Here are some of the executive orders Trump didn’t want you to see him signing (Picture: Getty)

Donald Trump has made quite the show of holding photo ops to show the country who is boss.

Fire breaks out on 47th floor of Trump International Hotel and Tower

From steelworkers to congressmen, he’s been pictured with almost everyone when it comes to enforcing certain executive orders.

Yet there’s some executive orders he has signed which didn’t get any press.

And for a man who has a love-hate relationship with the media, that speaks volumes.


Let’s take a look at some of the executive orders he has signed behind closed doors.

Making it easier for mentally ill people to get guns (File Picture: Getty Images)

Making it easier for mentally ill people to get guns

On Tuesday, Trump signed two orders: The ‘Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act’ and the ‘Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers Women Act’.

Both sound great yet neither of these measures reportedly provides any money to help these aims (which is why they were so easily passed by Congress).

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Shortly after, while the press was running coverage of Trump surrounded by dozens of women, and people were distracted by these feel-good resolutions, behind closed doors the president quietly signed a measure that got rid of regulation aimed at tightening gun background checks.



The rule required the Social Security Administration to hand over a list of names of people who receive government checks for being mentally disabled, enacted by the Obama administration.

According to the National Rifle Association, the rule breached the Second Amendment rights of these people and so they persuaded the GOP leadership to use the Congressional Review Act to undo it.

Trump had 10 days to sign it off, and of course chose the right moment to do it – behind closed doors.

Changing the DOJ line of succession

Changing the DOJ line of succession (Picture: Getty Images)

On the same day that Jeff Sessions was sworn in as Attorney General and Sally Yates was fired as acting Attorney General because she wouldn’t support his travel ban, Donald Trump quietly signed an executive order to change the order of succession at the Justice Department.

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It meant Trump would be able to go outside the official order of succession to elevate Dana Boente, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to replace Yates.

Because the Senate hasn’t confirmed a nominee for the position yet, Boente is now serving in that role. Which means she’ll also be handling the FBI’s Russia investigation.

This quiet fact was hidden behind three other (non-controversial) orders, which were signed in front of reporters.

Removing transgender protections

Removing transgender protections (Picture: AP)

The Trump administration revoked a landmark guidance issued to public schools in defence of transgender student rights by reversing a significant initiative introduced by former president Obama.

Essentially, transgender students now no longer have the right to use public school restrooms that match their gender identity.

By reversing such an initiative, the Trump administration is ‘compromising the safety and security of some of our most vulnerable children’, according to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

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He told ABC news: ‘Reversing this guidance tells trans kids that it’s OK with the Trump administration and the Department of Education for them to be abused and harassed at school for being trans.’

Yet despite it being one of the most significant social policy shifts made by the new administration, Trump tried to hide himself away from the new policy by having the White House describe it as a ‘joint decision’ by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education.

Every one knows that nothing comes into force without the president signing it off at the highest level.

But still there was no official statement from the Oval Office, no photo op of him signing the order himself and not even a simple tweet from the Donald about it.

H/T New Zealand Herald