On Day One of His Presidency, Trump Ignored Yet Another Ethics Norm

Issues
Image
Trump sitting behind a desk with a pen in his hand with a man standing next to him
U.S. President Donald Trump signs numerous executive orders on the first day of his presidency in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2025. Photo by Jim LoScalzo/Pool via CNP/MediaPunch/Alamy Live News

Despite signing more than two dozen executive orders on his first day in office, President Donald Trump has yet to release ethics rules for his administration.

At the very beginning of presidential administrations, presidents are expected to issue an executive order outlining ethics constraints for all political appointees in that administration.

By failing to do so, Trump has opened the door to further conflicts of interest that disregard the ethics standards that have been a mainstay of the executive branch for the last 50 years.

President John F. Kennedy was the first to impose ethical guidelines on his administration via executive order. Since then, almost every president has issued an ethics pledge or provided ethics guidance to their administration, often on their first day in office.

Political appointees that are joining the new administration then sign the ethics pledge, agreeing to uphold ethical standards and comply with restrictions that ensure conflicts of interest do not influence their work in the White House and government agencies.

Rather than following suit on his Inauguration Day, President Trump instead rescinded former President Biden’s ethics requirements for political appointees and failed to institute a new pledge.

This is not the first instance of Trump disregarding expectations on how the executive branch approaches ethics standards.  

During the transition, Trump refused to sign an ethics pledge that would have required him to avoid conflicts of interest and took months longer than mandated by the Presidential Transition Act to create an ethics agreement that would govern the transition team.

Missing this first ethical requirement on the path to the Oval Office appears to have been a preview of a larger pattern of Trump ignoring ethical requirements in his second term.

In his first administration, Trump refused to divest from his business interests despite thousands of conflicts of interests and refused to hold his senior officials accountable for ethics violations.  

He even rescinded his first-term ethics pledge, effectively voiding the ethical requirements that would’ve deterred former administration staff from taking full advantage of the revolving door between influential government positions and the private sector.  

A presidential administration operating without an ethics pledge makes it more susceptible to outside interests and influence.

As the billionaires sitting in front-row seats at his inauguration candidly demonstrate, Trump has fully embraced the appearance that wealthy special interests will have political influence in his next administration.

The public has made clear that it is concerned about the impact of big corporate interests and foreign actors on the US government, and the lack of an ethics pledge sends the message that Trump’s second administration is even more susceptible to outside interests than his first administration was.  

President Trump could — and should — still issue an ethics pledge executive order to make it clear his administration is serving the American people without the sway of outside influence.

Earning public trust at the beginning of his second term is paramount to maintaining it throughout the next four years.

Executive branch officials hold many of the highest positions in government, and they make decisions that affect the daily lives of members of the public as they implement and enforce the laws Congress passes and the president signs.

We need strong ethics laws and transparency requirements that ensure our public officials remain beholden to the public good, not personal gain.  

To truly ensure that executive branch ethics are not subject to the whim of each new administration, Congress should pass an ethics pledge into law and codify strong ethics standards for the executive branch that keep our government working by the people, for the people.

Kristen Roehrig is a Legal Fellow at CLC.