Trump has launched more attacks on the environment in 100 days than his entire first term

Blitzkrieg has hit protections in place for land, oceans, forests and wildlife, and will worsen the climate crisis

Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented assault upon the environment, instigating 145 actions to undo rules protecting clean air, water and a livable climate in this administration’s first 100 days – more rollbacks than were completed in Trump’s entire first term as US president. Trump’s blitzkrieg has hit almost every major policy to shield Americans from toxic pollution, curb the worsening impacts of the climate crisis and protect landscapes, oceans, forests and imperiled wildlife.

In all, the second Trump administration has launched 145 actions – a dizzying rate of more than one a day since the 20 January inauguration – to repeal or weaken environmental rules and escalate the use of planet-heating fossil fuels, a Guardian analysis has found. The total is derived from research by Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School and administration announcements. While many of these initial moves are far from complete and face severe legal challenges, or years of further rule-making, the pace of the rollbacks is already set to outstrip Trump’s entire first presidency, which saw about 110 environmental rules scaled back or revoked.

“What we’ve seen in this first 100 days is unprecedented – the deregulatory ambition of this administration is mind-blowing,” said Michael Burger, an expert in climate law at Columbia University. “They are doing things faster and with less process than last time, often disregarding the law. The intent is to shock, overwhelm and to overcome resistance through sheer force of numbers.” Through executive orders, agency memos and other policy moves, the Trump administration has deleted a swath of Joe Biden-era green policies, frozen climate spending, removed the US from the Paris climate accords and set about rewriting pollution standards for cars, trucks and power plants.

Sprawling tracts of land, including in the Arctic, have been earmarked for new oil and gas drilling, commercial fishing will be ushered into ocean sanctuaries and half of the US’s vast expanse of national forests can now be cut down for timber. Laws to prevent harm to endangered species are set to be drastically pared back, while protected national monuments are on course to be shrunk. Trump’s actions have often explicitly favored a fossil fuel industry that donated heavily to his presidential campaign. A start has been made in winding back rules on emissions of greenhouse gases and toxins such as mercury, as well as pipeline safety regulations.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/01/trump-air-climate-pollution-regulation-100-days