1/ Biden reversed Trump’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military, restoring protections first put in place by Obama. In 2017, Trump tweeted that the U.S. would no longer “accept or allow” transgender people in the military, saying the military “must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory” and it could not afford to accommodate them. As Biden signed the executive order, he said: “What I’m doing is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform.” The order provides protection for all transgender service members, stops all involuntary separations or discharges based on gender identity, and directs the secretary of Defense and the secretary of Homeland Security to implement the order and brief Biden within 60 days on their progress. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / NPR / Associated Press / NBC News / Axios)

2/ Biden signed an executive order requiring the federal government to “Buy American” for products and services where possible. The new policies will tighten existing government procurement rules, reduce opportunities for waivers, and make it harder for federal agencies to purchase imported products. The order also ensures that small and midsize businesses will have better access to bid for government contracts. (Washington Post / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Axios)

3/ Trump considered a plan in early January to replace the acting attorney general with a different Justice Department lawyer who would pursue his baseless claims of voter fraud. The plan would have forced Jeffrey Rosen out as the acting attorney general and replaced him with Jeffrey Clark, who had been working with Trump to devise ways to force Georgia lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. Trump also pushed for the Justice Department to file its own lawsuit against four states, asking the Supreme Court to invalidate Biden’s victory. The efforts failed after Trump’s own appointees at the Justice Department refused to file what they viewed as a legally baseless lawsuit. Later, Trump forced Rosen and Clark to make their case to him in a White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of “The Apprentice.” Trump ultimately backed off that plan after senior Justice Department leadership threatened to resign en masse if he removed Rosen. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, demanded that the Justice Department’s inspector general launch a probe “into this attempted sedition,” saying it is “unconscionable a Trump Justi...