Kara Jen
Originally Printed in the March 2025 Issue of The Jaguar Journal
Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, he has signed a total of 73 executive orders. This is the most that’s been signed in a president’s first one hundred days, according to an NBC News data analysis. Trump was planning to sign one hundred executive orders on day one of being in office, according to Jeff Mordock from the Washington Times, and now he’s close to that number.
Trump has signed executive orders that will affect the healthcare of Americans. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization and improved price transparency on healthcare. President Trump first tried to issue the order to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization during his first term, but former President Biden rescinded this order. The World Health Organization (WHO) responds to emergencies, looks at and gathers data to solve and find health problems globally, provides vaccines, etc. The U.S. pulling out from the WHO means that a large part of the funding for the WHO will be gone, and people will lose jobs. A professor from Johns Hopkins University, Judd Walson, said that this order will impact the whole world globally, people will receive poor healthcare, and the prices to get healthcare will also rise for Americans because the WHO will need more money.
Improving price transparency in hospitals makes healthcare insurers show all details on prices, and exact costs, not estimates. According to the White House webpage, this order will lower costs for citizens because patients will be able to see their expenses and get deals on their healthcare.
Some of the orders signed that will cause the prices of groceries, and other items to rise are boosting energy production, putting tariffs on all steel and aluminum, and implementing tariffs on major countries the U.S. gets their imports from like China, Mexico, and Canada.
On February 26th, Trump signed an executive order that gives more power to DOGE, The agency headed by billionaire Elon Musk. With this order, DOGE holds more power in the federal government. DOGE will monitor the federal spending on contracts. This order was also signed to lower the number of federal employees. Trump ordered the heads of federal departments to lay off thousands of federal employees. The employees that were laid off helped take care of national parks serve veterans, and process tax returns. Getting rid of that many employees will harm the former employees’ families and destabilize the economy in communities.
There are still many other executive orders that will impact people globally. Taking the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement will make global warming rise, and reverse 78 executive orders signed by Biden, some including racial equity and healthcare coverage, all according to KFF, a health policy organization in the U.S.