By: u/RealKafkaEsquire
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Twitter: @Kafkaesquire
This report is only a summary and editorial regarding the executive orders (“EOs”) signed by the Trump Administration during the last week. EOs are not legislation or court opinions. They do not carry the weight of law, and are merely statements of policy within the executive branch. That is not to say they cannot be cited in court or legal pleadings, or aren’t relevant to the application of law, only that they are almost never controlling outside of internal executive branch administration.
EOs are signed and reported on, generally, a week before they are published into the Federal Register. Until such a publication, it can be difficult to know the exact language of the signed EO. For that reason, these reports only include EOs published in the Federal Register. While this can lead to these reports feeling delayed or dated, it is to ensure precision and clarity.
While I am a licensed attorney, this is not paid legal advice. Nothing in this communication is intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Unless expressly stated otherwise, nothing contained in this article should be construed as a digital or electronic signature, nor is it intended to reflect an intention to make an agreement by electronic means.
Executive Order 14308 - Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response
Signed: June 12, 2025
Published: June 18, 2025
Then-President Donald Trump talks with Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom during a visit to a neighborhood destroyed by wildfires in Paradise on Nov. 17, 2018. Photo by Evan Vucci, AP Photo
Summary
Section 1 talks about how bad the California wildfires were and shits on California’s response. It then says that it will empower states by better streamlining federal wildfire capabilities.
Section 2 orders executive officials to consolidate their wildland fire programs to achieve a better wildfire prevention program.
Section 3 orders executive officials to improve wildfire prevention policy and technologies within the government.
Section 4 orders executive officials to rescind regulations that would hinder wildfire prevention.
Section 5 orders executive officials to declassify historical satellite data regarding wildfire prevention and remove regulations regarding the withholding of such data. It also orders the secretary defense to sell excess aircraft that could help with wildfire prevention.
What It Means
This EO is hardly more than its name. It is directed towards wildfire prevention but contains little of substance to help it. President Trump, during his first term, was quite interested in wildfire prevention, and one of his first official acts during this term was wasting 2.2 billion gallons of water and lie about how it would help prevent fires. For whatever reason, wildfires are a recurring theme for this administration. This EO does little more than ask various secretaries in the executive branch to meet and discuss ideas for wildfire prevention. It does at the tail end seem to open the door for light pillaging of the US Defense Department’s aircraft and aircraft parts.
Looking Forward
It is unlikely that this will result in any real wildfire prevention. These agencies already were placing wildfire prevention as a high priority. Nothing in this EO opens new channels for prevention, nor removes any roadblocks halting it.