Big Time Fresh

The list of executive orders in July 2025 was extensive and had numerous implications for our wallets, public safety, small businesses, and even college sports.

A few reminders for this article: Always read the executive order text. The call-outs presented right below the image are subject to the preferences. Check the full executive order to put everything in full context, and although I have used reputable sources, please cross-check with any research that you do to either prove or disprove what you find.

July 3, 2025

MAKING AMERICA BEAUTIFUL AGAIN BY IMPROVING OUR NATIONAL PARKS

Section 1.  Policy.  From the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon to the tranquility of the Great Smoky Mountains, America’s national parks have provided generations of American families with unforgettable memories.  It is the policy of my Administration to preserve these opportunities for American families in future generations by increasing entry fees for foreign tourists, improving affordability for United States residents, and expanding opportunities to enjoy America’s splendid national treasures.

ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S MAKE AMERICA BEAUTIFUL AGAIN COMMISSION

 Section 1.  Purpose.  The United States is blessed with vast beautiful landscapes, abundant natural resources, and a rich heritage of discovery by travelers and outdoorsmen.  America’s national parks, forests, waterways, and public lands have inspired generations and kindled our Nation’s spirit of exploration.  To ensure that the next generation of Americans inherits this same sense of duty and adventure, my Administration will prioritize conserving our great American national parks and outdoor recreation areas.

July 7, 2025

ENDING MARKET DISTORTING SUBSIDIES FOR UNRELIABLE, FOREIGN CONTROLLED ENERGY SOURCES

Sec. 3.  Tax Credits and One Big Beautiful Bill Act Implementation by the Department of the Treasury.  (a)  Within 45 days following enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall take all action as the Secretary of the Treasury deems necessary and appropriate to strictly enforce the termination of the clean electricity production and investment tax credits under sections 45Y and 48E of the Internal Revenue Code for wind and solar facilities.  This includes issuing new and revised guidance as the Secretary of the Treasury deems appropriate and consistent with applicable law to ensure that policies concerning the “beginning of construction” are not circumvented, including by preventing the artificial acceleration or manipulation of eligibility and by restricting the use of broad safe harbors unless a substantial portion of a subject facility has been built.

EXTENDING THE MODIFICATION OF THE RECIPROCAL TARIFF RATES

Sec. 2.  Tariff Modifications.  The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) shall be modified, effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on July 9, 2025, by suspending headings 9903.01.43 through 9903.01.62 and 9903.01.64 through 9903.01.76, and subdivisions (v)(xiii)(1)-(9) and (11)-(57) of U.S. note 2 to subchapter III of chapter 99 of the HTSUS, until 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on August 1, 2025.

July 17, 2025

CREATING SCHEDULE G IN THE EXCEPTED SERVICE

“Except as required by statute, the Civil Service Rules and Regulations shall not apply to removals from positions listed in Schedules A, C, D, E, Policy/Career, or G, or from positions excepted from the competitive service by statute.  The Civil Service Rules and Regulations shall apply to removals from positions listed in Schedule B of persons who have competitive status.”

July 23, 2025

PREVENTING WOKE AI IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

“In the AI context, DEI includes the suppression or distortion of factual information about race or sex; manipulation of racial or sexual representation in model outputs; incorporation of concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism; and discrimination on the basis of race or sex.  DEI displaces the commitment to truth in favor of preferred outcomes and, as recent history illustrates, poses an existential threat to reliable AI.”

“While the Federal Government should be hesitant to regulate the functionality of AI models in the private marketplace, in the context of Federal procurement, it has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.”

ACCELERATING FEDERAL PERMITTING OF DATA CENTER INFRASTRUCTURE

Section  1.  Policy and Purpose.  My Administration has inaugurated a golden age for American manufacturing and technological dominance.  We will pursue bold, large-scale industrial plans to vault the United States further into the lead on critical manufacturing processes and technologies that are essential to national security, economic prosperity, and scientific leadership.  These plans include artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and infrastructure that powers them, including high‑voltage transmission lines and other equipment.  It will be a priority of my Administration to facilitate the rapid and efficient buildout of this infrastructure by easing Federal regulatory burdens. 

PROMOTING THE EXPORT OF THE AMERICAN AI TECHNOLOGY STACK

 Policy.  It is the policy of the United States to preserve and extend American leadership in AI and decrease international dependence on AI technologies developed by our adversaries by supporting the global deployment of United States-origin AI technologies.

The United States must not only lead in developing general-purpose and frontier AI capabilities, but also ensure that American AI technologies, standards, and governance models are adopted worldwide to strengthen relationships with our allies and secure our continued technological dominance.  This order establishes a coordinated national effort to support the American AI industry by promoting the export of full-stack American AI technology packages.

July 24, 2025

ENDING CRIME AND DISORDER ON AMERICA’S STREETS

This particular order has many different elements, so the excerpt is longer. To read the entire order, click on the image.

Sec. 2.  Restoring Civil Commitment

(a)  The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall take appropriate action to:

(i)   seek, in appropriate cases, the reversal of Federal or State judicial precedents and the termination of consent decrees that impede the United States’ policy of encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time; and

(ii)  provide assistance to State and local governments, through technical guidance, grants, or other legally available means, for the identification, adoption, and implementation of maximally flexible civil commitment, institutional treatment, and “step-down” treatment standards that allow for the appropriate commitment and treatment of individuals with mental illness who pose a danger to others or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.

Sec. 3.  Fighting Vagrancy on America’s Streets.  (a)  The Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Secretary of Transportation shall take immediate steps to assess their discretionary grant programs and determine whether priority for those grants may be given to grantees in States and municipalities that actively meet the below criteria, to the maximum extent permitted by law:

(i)    enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use;

(ii)   enforce prohibitions on urban camping and loitering;

(iii)  enforce prohibitions on urban squatting;

(iv)   enforce, and where necessary, adopt, standards that address individuals who are a danger to themselves or others and suffer from serious mental illness or substance use disorder, or who are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves, through assisted outpatient treatment or by moving them into treatment centers or other appropriate facilities via civil commitment or other available means, to the maximum extent permitted by law; or

(v)    substantially implement and comply with, to the extent required, the registration and notification obligations of the Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act, particularly in the case of registered sex offenders with no fixed address, including by adequately mapping and checking the location of homeless sex offenders.

(b)  The Attorney General shall:

(i)    ensure that homeless individuals arrested for Federal crimes are evaluated, consistent with 18 U.S.C. 4248, to determine whether they are sexually dangerous persons and certified accordingly for civil commitment;

(ii)   take all necessary steps to ensure the availability of funds under the Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance program to support, as consistent with 34 U.S.C. 50101 et seq., encampment removal efforts in areas for which public safety is at risk and State and local resources are inadequate;

(iii)  assess Federal resources to determine whether they may be directed toward ensuring, to the extent permitted by law, that detainees with serious mental illness are not released into the public because of a lack of forensic bed capacity at appropriate local, State, and Federal jails or hospitals; and

(iv)   enhance requirements that prisons and residential reentry centers that are under the authority of the Attorney General or receive funding from the Attorney General require in-custody housing release plans and, to the maximum extent practicable, require individuals to comply.

SAVING COLLEGE SPORTS

Click the image or the link above the image to see the entire bill. Here are some takeaways.

“It is common sense that college sports are not, and should not be, professional sports, and my Administration will take action accordingly.”

“To illustrate, following a 2021 antitrust ruling from the United States Supreme Court striking down NCAA restrictions, the NCAA changed its rules to permit players to receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) from third parties” 

…

As a result, players at some universities will receive more than $50 million per year, mostly for the revenue-generating sports like football.  Entering the 2024 season, players on the eventual college football national champion team were being paid around $20 million annually.  By the 2025 season, football players at one university will reportedly be paid $35-40 million, with revenue-sharing included. 

While major college football games can draw tens of millions of television viewers and attendees, they feature only a very small sample of the many athletes who benefit from the transformational opportunities that college athletics provide.  Sixty-five percent of the 2024 United States Olympic Team members were current or former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletes, and approximately seventy-five percent were collegiate athletes.  The 2024 United States Olympic Team earned 126 total medals, leading the overall medal count for the eighth consecutive Summer Olympic Games. 

A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics, drive American superiority at the Olympics and other international competitions, and catalyze hundreds of thousands of student-athletes to fuel American success in myriad ways.

My Administration will therefore provide the stability, fairness, and balance necessary to protect student-athletes, collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities, and the special American institution of college sports. 

July 30, 2025

ADDRESSING THREATS TO THE UNITED STATES BY THE GOVERNMENT OF BRAZIL

“Recently, members of the Government of Brazil have taken unprecedented actions that harm and are a threat to the economy of the United States, conflict with and threaten the policy of the United States to promote free speech and free and fair elections at home and abroad, and violate fundamental human rights.  To deal with the national emergency declared in this order, I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to impose an additional ad valorem duty rate of 40 percent on certain products of Brazil.“

SUSPENDING DUTY-FREE DE MINIMIS TREATMENT FOR ALL COUNTRIES

A summary provided by Torres Trade Law – International Trade & National Security Law Firm

“Details of Duty Free De Minimis Executive Order

“Pursuant to the July 30 Executive Order, most imports falling under the $800 de minimis threshold established by 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C) will now be subject to regular duties, taxes, and fees regardless of shipment value, country of origin, mode of transport, or method of entry. These low-value imports must now be entered, and entries must be filed through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). 

International postal shipments are currently exempt from the suspension of de minimis duty-free treatment. However, these items will be subject to specific duties, either as 1) an ad valorem tariff (based on the effective IEEPA tariff rate by country) or 2) as fixed per-item amounts ($80, $160, or $200 depending on country tariff rates). Beginning March 1, 2026, only option 1, the ad valorem tariff, will apply to international postal shipments under the de minimis threshold. The temporary carve-out for international postal shipments will remain in place only “until notification by the Secretary [of Commerce] to the President that adequate systems are in place to fully and expeditiously process and collect duties applicable for postal shipments otherwise eligible for duty-free de minimis treatment.”

The Executive Order also specifically authorizes U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to  require a basic importation and entry bond for informal entries valued at or less than $2,500.”

July 31, 2025

As of July 31, it has been declared that: “The Government of Canada failed to take adequate steps to alleviate the illegal migration and illicit drug crises through cooperative enforcement actions.”

Therefore: “I have determined that, for the products of Canada that are subject to the additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25 percent, the additional ad valorem rate of duty shall increase from 25 percent to 35 percent.  In my judgment, this action is necessary and appropriate to deal with the emergency declared in Executive Order 14193.

What happened: Canada’s tariffs are going to be raised from 25% to 35%.

“Background.  In Executive Order 14193 of February 1, 2025 (Imposing Duties To Address the Flow of Illicit Drugs Across Our Northern Border), I declared a national emergency arising from certain conditions, including the public health crisis caused by fentanyl and other illicit drugs, and the failure of Canada to do more to arrest, seize, detain, or otherwise intercept drug trafficking organizations, other drug or human traffickers, criminals at large, and illicit drugs.  In that order, I found that those conditions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

FURTHER MODIFYING THE RECIPROCAL TARIFF RATES

What happened: Tariffs are back for a whole bunch of countries. They are listed within the order. Click here to see the details.

PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL ON SPORTS, FITNESS, AND NUTRITION, AND THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL FITNESS TEST

“I hereby reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test, which shall be administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the support of the Secretary of Education”

There are so many elements to this, so the text below comes directly from the actual Executive Orders.

With this order, I revitalize the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition as a cornerstone of our national health renewal.  In 2026, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our great Nation, honor the 70th anniversary of the original President’s Council on Youth Fitness, and showcase America’s continued global dominance in sports.  Over the next 3 years, America will host the Ryder Cup, the President’s Cup, the FIFA World Cup, and the Olympic Games — the world’s premiere sporting competitions.  These events will provide inspiration for all generations of Americans.

“The council will:

(i) strategies for reestablishing the Presidential Fitness Test, with any appropriate improvements, as the main assessment tool for a Presidential Fitness Award;

(ii) strategies for the development and promotion of Presidential challenges and school-based programs that reward excellence in physical education;

(iii) actions to expand opportunities at the global, national, State, and local levels for participation in sports and engagement in physical fitness;

(iv) bold and innovative fitness goals for American youth with the aim of fostering a new generation of healthy, active citizens;

(v) campaigns and events that elevate American sports, military readiness, and health traditions;

(vi) opportunities at the global, national, State, and local levels that expand participation in sports and emphasize the importance of an active lifestyle and good nutrition, which should include partnerships with professional athletes, sports organizations, player’s associations, influential figures, nonprofit organizations, and community groups to inspire all Americans, among other initiatives; and

(vii) strategies to address the growing national security threat posed by the increasing rates of childhood obesity, chronic diseases, and sedentary lifestyles, which threaten the future readiness of the United States workforce and military.”      

Final Thoughts

Over the course of the second term of the Trump administration so far, executive orders have been a major tool in the drastic and dangerous decisions that are deeply unpopular. Who is this helping?

Check out last month’s executive orders: