion of oil and gas handouts, and elimination of environmental regulations and protections across the country.  

While many of the Trump Executive Orders aim to eviscerate equity, turn anti-immigrant sentiment into policy, and severely hamper our ability to fight climate change and protect vulnerable communities from pollution, their constitutionality is tenuous. A host of passionate protests and fierce lawsuits are already being launched to counter them. Friends of the Earth remains steadfast in this shared fight for environmental and social justice and to stop Trump’s attempts to expand presidential power and undermine our democracy. 

Integral to our work is sorting through the sheer volume of EOs and assessing the impacts on members of the public, especially for those who are on the frontlines of environmental destruction and are advocating for a more healthy and just world. The Trump Executive Orders of greatest concern to our movement can be organized into three major categories: equity, immigration and the environment.   

1.  Trump Executive Orders: Equity 

Trump issued EOs directly targeting equity in ways that our country has not seen in decades. At the forefront is his objective to terminate the “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) framework within the federal government, seeking to gut all DEI offices and initiatives. This agenda not only threatens federal hiring policies and job security for our civil servants, but also hampers workplace equity policies relating to race, gender, and sexual orientation.  

Trump has taken his attacks even further, rescinding numerous progressive environmental EOs from Presidents Biden and Clinton that addressed environmental justice in federal policies and programs. These policies have been a crucial step toward finally combatting the historic, disproportionate burden that working class Black and Brown communities have endured at the hands of industrial pollution and development for generations.   

Transgender Americans have arguably been the most heavily scapegoated group within Trump’s crusade against equity. One way Trump is targeting this community is through an EO declaring there are only two biological sexes, reversing gender identity as a valid category within the federal government. Studies show that transgender people and members of the LGBTQIA+ community are more likely to suffer from gender-based discrimination and violence fueled by climate disasters. For example, many LBGTQIA+ people impacted by Hurricane Katrina were denied assistance by emergency shelters operated by faith-based organizations. Friends of the Earth rejects the Trump administration’s attempt to disenfranchise transgender and other marginalized communities by erasing them from public life. We also see multiple legal problems with the route Trump is attempting.  

The primary flaw in these – and in so many Trump Executive Orders – is the blatant violation of our constitutional rights to free speech and due process, as highlighted in a recent, ongoing lawsuit. Due process guarantees everyone certain procedures like notice, comment and an impartial hearing before their property can be taken – in this case, one’s core identity. Trump is attempting to eviscerate these fundamental rights and courts are increasingly being called on to block these unlawful attempts. 

2.  Trump Executive Orders: Immigration 

Another category of Trump Executive Orders targets immigration, including a directive to stop admitting all asylum seekers, escalate mass deportations, repeal birthright citizenship, and rescind a Biden-era EO calling for consideration of climate change’s impact on migration.   

For years, Friends of the Earth International has sounded the alarm on how ever-worsening climate impacts are prompting people to move in order to find safety and lives of dignity. For example, people dwelling within the dry zone of Sri Lanka have been suffering from one of the country’s worst droughts in decades, while those living in the wet zone have witnessed over 500,000 people displaced due to unprecedented flooding. Both catastrophes within a single country have been exacerbated by climate change, forcing people out in search of a safer, habitable place to call home. Friends of the Earth stands with our partners fighting to advance immigrant equity and inclusion and we condemn the Trump administration’s further marginalization of people who are already facing heightened vulnerability due to the climate crisis.    

The fundamental rights outlined in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to everyone, regardless of their immigration status. The Trump immigration Executive Order on expedited deportation directly violates migrants’ guaranteed due process rights by making it harder for them to access legal representation or a fair hearing. Trump’s denial of birthright citizenship violates the fundamental right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside . . .”  The American Civil Liberties Union has led a powerful coalition to the courtroom to challenge the constitutionality of Trump’s EO eliminating birthright citizenship. The federal court has temporarily blocked this Trump immigration Executive Order while the lawsuit plays out.  

3.  Trump Executive Orders: Environment 

The third category of Trump Executive Orders attempts to eliminate environmental protections across the board and target clean energy initiatives and bedrock environmental laws in order to usher in an unbridled surge of dirty industry and corporate profits. Some of Trump’s EOs include withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dismantling progress toward achieving a clean energy future, clawing-back appropriated funds intended for renewable energy innovation and community development, and reversing the Biden administration’s withdrawal of public lands from oil and gas drilling.  

In a broader sense, Trump’s Executive Orders are targeting our nation’s bedrock environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Known as the “magna carta” of environmental laws, NEPA is a watershed statute that revolutionized American environmental policy by requiring agencies to conduct environmental reviews of projects, with public input, before taking action. This is our premiere national environmental policy. The ESA is equally important to conservation and environmental protection, as it provides a formal framework to protect both threatened and endangered species as well as their habitats. It has a goal of saving threatened animals from extinction and has a 99 percent success rate in that regard.  

In his first presidency, Trump issued many rollbacks of important environmental protections, seeking to streamline processes for harmful, dirty energy projects at the expense of environmental protections, stakeholder input, and citizen suits. Thankfully, after Friends of the Earth’s joint lawsuit, the succeeding Biden Administration reversed the most problematic changes. Unfortunately, Trump has predictably reignited this nearly decade long tug-of-war, placing our bedrock environmental laws in his crosshairs yet again. We are entering unknown territory where NEPA’s implementing regulations at-large are threatened, placing the onus on individual agencies to issue their own sets of NEPA rules. Regardless of what happens with NEPA, the law itself and its landmark environmental review mandates remain untouched and in full force, and we will keep fighting to safeguard our crucial bedrock laws. 

Meanwhile, our oceans, coastal communities, and imperiled wildlife are directly in Trump’s crosshairs. On day one, Trump issued an order attempting to undo President Biden and Obama’s permanent protections of more than 6 million acres from new offshore drilling. This move is a stark example of unlawful executive overreach and Friends of the Earth is doing its part to help uphold the protections. This is not Trump’s first attempt to undo permanent protections for our public waters: he took similar action in his first term, which a federal court overturned. Friends of the Earth is confident that Trump’s most recent attempt will likewise be fruitless. Simply put, these are the limits of presidential power.    

Closer to home, Trump is going after crucial resources for local communities by refusing to fulfill financial commitments already promised by the federal government, like investments and grants for local environmental justice programs. But Trump has missed the mark by being unlawfully vague about which specific projects are at risk of having their funding frozen or eliminated, which will only make it easier to fight in court. His attempts to claw back guaranteed financing also violate due process by pulling funding from individuals and entities before holding constitutionally-guaranteed hearings.   

Trump can rest assured: Friends of the Earth will see him in court for taking unlawful actions, including streamlining dirty industry deals and eliminating environmental protections. We have an extensive history of filing litigation over environmentally destructive drilling projects and we will continue to challenge his “drill, baby, drill” agenda every chance we get. We will continue staunchly opposing any more rollbacks of our bedrock environmental laws, inside and outside the courtroom. And we will continue saving animals from extinction by supporting and enforcing the ESA — like our lawsuits to protect imperiled polar bears and the critically endangered Rice’s whale from death at the hands of Big Oil. 

As described above, our Constitution dictates strict limits on executive power, sanctified by clear boundaries for each branch of our government – otherwise known as “checks and balances” or “separation of powers.” This is not just an academic concept, but a fundamental safeguard of the very liberty that people have sacrificed their lives to secure. It is this very liberty that our country’s judicial system was created to protect. And it is this very liberty that Trump cannot dismantle through sheer bombardment alone.  

While Trump’s rapid-fire pace of churning out harmful EOs may be daunting, Friends of the Earth believes that our shared fight for environmental and social justice means we stay united and grounded within the rule of law and our Constitution. Trump is going after both the people and the values on which our country was built, and we are doubling down on our steadfast mission, both inside and outside the courtroom.