Harv's Corner 01/20/2025

FOUR MORE YEARS AND MANY PROMISES TO FILL
Story by JUSTINE MCDANIEL and ALEXIS ARNOLD • The Washington Post • Photo by J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE • The Associated Press

​Today we inaugurate a new President of the United States.  Here's what he promises to do

​President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to forcibly remove undocumented immigrants from the United States, reshape the federal government and impose major tariffs that could drive up prices.

He has told Americans he will increase their paychecks, decrease their electrical bills and cut gas prices. He has made promises to executives who backed his campaign, including on oil drilling, cryptocurrency, space exploration and artificial intelligence. He has labeled political rivals as "the enemy from within" and said members of Congress who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot should be jailed. He has also suggested purging parts of the federal workforce and rolling back environmental regulations.

In total, the Washington Post identified 31 major campaign promises Trump pledged for his second term. Here are some of the most consequential steps Trump has said he'll take as president.

1. Carry out mass deportations
Trump has said he would launch "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," and a 2024 Republican platform called for targeting millions of undocumented immigrants. Trump has also pledged to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — last used during World War II to intern Japanese immigrants and others — to quickly remove people the administration deems to be a threat. Trump would also target ordinary undocumented immigrants who came to the country to work, a move that led to a backlash during his first term. Trump deported fewer immigrants than President Barack Obama did during his first term but largely focused his 2024 campaign on his pledges to curb immigration.

2. Restore the 'Remain in Mexico' program
The president-elect has said he will quickly reinstate a program that required tens of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in the United States to await their hearings in Mexico, which led to thousands of asylum-seekers setting up camps over the border in his first term. Officials said the program discouraged illegal immigration and false asylum claims, but some say the Trump protocols would be less effective than the current policy under the Biden administration, which has implemented even tougher asylum restrictions.

3. Reinstate a travel ban
This policy, which Trump implemented in his first administration, restricted people from several majority-Muslim countries and others from traveling to the United States. The ban separated thousands of families before it was reversed by Biden, whose party viewed it as anti-Muslim. Trump claimed it strengthened national security, though experts said there was little evidence to back that assertion.

4. End birthright citizenship for the U.S.- born children of certain noncitizens
Trump argues that ending birthright citizenship, which many legal scholars say is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, will disincentivize people from coming to the United States to give birth or to stay illegally. He pledged to sign an executive order directing federal agencies to deny citizenship unless at least one parent is already a citizen or a permanent resident. Rescinding this right would most likely require changing the Constitution, which is difficult, and executive efforts would be certain to face legal challenges.

5. Cut federal funding to cities that don't cooperate with deportations
Trump's advisers are considering how to withhold funds from cities that refuse to participate in deportations. Trump has long wanted to punish such "sanctuary cities."

6. Institute the automatic death penalty for migrants who kill American citizens
Trump promised this to campaign rally crowds, including in October in Aurora, Colo., where he promoted false claims that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex there.

7. Complete the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico

8. Impose tariffs on goods from other nations
Trump has proposed tariffs of at least 10% on all imports and a 60% tariff on all goods from China. In November, he said he would enact tariffs of 25% on Mexican and Canadian goods and 10% on Chinese imports on his first day in office.

9. End inflation
Bringing down prices was a top campaign pledge.

10. Cut taxes
Trump during the campaign vowed to cut taxes by more than $7 trillion over 10 years. The centerpiece of these changes would be extending the tax law he approved during his first term, much of which is set to expire in 2025. Doing so would probably add substantially to the national debt and risks fueling inflation.

11. Eliminate taxes on tips and overtime

12. Promote cryptocurrency

13. Eliminate the Education Department
Pledging to make good on a longtime conservative goal, Trump proposes dismantling the department — whose employees he has baselessly claimed "hate our children" — and assigning some of its functions to other federal agencies.

14. Cut federal funding to penalize schools
Trump has promised to cut federal funding to schools that promote what Republicans label as "critical race theory" or "radical gender ideology." That could include schools that offer support to transgender students or teach about racism in the U.S.

15. Target transgender policies
Trump campaigned on getting "transgender insanity out of our schools," rhetoric that he more often used as a political tool than a policy platform. He has pledged to ban trans athletes from participating in women's sports in schools, and his administration is expected to argue that school policies allowing trans students access to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams are a violation of Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in federally funded schools.

16. Fund school vouchers
Trump promised to back school-choice programs, which provide taxpayer funds to parents to pay for private school.

17. Roll back environmental regulations
Trump has promised to dismantle dozens of rules and policies designed to curb air pollution, fight climate change, protect endangered species and achieve other environmental goals. He has also pledged to scrap federal policies that aim to accelerate the nation's shift to electric vehicles.

18. Expand oil and gas production
As oil and gas executives gave millions to his campaign, Trump made "drill, baby, drill" a signature slogan. He aims to expand oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters, resume the approval of new liquefied natural gas exports and remove regulations for oil, natural gas and coal production.

19. Pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement
During his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from the pact, which is aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, a critical threshold. Biden rejoined, and Trump has pledged to withdraw again.

20. Lower health care costs and prescription drug costs
Trump said he had "concepts of a plan" to replace the Affordable Care Act during the debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in September. Trump has not detailed specifics of plans to lower prescription drug costs, and on the campaign trail, he backed away from an effort unveiled in his first administration to tie government payments for medicines to lower prices paid overseas.

21. Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Trump has pledged not to cut either program, though he has promised his administration will cut what he describes as "waste" within the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid.

22. Leave abortion laws up to state legislatures
Trump's campaign has said he will not sign a national ban on abortion. He also made the repeated vague pledge to "protect women" during his campaign.

23. Make IVF free
Trump promised to ensure that Americans' in vitro fertilization costs are covered by the government or insurance.

24. Retaliate against his political enemies
Trump has indicated he will seek retribution against those he perceives as his enemies, and some have begun preparing for the possibility. Trump has nominated Kash Patel, who created a list of Trump's antagonists, to head the FBI. He also said he will sue newspapers and media outlets and supports any indictments of the prosecutors who charged him with crimes. Trump also suggested using the National Guard or military against American citizens, saying the United States was under threat from "the enemy from within," including "radical left lunatics."

25. Reshape the federal government
The new administration and its allies have plans to make mass job cuts in the federal workforce and slash hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending, using an outside governmental body led by tech billionaire Elon Musk and pharmaceutical founder Vivek Ramaswamy that is sure to face legal challenges. Also on the table: closing some departments and moving others out of Washington, a return-to-office mandate, diluting the power of federal employee unions and converting thousands of career civil servants to "at-will" employees who could be fired and replaced with political loyalists.

26. Change voting requirements
Trump wants to require identification and proof of citizenship for voting. He also wants to conduct elections exclusively with same-day voting, eliminating absentee and mail-in voting, early voting and electronic voting kiosks — though at times during the campaign, he promoted mail-in voting.

27. Pardon some Jan. 6 defendants

28. Pursue isolationist policy
Trump favors what he has termed an "America First" approach to foreign and trade policy that includes shutting out imports, building an "iron dome" air-defense system over the United States and ensuring the U.S. military doesn't get entangled in foreign wars. He has strayed from isolationism in recent weeks, however, saying the United States should acquire Greenland and threatening to retake the Panama Canal.

29. End the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East

30. Target diversity initiatives in the military
Trump and those around him have promised to reverse what they describe as "woke" policies affecting the U.S. military, criticizing efforts to require diversity training and to permit service by transgender troops.

31. Carry out strikes on Mexican drug cartels
Trump has proposed using military assets to "wage war" on cartels. He suggested he would carry out strikes if Mexico doesn't "straighten it out really fast." Deploying armed forces to Mexico without its consent could violate international law.