President Trump was sworn in on Monday and quickly turned to churning out promised Executive Orders (EO). While the details, legal and constitutional ramifications will be debated, these declarations of executive direction require no action on the part of Congress and carry the force of law. Let’s get into a few that are likely to have a strong impact on taxpayers.

In one EO, Trump revives his Schedule F plan from the end of his last administration with a new term for the career civil servants he wants to make more political: Schedule Policy/Career. Essentially, this is an effort to reach further into agencies to change positions with civil service protections into ones that can be more easily dismissed. Creation of a professional civil service was a major reform to the patronage system that existed until the late 19^th century. It helps ensure that workers know how to do their job and serve taxpayers. Creating a huge new swath of federal workers that come and go at the whim of a President would be wasteful and harmful to government operation.

In another EO, Trump brings his Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to life. He doesn’t create an actual department with Musk as the head but rather hijacks an existing agency in the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Digital Service. USDS conveniently has a “D” in its acronym which with a swipe of the pen no longer stands for “Digital” but “DOGE.” This new service will be headed by an Administrator reporting to the President’s Chief of Staff. Within 30 days, each agency is supposed to have at least four personnel (lead, engineer, human resources specialist, and attorney). These could be Special Government Employees hired for the purpose (SGEs can be paid or unpaid and can only work 180 days within a calendar year), new hires, or existing agency staff. The USDS is tasked with modernizing technology and promoting the inter-operability of agency networks and systems.

This tech heavy DOGE appears to be the Musk vision, which is different than his recently departed co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy, who cheered eliminating federal employees and getting rid of regulations. That of course could still happen (see Schedule F above). And giving a major government contractor (Musk owns SpaceX and Starlink) access to a lot of federal data on the backend could lead to self-dealing. But on the other hand, having improved federal systems that can talk to one another could lead to a dramatic reduction in improper payments for instance. DOGE sunsets on July 4, 2026, and the EO explicitly states that the service does not affect the budgetary and administrative powers of the Office of Management and Budget and legal authorities of agency and department heads.

The President also signed several energy-related EOs that could have profound impacts on federals lands and the vast taxpayer-owned natural resources they contain. The President declared a national energy emergency and directed all federal agencies to use all lawful emergency authorities to “unleash” energy production, despite oil production reaching a record high in 2023 and gas prices falling to the lowest per-gallon average since 2021. One EO, titled “Unleashing American Energy,” revokes all climate-related EOs signed by Biden, instructs federal agencies to revise and repeal any rule deemed burdensome to energy production, expedites federal permitting process, and halts all disbursement of funds under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Another EO, focused on Alaska, promotes Arctic oil and gas drilling and repeals the Roadless Rule protections in Tongass National Forest, exempting nearly 17 million acres in Tongass from restrictions on logging. Leasing in the Arctic Refuge and logging in Tongass have never made fiscal sense—creating administrative costs while generating little to no revenue and saddling American taxpayers with significant future liabilities.

The President’s border-related EOs inject the Pentagon into border security roles that other agencies are better suited for and will come at a cost to taxpayers. Already the Pentagon has sent some 1,500 troops to the border, including 500 Marines who were on standby to help fight wildfires raging in California. Their effectiveness in border operations will be hampered by existing laws (Posse Comitatus Act) that forbid the military from conducting law enforcement. But after the Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Fagan was fired, the Acting Commandant Admiral Lunday announced that the Coast Guard is surging units to protect the U.S. maritime borders (the Coast Guard does have law enforcement powers). An EO declaring drug cartels to be terrorist organizations could also be prelude to military action against the cartels, which would be an expensive endeavor.

It will take time to see how these EOs and other policies play out. But with a more than $36 trillion national debt the U.S. cannot afford to cut taxpayer protections, replace responsible civil servants with political hacks, or distract our military with new missions.