Donald Trump is president, and he wants you to know that on his first day, he got things done. A lot of things. Almost 100 things, or maybe 200 things; whatever number it takes to give the appearance of forward motion. This was a key insight that Joe Biden, now a private citizen, never bothered to learn: In a 24/7, post-by-post information environment, presidents making it clear that they are "doing things" matters a lot more than the substance, at least in short-term public perception.

Let’s speak the truth, a rare commodity over the next four years: The federal government takes action 200 times on a slow day. Like, that’s a day-after-Christmas level of workload. And many of these "actions" are just plans to make plans, or plans to write reports, many of which in Trump’s first term were not completed (I know, I tracked them all). Others are really important, though sometimes not in the way you think. Others are asking for legal challenge so deeply that there’s already litigation in place.

What this moment calls for is clarity: to contextualize and explain, clearly and succinctly, what Trump is doing and who really benefits. So that’s what we’re going to do today. Below, you will find a rolling tally of the most important executive orders and their meaning, compiled by our staff.

The first order signed on Monday was really 80 orders in one. Trump rescinded executive orders, memoranda, and proclamations spanning the length of Biden’s presidency, including one issued just three days earlier. In all, Trump rescinded 42.4 percent of all the EOs Biden signed during his term. And he reserved the right to rescind future orders recommended by his team within the next 45 days.

It’s notable what orders, for now, Trump left alone: one that increased the minimum wage for federal contractors, for example, or the expansive order promoting competition in the U.S. economy, or every single EO Biden made to protect access to reproductive services. Orders on caregiving, HBCUs, murdered Native Americans, and even reducing gun violence were left alone.

But the rescinded order that caught my eye was Executive Order 14006, which eliminated the use of privately operated criminal detention facilities. Keep in mind that Trump billed this effort primarily as rooting out "diversity, equity, and inclusion" from the government. Bringing back privately operated detention doesn’t serve that purpose at all. It simply enriches the private prison duopoly, GEO Group and CoreCivic. Both company’s stocks have soared since the election, and now, both stand to gain billions in federal contracts, mostly to detain undocumented immigrants. It’s a big win for GEO Group’s former lobbyist, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi. –David Dayen

One of the Biden administration’s successful law enforcement operations against the forces of Trumpian lawlessness was the prosecution of the January 6th putschists. The Department of Justice spent tremendous amounts of time and money (so much that it reportedly interfered with the prosecution of Trump himself) successfully prosecuting almost 1,600 people for crimes like criminal trespass, assaulting police officers, insurrection, and seditious conspiracy.

Now Donald Trump is president once again, and among his first actions was a blanket pardon or commutation of everyone charged in this investigation. Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys who was serving 22 years for seditious conspiracy, got a pardon, while Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, got a commutation. Robert Keith Packer, who wore a "Camp Auschwitz" hoodie to the putsch, got a pardon; Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who reportedly wore a Hitler mustache to work for the Navy, got a commutation.

This has two immediate effects. The first is to set loose a large number of dangerous insurrectionists who may well form the core of a Sturmabteilung-style paramilitary force. The second is a signal that federal law enforcement will almost certainly not hold anyone who commits crimes or violence on behalf of Trump accountable so long as he is president. –Ryan Cooper

While many of Trump’s day one executive orders take effect immediately, his order for an "America First Trade Policy," uncharacteristically, kicks the can down the road. Trump has talked about 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, across-the-board tariffs on all imports, and even more severe retaliatory measures targeted against China.

But his executive order does none of these. Rather, it is an extended series of directives to different agencies of government on the feasibility of different trade and tariff measures. It almost looks like the work of a president who is serious about governing.

The directives include reports on the causes of the chronic U.S. trade deficit, the possible creation of an External Revenue Service to administer tariffs, a tally of unfair foreign trade practices, the impact of the USMCA, currency manipulation, likely countries for bilateral or sectoral trade negotiations, the "de minimis" exemption, discriminatory extraterritorial taxes, impact of trade agreements on federal procurement, the results of the China Phase 1 deal from his first term, and a good deal more.

Why this most un-Trumpian approach? First, someone has persuaded him that trade policy really is complicated. Second, his administration is divided between Wall Street internationalists and MAGA yahoos.

It’s too soon to break out the (imported) champagne, but this pause at least slows down Trump’s most reckless impulses. –Robert Kuttner

>>Read more updates at prospect.org