President Trump signed a brand new sequence of govt orders Tuesday, including to his blizzard of actions geared toward remodeling the federal authorities in his picture.
One order aimed to chop prices for in vitro fertilization, or IVF, however fell nicely in need of his marketing campaign promise to completely fund the fertility remedies for all.
“The order directs policy recommendations to protect IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted.
Trump additionally signed a second order that mandates authorities companies publicize efforts to root out supposed waste or fraud.
The brand new Trump orders got here a couple of hours earlier than a brand new joint interview with sidekick Elon Musk was set to air in primetime.
Even earlier than the brand new signings, Trump had penned greater than 60 govt orders since returning to the White Home for a second time period.
He has enacted steep tariffs, sought to finish birthright citizenship, curbed range applications and “gender radicalism” within the army and pardoned convicted January 6 rioters.
President Donald Trump waves as he leaves the Trump Worldwide Golf Membership, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, in West Palm Seaside, Fla. (AP Photograph/Ben Curtis)
On IVF, Trump’s order will direct a authorities physique to look at methods of decreasing prices for the costly process.
That’s a far cry from Trump’s August marketing campaign promise to make the fertility remedies free for anybody who needs them, with the associated fee paid for by both the federal government or insurance coverage firms.
“We are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump stated at an August marketing campaign occasion earlier than including, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”
Trump has positioned himself as a champion of IVF regardless that his right-wing Republican allies have handed legal guidelines declaring that life begins at conception, a stance that successfully outlaws the process.
Within the first weeks of Trump’s second time period, he has used the manager orders, that are signed statements directing motion by the manager department, to handle points which can be normally handled by by laws handed by Congress.
The White Home determined to open up the late afternoon occasion to press protection after initially saying it might not be allowed.
Trump’s govt orders at this level in his time period far outpace another president’s in the identical timeframe, and have already spurred huge pushback within the courts, particularly people who search to chop funding or total applications which have already been permitted by Congress.
Authorized challenges to Trump’s insurance policies began on Inauguration Day and have continued at a livid tempo since Jan. 20. The administration is going through some 70 lawsuits nationwide difficult his govt orders and strikes to downsize the federal authorities.
Judges have issued greater than a dozen orders not less than quickly blocking facets of Trump’s agenda, starting from an govt order to finish U.S. citizenship prolonged robotically to individuals born on this nation to the administration’s authorization of Musk’s staff’s entry to delicate federal knowledge.
The administration has notched a couple of wins, too, most importantly when a decide allowed it to maneuver ahead with a deferred resignation program spearheaded by Musk.