US President-elect Joe Biden is poised to unleash a series of executive actions on his first day in office, prompting what is likely to be a years-long effort to unwind Mr Donald Trump's domestic agenda.
In the first hours after he takes the oath of office on the West Front of the Capitol at noon on Jan 20, Mr Biden has said, he'll send a letter to the United Nations indicating that the United States will rejoin the global effort to combat climate change, reversing Mr Trump's move to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
He has also vowed that on Day 1 he'll move rapidly to confront the coronavirus pandemic by appointing a "national supply chain commander" and establishing a "pandemic testing board".
Mr Biden has also said he'll restore the rights of government workers to unionise. He has promised to order a new fight against homelessness and resettle more refugees fleeing war. And he has pledged to abandon Mr Trump's travel ban on mostly Muslim countries and to begin calling foreign leaders in an attempt to restore trust among the US' closest allies.
"Every president wants to come out of the gate strong and start fulfilling campaign promises before lunch on the first day," said Mr Dan Pfeiffer, who was a senior adviser to president Barack Obama and helped choreograph Mr Obama's first days in the White House. "Executive orders are the best way to do that."
For Mr Biden, who won the election in a deeply divided nation, the early signals he sends as the US' new leader will be critical.
He has repeatedly said he was campaigning as a Democrat but would govern "as an American".
Following through on that promise will require Mr Biden to demonstrate some respect for parts of the Trump agenda that were fiercely supported by the more than 70 million people who did not vote for the Democrat.
"If you want to show that you want to work on a bipartisan basis, then you don't go out right away and sign all the executive orders on immigration and bypass Congress," previous Republican senator Rick Santorum told CNN last Saturday.
There is no question that Mr Biden and his party members are eager to systematically erase what they view as destructive policies that Mr Trump pursued on several issues, including the environment, immigration, healthcare, gay rights, trade, tax cuts, civil rights, abortion, race relations and military spending.
Some of that will require cooperation with Congress, which may remain divided next year.
If Republicans maintain control of the Senate, Mr Biden's pledges to roll back some of Mr Trump's tax cuts are nearly certain to run into fierce opposition. And his efforts to shape the new government with appointments could be constrained by the need to win approval in a Republican Senate.
But Mr Biden may be able to achieve some of his goals with just the stroke of a pen.
Mr Trump largely failed to successfully negotiate with House Democrats during his four years in office, leaving him no choice but to use executive actions to advance his agenda.
Mr Biden can use the same tools to reverse them.
The President-elect has signalled that his top priority will be demonstrating a much more muscular federal approach to the pandemic than Mr Trump's leave-it-to-the-states strategy.
He was set to announce a Covid-19 task force yesterday, composed largely of doctors and public health experts. And aides have said he would use the power of his office to invoke the Defence Production Act, which will allow him to order companies to manufacture products necessary for national defenceto build up supplies more aggressively.
While Mr Biden would like to see a national mask mandate, his advisers say he doesn't have the legal authority to impose one. So he'll try to increase mask wearing in other ways.
He has already said that, as president, he would require masks on all federal property, an executive order that is likely to come in the first hours or days of his presidency. He has also said he would require them on "all interstate transportation".
Mr Biden has also repeatedly derided Mr Trump's lack of ethical standards. The President-elect's reaction to that will probably take the form of an ethics pledge to impose tough new requirements on the people who serve in his government.
"The Trump administration has shredded those standards," Mr Biden's campaign wrote on his website. "On Day 1, Biden will issue an ethics pledge, building and improving on the Obama-Biden administration's pledge, to ensure that every member of his administration focuses... on the best outcomes for the American people, and nothing else."
NYTIMES