On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump began his term with presidential actions including 26 executive orders, with more expected to follow. Just Security is covering key developments, including in concise “What Just Happened” expert explainers, legal and policy analysis, and more.
Originally published Jan. 21, 2025, and frequently updated.
Resources
Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
“What Just Happened” Series
Nicholas Bednar, What Just Happened: Musk-OPM Send Email to Federal Employees Asking for Five Accomplishments (Feb. 22, 2025)
Roderick M. Hills, What Just Happened: Purges at the DOJ and FBI – How Do and Don’t the Civil Service Laws Apply (Feb. 14, 2025)
Alex Finley, What Just Happened: Security Implications of Trump’s Efforts to Trim the CIA Workforce (Feb. 7, 2025)
Jonathan Hafetz and Rebecca Ingber, What Just Happened: At Guantanamo’s Migrant Operation Center (Feb. 6, 2025)
Kathleen Claussen, What Just Happened: New Tariffs on Products from Mexico, Canada, and China (Feb. 5, 2025)
Tess Bridgeman, What May Be About to Happen: Can the President Dissolve USAID by Executive Order? (Feb. 1, 2025)
Brad Brooks-Rubin, What Just Happened: Trump’s Termination of West Bank Settler Sanctions (Jan. 30, 2025)
William Banks, What Just Happened: The Framing of a Migration “Invasion” and the Use of Military Authorities (Jan. 29, 2025)
Ilya Somin, What Just Happened: The “Invasion” Executive Order and Its Dangerous Implications (Jan. 28, 2025)
Tom Ellison, What Just Happened: Trump’s Executive Actions on Environment and Implications for US Climate Security (Jan. 24, 2025)
Ahilan Arulanantham, What Just Happened: Sanctuary Policies and the DOJ Memo’s Empty Threat of Criminal Liability (Jan. 23, 2025)
Andrew Weissmann, What Just Happened: What Trump’s Hobbling Privacy Oversight Board Portends for Exercise of Surveillance Powers (Jan. 22, 2025)
Justin Hendrix, What Just Happened: Trump’s Announcement of the Stargate AI Infrastructure Project (Jan. 22, 2025)
Tom Joscelyn, What Just Happened: Trump’s January 6 Pardons and Assaults on Law Enforcement Officers By The Numbers (Jan. 22, 2025)
Mark Nevitt, What Just Happened: Unpacking Exec Order on National Emergency at the Southern Border (Jan. 21, 2025)
Tess Bridgeman and Rebecca Hamilton, What Just Happened: With ICC Sanctions (Jan. 21, 2025)
Sue Biniaz, What Just Happened: Withdrawing from Paris and other International Environmental Agreement Actions (Jan. 21, 2025)
Analysis and Perspectives
Daniel Jacobson, The Trump Administration Cannot Use Award Terms and Conditions to Impound Funds (Feb. 24, 2025)
Mark Nevitt, How the Pentagon Personnel Firings Threaten Our Apolitical Military (Feb. 24, 2025)
Brian Finucane, U.S. Military Action in Mexico: Almost Certainly Illegal, Definitely Counterproductive (Feb. 20, 2025)
Tobias Barrington Wolff, The Attempt to Purge Trans Members from the Armed Services (Feb. 19, 2025)
Elizabeth Goitein and Katherine Yon Ebright, Trump’s Doubly Flawed “Invasion” Theory (Feb. 19, 2025)
Seth Binder, Sheridan Cole, and Haydn Welch, The Disastrous Costs of the Foreign Foreign Aid Freeze on US Interests in the Middle East and North Africa (Feb. 14, 2025)
Laura Booth, Can the President Dismantle the Department of Education by Executive Order? (Feb. 14, 2025)
Scott Busby, Freezing Support to Democracy and Human Rights Activists Undermines US Interests (Feb. 13, 2025)
Laura Thornton, Supporting Freedom and a Foreign Aid Freeze are Incompatible – But Perhaps the Point? A Case Study (Feb. 13, 2025)
Donell Harvin, The Need for Course Correction: The Risks of Treating Drug Cartels as Terrorist Threats (Feb. 12, 2025)
Winona Xu, As Sexual Violence Surges in Goma, US Aid Remains Crucial (Feb. 12, 2025)
16 US Human Rights Experts, Current and Former Members of UN Bodies, “The Trump Administration’s Attacks on International Law and Institutions”: Public Statement of American Human Rights Experts, Current and Former Members of UN Bodies (Feb. 10, 2025)
Simon Lomax, Greg Clough, Morgan Bazilian, Restarting US LNG Permitting Brings Geopolitical Benefits and the Potential for Climate Progress (Feb. 10, 2025)
Rebecca Hamilton, Connecting the Dots: Trump’s Tightening Grip on Press Freedom (Feb. 6, 2025)
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, The Dangerous Sweep of Trump’s Plan to Designate Cartels as Terrorist Organizations (Feb. 5, 2025)
Marty Lederman, The Most Indefensible Aspects of DOJ’s Briefs in the Birthright Citizenship Cases (Feb. 4, 2025)
Suzanne Summerlin, Federal Employee Rights: What Probationary Employees Need to Know (Jan. 31, 2025)
Faiza Patel, Trump’s Executive Order on Foreign Terrorists: Implications for the Rights of Non-Citizens (Jan. 31, 2025)
Sara Zdeb, The Real Reason Trump’s Purge of Career DOJ Officials Should Alarm You (Jan. 30, 2025)
Suzanne Summerlin, Beware the “Deferred Resignation” Offer: A Legally Dubious Proposal for Federal Employees (Jan. 29, 2025)
Stuart Gerson, Understanding Trump’s Choice for FBI Leadership in Light of the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” Executive Order (Jan. 29, 2025)
Adam Cox and Trevor Morrison, Trump’s Dictatorial Theory of Presidential Power – What the Executive Orders, in the Aggregate, Tell Us (Jan. 28, 2025)
Ambassador Donald Steinberg, `Elections Have Consequences’: Trump and Rubio’s Foreign Aid Halt Will Hit the World’s Most Vulnerable (Jan. 28, 2025)
Dafna H. Rand, Stopped Security Assistance: From Counter-Narcotics to Combating Human Trafficking Programs (Jan. 28, 2025)
Andrew Weissman, Why has the Trump Justice Department Not Moved to Dismiss the Case Against Trump’s Co-Defendants in the FLA Classified Documents Case? (Jan. 28, 2025)
Michael Schiffer, Stop-Work Order on US Foreign Aid Puts China First and America Last (Jan. 27, 2025)
Ambassador (Ret.) Dennis Jett, Deprofessionalizing the State Department Is a Threat to National Security (Jan. 24, 2025)
Jean Galbraith, The Legal Problem with Trump’s WHO Order: The US Cannot Withdraw Until It Pays Its Dues (Jan. 23, 2025)
Alex Abdo, A Free Speech View on the “Free Speech” Executive Order (Jan. 21, 2025)
Xiangnong (George) Wang, President Trump’s Attempt to “Save” TikTok is a Power-Grab that Subverts Free Speech (Jan. 21, 2025)
“What Just Happened” Podcast Series
David Aaron, Tess Bridgeman and Suzanne Summerlin, Understanding Federal Employee Rights (Feb. 18, 2025)
David Aaron, Tess Bridgeman, Ryan Goodman, and Mark Nevitt, Potential U.S. Military Domestic Deployment for Immigration Enforcement (Jan. 28, 2025)
Steve Vladeck, David Aaron, Tess Bridgeman, and Ryan Goodman, Trump’s Immigration Executive Orders (Jan. 22, 2025)