Washington, DC – United States President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to be a dictator – however solely on “day one” of his upcoming time period.
That was the assertion Trump gave to Fox Information in December 2023, within the midst of his most up-to-date marketing campaign for re-election.
Sitting at a city corridor with host Sean Hannity, Trump used a query about whether or not he would abuse presidential energy to pivot to his lengthy checklist of day-one priorities.
“I really like this man,” Trump advised the viewers, gesturing to Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I mentioned, ‘No, no, no, apart from day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling’.”
Since then, Trump’s guarantees for his first day in workplace have solely grown, spanning questions on immigration to redesigning the federal authorities.
On Monday, Trump takes the oath of workplace, following a surprising political comeback in November’s elections.
The swearing-in ceremony will formally kick off his second time period as president. And all eyes are on how he’ll wield his authority as soon as again within the White Home.
Trump is predicted to signal a mountain of govt orders within the opening hours of his presidency.
Such strikes are widespread observe for incoming administrations seeking to make their mark, even when these orders are muted by congressional or authorized challenges.
However with almost 60 day-one guarantees and as much as 100 govt orders anticipated, Trump’s workload as he re-enters the White Home is ready to be significantly hefty.
One Republican senator, John Barrasso, has already predicted a “blizzard” of govt orders, designed to “shock and awe”.
Listed below are a number of the most consequential day-one guarantees Trump has made.
Mass deportations
Immigration – and lowering irregular crossings on the southern border – turned out to be one of many main points in Trump’s re-election marketing campaign.
On November 4, simply days earlier than he gained the presidency, Trump reiterated a pledge he made a number of instances on the marketing campaign path: “On day one, I’ll launch the biggest deportation program of criminals in American historical past. We’re going to get them out. We have now to.”
Particulars of how Trump would undertake – and fund – such a massive operation stay elusive.
The US authorities estimates almost 11 million undocumented immigrants dwell within the nation, although Trump has mentioned he would “declare a nationwide emergency and can use navy belongings”.
Whom Trump may goal can be ambiguous. Some supporters have argued that each one people within the nation with out authorized papers are “criminals”. Others hope Trump will restrict the “mass deportation” effort to these convicted of crimes like theft or assault.
‘Muslim ban’
One other one among his first-day pledges is a throwback to his first time period in workplace, when he signed a 2017 govt order that grew to become often called the “Muslim ban“.
It restricted entry for travellers searching for to come back to the US from a number of Muslim-majority nations, together with Syria, Libya, Yemen and Sudan. The ban confronted an avalanche of authorized challenges and was in the end nixed beneath President Joe Biden.
However throughout his new time period, Trump has pledged to reinstate the ban in addition to “droop refugee admissions, cease the resettlement and hold the terrorists the hell out of our nation”.
“We are going to ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas just like the Gaza Strip, and we are going to seal our border and convey again the journey ban,” he advised Republican donors in Washington, DC, in September.
“Keep in mind the well-known journey ban? We didn’t take individuals from sure areas of the world as a result of I didn’t wish to have individuals ripping down and burning our buying centres and killing individuals.”
Proscribing citizenship
One govt order Trump is contemplating for his first day again within the White Home would search to limit who’s eligible for US citizenship.
The plan has been lengthy within the making. Way back to Might 2023, Trump posted a video to his marketing campaign web site, outlining his intentions.
“On day one among my new time period in workplace, I’ll signal an govt order making clear to federal businesses that, beneath the proper interpretation of the legislation, going ahead, the long run youngsters of unlawful aliens is not going to obtain computerized US citizenship,” Trump said.
Beneath the Fourteenth Modification of the US Structure, anybody born inside the nation turns into a citizen, no matter their mother or father’s standing.
Convey the Russia-Ukraine struggle to an finish
Trump has repeatedly maintained that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza would by no means have erupted beneath his watch.
Whereas a ceasefire deal to halt Israel’s devastating marketing campaign in Gaza was reached simply days earlier than Trump’s inauguration, preventing continues in Ukraine, the place Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump has pledged to deliver that battle to a swift finish throughout his second time period. Throughout a CNN city corridor in Might 2023, Trump mentioned the struggle can be “completely over” inside “24 hours” of him taking workplace.
Trump has been more circumspect currently, as his second time period approaches. Nonetheless, on January 13, he introduced he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “in a short time” upon taking workplace.
Trump’s staff has indicated he’ll heap strain on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal occur, prompting considerations that would spell concessions to Moscow.
Up strain on tariffs
A part of Trump’s imaginative and prescient for his first days in workplace is reimagining the federal authorities.
On January 14, Trump announced that on Inauguration Day, he would create an “exterior income service” that might “gather our Tariffs, Duties, and all Income that come from Overseas sources”.
Trump has referred to as for a broad tariff programme – together with as much as 60 p.c on Chinese language items – to jumpstart home manufacturing.
Trump has additionally threatened as much as 25 p.c tariffs on Mexico and Canada if they don’t do extra to stop border crossings and drug smuggling.
Economists have forged scepticism on that method, nevertheless, saying such heavy tariffs may result in a commerce struggle that might damage the US financial system.
Pardon January 6 defendants
Trump has repeatedly referred to these arrested for storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as “political prisoners” and “hostages”.
He even promised to start issuing pardons inside the first minutes of taking workplace.
However Trump has since been a bit extra hazy in regards to the timeline – and whether or not all of the defendants charged within the riot can be eligible for pardons.
“Most probably, I’ll do it in a short time,” Trump advised the TV present Meet the Press final month, whereas noting there “could also be some exceptions” to his plans for pardoning them.
As well as, on Sunday, Vice President-elect JD Vance rankled some supporters by saying solely peaceable protesters must be pardoned. He added there was “a little bit of gray space” in some instances.
Deregulating trade
Trump has indicated he plans to pursue a wide-ranging deregulation programme when he re-enters workplace as nicely.
He blames rules for stymieing companies and dumping extra prices on American customers.
“On day one, I’ll signal an govt order directing each federal company to instantly take away each single burdensome regulation driving up the prices of products,” Trump mentioned on the marketing campaign path in October.
“It’s going to be the biggest regulatory discount within the historical past of our nation, and it’s going to occur very quick,” he added.
Throughout a information convention in December, Trump went additional, pledging to chop 10 rules for each new one added.
A brand new nongovernmental board he plans to arrange – referred to as the Division of Authorities Effectivity – has been charged with figuring out rules that may be rolled again.
A few of the rules in Trump’s crosshairs are associated to the setting.
That features a day-one promise to undo an govt motion President Biden applied to ban offshore drilling throughout 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of coastal waters.
Trump additionally mentioned he would instantly undo Biden’s so-called “electrical automobile mandate”, which imposes increased emissions restrictions for automakers in an effort to fight local weather change.
Actions in opposition to ‘woke’ ideology
Trump’s day-one pledges have included a number of “tradition struggle” points which have lengthy motivated his base.
That has included, as Trump put it in December, stopping the “transgender lunacy”.
The president-elect has pledged to ban transgender ladies from taking part in ladies’s sports activities. He additionally mentioned he’ll transfer to ban gender-affirming look after minors, which he has referred to as “baby sexual mutilation”.
“On day one, I’ll revoke Joe Biden’s merciless insurance policies on so-called gender-affirming care,” Trump mentioned in a February 2023 campaign video.
“I’ll signal a brand new govt order instructing each federal company to stop all programmes that promote the idea of intercourse and gender transition at any age.”
Trump has additional threatened to immediately cut federal funding from colleges and faculties that promote “essential race concept, transgender madness, and different inappropriate racial, sexual or political content material”.
Resignations for Afghanistan withdrawal
Within the actuality TV present, The Apprentice, Trump crafted a persona as a tough-talking actual property baron with ruthless enterprise acumen.
His tagline, “You’re fired,” adopted him into the political sphere.
Even on the marketing campaign path, Trump regaled audiences together with his plans to fireside these he thought of incompetent.
And as he envisioned his first day in workplace, he advised audiences he deliberate to hunt accountability for the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
Trump had solid an settlement in 2020 with the Taliban to peel again the US presence within the nation. However as US forces receded, the Taliban launched an offensive that toppled the delicate US-backed authorities.
A hasty evacuation adopted the autumn of the capital of Kabul, throughout which a suicide bombing killed 13 US troopers and an estimated 170 Afghan civilians.
Trump has blamed his successor Biden for the deaths, although a 2023 report indicated each leaders bore duty. However Trump has continued in pointing the finger elsewhere.
“We’ll get the resignations of each single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity, to be on my desk at midday on Inauguration Day,” he mentioned in Michigan in August. “You already know, you need to hearth individuals. You must hearth individuals once they do a foul job.”
