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Trump Poised to Take Executive Actions on First Day in Office

by Reuters

   Donald Trump is preparing to take executive actions on his first day in
   the White House on Friday to roll back policies of outgoing President
   Barack Obama and implement parts of his plans to crack down on
   immigration and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

   Trump, a Republican who was elected on Nov. 8 and will be sworn in
   during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, is poised to wield one
   of the most powerful tools of his office, the presidential pen, for
   executive actions that can be implemented without the input of
   Congress.

   "He is committed to not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 of enacting an
   agenda of real change, and I think that you're going to see that in the
   days and weeks to come," Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday,
   telling reporters to expect activity Friday, during the weekend and
   early next week.

   The top items on the agenda for Trump, who has presided over a
   sprawling business empire but has never before held public office,
   mirror the populist pledges that fueled his election victory:
   immigration curbs and job creation, particularly in the manufacturing
   sector, Spicer said.

   FILE - Incoming White House press secretary, at the time RNC
   communications director and chief strategist, Sean Spicer arrives at
   Trump Tower in New York, Nov. 14, 2016..

   "It's just frankly a question of sequencing," he said, declining to
   give details about the president-elect's upcoming executive actions.

   Trump's advisers vetted more than 200 potential executive orders for
   him to consider signing on health care, climate policy, immigration,
   energy and numerous other matters, but it was not clear how many orders
   he will approve, according to a member of the Trump transition team who
   was not authorized to talk to the press.

   Trump also is expected to impose a federal hiring freeze and reverse
   some environmental protections.

   Obama, a Democrat ending eight years as president, made frequent use of
   his executive powers during his second term in office, when the
   Republican-controlled Congress stymied his efforts to overhaul
   immigration and environmental laws. Many of those actions are now ripe
   targets for Trump to reverse.

   Border wall

   Trump is expected to sign an executive order in his first few days to
   direct the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico, one
   of several immigration-related steps his advisers have recommended.

   That includes rescinding Obama's order that allowed more than 700,000
   people brought into the United States illegally as children to stay in
   the country on a two-year authorization to work and attend college,
   according to several people close to the presidential transition team.

   It is unlikely Trump's order will result in an immediate round-up of
   these immigrants, sources told Reuters. Rather, he is expected to let
   the authorizations expire.

   The issue could set up a flash-point with Obama, who told reporters
   Wednesday that he would weigh in if he felt the new administration was
   unfairly targeting these immigrants.

   FILE - President Barack Obama smiles after signing an executive order
   in Washington, Oct. 17, 2014.

   Trump also is expected to announce more specific plans to build the
   wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and actions to limit the entry of
   asylum-seekers from Latin America.

   'Extreme vetting'

   Advisers to Trump expect him to put restrictions on people entering the
   United States from certain countries until a system for "extreme
   vetting" for Islamic extremists can be set up.

   During his campaign for the presidency, Trump had proposed banning
   non-American Muslims from entering the United States but his executive
   order regarding immigration is expected to be based on nationality
   rather than religion.

   Another proposed executive order would require all Cabinet departments
   to disclose current work being done in connection with Obama's
   initiatives to curb carbon emissions to combat climate change and halt
   the work until further directed.

   Trump is expected to extend prohibitions on future lobbying imposed on
   members of his transition team in his first days in office.