The Senate confirmed Kelly Loeffler as head of the Small Business Administration on February 19th. A day earlier it voted in Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street billionaire who ran Donald Trump’s transition team, as commerce secretary. Kash Patel, the president’s controversial pick to head the FBI, will face his confirmation vote in the coming days. And a first group of senators (on the committee for health, education, labor and pensions) asked questions of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Mr Trump’s nominee for labour secretary, today.
Donald Trump signed an executive order asserting presidential control over independent regulatory agencies. It charges the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, with ensuring that entities such as the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Securities and Exchange Commission, demonstrate “consistency with the president’s policies and priorities”. Mr Trump separately ordered a report on policies that would protect access to in vitro fertilisation and “aggressively” reduce its cost.
On this page we are tracking ten of the pledges Mr Trump has repeated most often. Follow the cards below, which we’ll update as the president makes some, or substantial, progress on each. Watch too how many executive orders he is racking up. And as the confirmation process kicks into high gear, see our who’s who of the Trump cabinet that is taking shape.
In less than a month, Donald Trump has signed more executive orders than Joe Biden issued during his first 100 days. The flurry of edicts, on everything from border security, to energy policy, to starting (and ending) trade wars, has unleashed a chaotic burst of activity as his subordinates try to implement his orders. Opponents have already begun to file lawsuits in the hope of stopping some from going into effect.
Cabinet picks
By February 1st about half of Mr Trump’s cabinet picks had been confirmed by the Senate. Some sailed through. Marco Rubio was confirmed as secretary of state with unanimous support. Others, such as Pete Hegseth, had a tougher time. He got 50 votes for and 50 against, forcing J.D. Vance, the vice-president, to break the tie. Mr Trump has grumbled about how slowly the process is going. In fact, the pace—six confirmations by February 1st—has been twice as fast as it was for Joe Biden in 2020; and faster than Mr Trump’s first term, when he had secured four nominations by the same date.