What has Donald Trump promised to do on the first day of his second term? , donald trump news
Washington DC – United States President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to become a dictator — but only on “day one” of his upcoming term.
This was a statement Trump made to Fox News in December 2023, amid his recent campaign for re-election.
Sitting in a town hall with host Sean Hannity, Trump used the question of whether he would abuse presidential power to focus on his long list of day one priorities.
“I love this guy,” Trump told the audience, pointing to Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, right?’ I said, ‘No, no, no, except for the first day. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling.’
Since then, Trump’s promises for his first day in office have only increased, covering questions ranging from immigration to redesigning the federal government.
Trump took the oath of office on Monday, following a surprise political comeback in the November elections.
The swearing-in ceremony will officially begin his second term as President. And all eyes are on how he will use his authority after returning to the White House.
Trump is expected to sign several executive orders in the early hours of his presidency.
Such moves are common for incoming administrations to make their mark, even if those orders are tempered by congressional or legal challenges.
But with nearly 60 days to go—a promise and an expected 100 executive orders—Trump’s workload is set to be especially heavy upon re-entering the White House.
John Barrasso, a Republican senator, has already predicted a “blizzard” of executive orders designed to “shock and awe.”
Here are some of the most important promises made by Trump on day one.
mass deportation
Immigration – and reducing irregular crossings at the southern border – became one of the key issues in Trump’s re-election campaign.
On November 4, just days before winning the presidency, Trump reiterated a pledge he had made several times during the campaign: “On Day One, I will begin the largest deportation program of criminals in American history. We are going to take them out. we have to.”
Details of how Trump would execute — and fund — such a massive operation are still unclear.
The US government estimates that about 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the country, although Trump has said he would “declare a national emergency and use military assets”.
It is also unclear who Trump might target. Some proponents have argued that all persons in the country without legal papers are “criminals”. Others hope Trump will limit the “mass deportation” effort to people convicted of crimes such as theft or assault.
‘Muslim ban’
One of his first-day promises is a throwback to his first term in office, when he signed the 2017 executive order known as the “Muslim ban.”
It restricted entry to travelers seeking to come to the US from several Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Libya, Yemen and Sudan. The ban faced legal challenges and was ultimately repealed under President Joe Biden.
But during his new term, Trump has promised to reinstate the ban as well as “suspend refugee admissions, halt resettlement, and keep terrorists out of our country.”
“We will ban resettlement of refugees from terror-hit areas like the Gaza Strip, and we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban,” he told Republican donors in Washington, DC, in September.
“Remember the famous travel ban? We didn’t take people from certain areas of the world because I didn’t want people breaking, burning and killing our shopping centers.
restricting citizenship
On his first day back in the White House, Trump is considering an executive order that would try to restrict who is eligible for US citizenship.
This plan has taken a long time to develop. In May 2023, Trump posted a video on his campaign website outlining his intentions.
Trump said, “On the first day of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that, under the correct interpretation of the law, future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship.” Said.
Under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, anyone born within the country becomes a citizen, regardless of the status of their parents.
End the Russia-Ukraine war
Trump has repeatedly said that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza would never have erupted on his watch.
While a ceasefire agreement to halt Israel’s destructive campaign in Gaza was reached days before Trump’s inauguration, fighting continues in Ukraine, where Russia has launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump has promised to bring a swift end to that conflict during his second term. During a CNN town hall in May 2023, Trump said that the war would be “absolutely over” within “24 hours” of him taking office.
Trump has recently become more cautious as his second term approaches. Nevertheless, on January 13 he announced that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” after taking office.
Trump’s team has signaled he will pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to broker a deal, raising concerns that Moscow could force concessions.
increased pressure on tariffs
Part of Trump’s vision for his first days in office is to reimagine the federal government.
On January 14, Trump announced that on Inauguration Day, he would create an “External Revenue Service” that would “collect our tariffs, fees, and all revenues coming from foreign sources”.
Trump has called for a sweeping tariff program to boost domestic manufacturing – including rebates of up to 60 percent on Chinese goods.
Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on Mexico and Canada if they do not take more steps to stop cross-border drug trafficking.
However, economists have cast doubt on that approach, saying such heavy tariffs could lead to a trade war that would harm the U.S. economy.
6 January Pardon the defendants
Trump has repeatedly called those arrested for attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as “political prisoners” and “hostages”.
He also promised to start issuing pardons within the first minutes of taking office.
But Trump has since been somewhat more vague about the timeline — and whether all defendants charged in the riot will be eligible for pardons.
“Probably, I would do it very quickly,” Trump said on the TV show Meet the Press last month, adding that “there might be some exceptions” to his plan to pardon him.
Also on Sunday, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance angered some supporters by saying that only peaceful protesters should be pardoned. He said there was “a bit of a gray area” in some cases.
deregulation of industry
Trump has indicated that he plans to pursue a broad regulation program when he re-enters office.
He blames the regulations for disrupting businesses and imposing additional costs on American consumers.
“On day one, I will sign an executive order directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation that increases the cost of goods,” Trump said during the campaign in October.
“This is going to be the largest regulatory cut in the history of our country, and it’s going to happen very rapidly,” he said.
During a press conference in December, Trump promised to cut 10 regulations for every new one added.
He plans to set up a new non-government board – called the Department of Government Efficiency – charged with identifying regulations that could be rolled back.
Some of the rules Trump targets are related to the environment.
This includes a promise one day to undo the executive action President Biden implemented to ban offshore drilling in 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of coastal waters.
Trump also said he would immediately rescind Biden’s so-called “electric vehicle mandate,” which imposes higher emissions restrictions on automakers in an effort to combat climate change.
Action against ‘woke’ ideology
Trump’s first-day pledges included many of the “culture war” issues that have long motivated his base.
This includes, as Trump said in December, stopping “transgender madness.”
The president-elect has promised to ban transgender women from playing women’s sports. He also said he would take steps to ban gender-affirming care for minors, which he called “child sexual mutilation”.
“On day one, I will repeal Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called gender-affirming care,” Trump said in a February 2023 campaign video.
“I will sign a new executive order directing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.”
Trump has threatened to immediately cut off federal funding from schools and colleges that promote “critical race theory, transgender paranoia, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.”
Resignations to return to Afghanistan
On the reality TV show, The Apprentice, Trump built his image as a tough-talking real estate businessman with ruthless business acumen.
His tagline, “You’re fired,” followed him into the political arena.
Even during the campaign, Trump captivated audiences with his plans to fire people he deemed incompetent.
And as he envisioned his first day in office, he told the audience he planned to seek accountability for the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
Trump struck a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to reduce the US presence in the country. But as US forces withdrew, the Taliban launched an offensive that toppled the fragile US-backed government.
A hasty evacuation followed the fall of the capital Kabul, during which a suicide bombing killed 13 American soldiers and an estimated 170 Afghan civilians.
Trump has blamed his successor Biden for the deaths, although a 2023 report indicated both leaders took responsibility. But Trump remained adamant on pointing fingers at the other side.
“We will be at my desk at noon on Inauguration Day to get the resignation of every single senior official who had a say in the Afghanistan disaster,” he said in Michigan in August. “You know, you have to fire people. “When people do bad work, you have to fire them.”
