Trump signs raft of executive orders affecting US construction

President Donald Trump takes oath on the day of his Presidential Inauguration in Washington. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Even before an inaugural luncheon on Monday afternoon, Trump started signing a flurry of around 100 orders designed to enact a sweeping conservative agenda on the country, including measures to row back on the US’s climate goals, cracking down on immigration and resuming construction of the Mexican border wall, first started during his first period in office.

“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,” Trump said in a 30 minute speech delivered in the Capitol Rotunda. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.”

Trump said he had withdrawn the US from the landmark Paris climate agreement, signed orders to boost oil and gas drilling, and revoked a Biden-era order that had set a target that 50% of all new vehicles sold in the country by 2030 should be electric vehicles (EVs).

“With my actions today, we will end the New Green Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers,” Trump added.

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Trump declared a national emergency at the US southern border, allowing him to use federal funding to resume construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border without congressional approval.

The new president also signed an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship – a right enshrined in the US Constitution. However, he stopped short of announcing broad deportation schemes targetting individuals residing in the US unlawfully or without documentation on which he had campaigned. Such schemes would likely have a major impact on the US construction industry which, according to US Census Bureau data, relies on immigrants to fill around 31% of all construction trades positions.

Although Trump signed an executive order directing various US government agencies to study a variety of trade issues, the president did not impost any new tariffs on foreign goods immediately on day one as he had previously threatened.

Speaking to reporters from the Oval Office after the ceremony on Monday Trump said he was thinking of imposing steep tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada from February 1st, 2025. The president added that he “may” impose a universal tariff on all imports.