Which significant executive orders and regulatory rollbacks did Trump implement?
Executive summary
President Trump’s second-term use of executive orders and regulatory rollbacks has been extensive and focused on deregulation in areas including environmental protection, administrative procedure, trade and technology; trackers show hundreds of executive actions in 2025 and multiple large deregulatory initiatives such as orders forcing agencies to identify rules to repeal and specific rollbacks of EPA and Endangered Species Act regulations [1] [2] [3]. Coverage documents both White House fact sheets describing orders (trade, AI, terrorism designations) and independent trackers that catalog widespread rollbacks and legal challenges [4] [5] [6].
1. A torrent of executive orders — scale, topics, and official counting
Trump’s second term generated a very high volume of presidential actions: Ballotpedia counted 215 executive orders, 54 memoranda and 109 proclamations as of November 23, 2025, and law firms and policy trackers maintain continuously updated charts of hundreds of orders spanning immigration, trade, energy, AI and the federal workforce [1] [7] [8]. The Federal Register and White House presidential-actions pages publish the orders themselves and accompanying fact sheets showing the administration’s priorities, from tariff modifications to designating foreign groups and building an AI research platform [9] [10] [4] [5].
2. Deregulation by design: “Unleashing Prosperity” and 2‑for‑1-style rules
Early, signature executive actions explicitly compelled agencies to repeal regulations: reporting noted an EO titled “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation” requiring agencies to identify at least ten existing regulations to repeal whenever they issue a new one, and commentators flagged a 2-for-1 style requirement and a Unified Regulatory Agenda to rescind or modify items agencies identify as inconsistent with administration policy [2] [11]. Skadden and Brookings analyses explain these orders were designed to systematically reduce regulatory burdens, and OIRA was tasked with coordinating those agendas [11] [6].
3. Environmental rollbacks: EPA and Endangered Species Act moves
Multiple outlets reported coordinated, large-scale rollbacks at the EPA and Interior. Reuters and PBS described a package that repealed Biden-era emissions limits for power plants and automobiles and reduced water protections; PBS called EPA’s proposed deregulatory package “the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history” [3] [12]. Separately, the Interior Department proposed reviving changes to Endangered Species Act regulations from Trump’s first term and later proposals sought to overhaul ESA implementing rules — moves that conservation groups and news outlets warned could accelerate extinctions [13] [14] [15].
4. Administrative procedure and legal posture: repeal without notice, and court fights ahead
Legal observers flagged EOs that instruct agencies to rescind rules that allegedly conflict with recent Supreme Court decisions and, in some formulations, to do so without following the Administrative Procedure Act’s normal notice-and-comment process — a change Harvard’s Petrie-Flom Center said raises immediate questions about legality and implementation [16]. Brookings and others created “Reg Trackers” because the scale of rollbacks would predictably spawn litigation and piecemeal outcomes in courts [6] [16].
5. Economics and industry reactions: business praise vs. small‑entity claims
Industry groups — including manufacturing and energy trade associations — praised deregulatory steps as removing burdens and enabling growth; the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy testified that measures and Congressional Review Act actions yielded large quantified savings for businesses [17] [18]. Opponents, including environmental and public-interest organizations, emphasized long-term costs for health and ecosystems and vowed legal challenges [3] [14].
6. Sector‑specific actions: trade, AI, and national security picks
Beyond environmental and procedural rollbacks, the administration used orders to modify reciprocal tariffs on agricultural products and to direct the creation of a government-AI research platform (Executive Orders amending tariff annexes; the “Genesis Mission” AI order), and to initiate designation reviews of foreign organizations — demonstrating the breadth of EO use from trade and technology to national security [19] [5] [4].
7. Limits of the available reporting and divergent framings
Available sources document many orders and proposals but vary on emphasis: government fact sheets and White House pages present these as policy wins and security measures [19] [4], law-firm trackers catalogue legal and compliance implications [7] [8], and academic and nonprofit trackers emphasize legal vulnerability and environmental cost [6] [16] [14]. Sources do not uniformly list every specific order revoked or every rule repealed, so a comprehensive, line-by-line accounting is maintained by specialized trackers rather than any single article [6] [7].
8. Bottom line — what to watch next
Expect continued rule-by-rule litigation and administrative rulemaking to play out: Brookings’ regulatory tracker and legal analyses anticipate staggered, contested outcomes as agencies pursue rescissions, defendants sue, and courts parse the administration’s procedural shortcuts [6] [16]. Stakeholders should monitor the Federal Register, OIRA agendas and tracker databases for the evolving status of particular rules and for judicial rulings that will shape which rollbacks actually take effect [9] [6].