Trump claimed he wouldn’t rule “except for Day 1.” He says he has a lot to do on his first day in the White House.
He wants to mass deport migrants, roll back Biden administration education policies, reshape the federal government by firing thousands of federal employees he believes are working against him, and pardon Capitol rioters.
“I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” he declared of Day 1.
He also had a big list when he assumed office in 2017, including renegotiating trade accords, deporting migrants, and fighting government corruption. Not all of those happened at once.
First week executive orders: how many? “Tens will be there. I guarantee that,” Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News Sunday.
Check out what Trump has promised in his second term and whether he can deliver when he takes office:
Most of his federal criminal cases should be dropped.
Trump promised to terminate special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” of becoming office. Smith is pursuing two federal lawsuits against him. Smith is examining how to close the cases because the Justice Department has long barred sitting presidents from prosecution.
Last year, Smith charged Trump with conspiring to overthrow the 2020 election and illegally storing secret materials at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump cannot pardon his New York hush money conviction, but he may use his standing as president-elect to erase or set aside his criminal conviction and avoid prison.
Georgia’s election tampering case against Trump may be the only criminal case. It would likely be delayed until 2029, his presidential term’s end. The case prosecutor in Georgia was reelected.
Pardon Capitol-attacking supporters
After a Trump supporter mob invaded the Capitol nearly four years ago, over 1,500 people have been charged.
Trump began his general election campaign in March by trying to rewrite the history of the riot and making the violent siege and unsuccessful attempt to overturn the 2020 election a cornerstone of his bid to return to the White House. He hailed the protesters “unbelievable patriots” and vowed to help “the first day we get into office.”
Trump can pardon anyone convicted in federal, DC Superior, or military court-martial. He can suspend rioter prosecution by instructing his attorney general to step aside.
Trump promised on social media in March, “I am inclined to pardon many of them.” “I can’t say for every one, because a couple probably got out of control.”
Break the government worker ‘deep state’
Trump might strip tens of thousands of career employees of civil service protections to make firing them easier.
He wants to “totally obliterate the deep state”—perceived opponents hidden in government jobs—and dramatically downsize the federal workforce, which he has long called an unneeded drain.
Government administrations hire and fire hundreds of politically appointed specialists. Tens of thousands of “career” bureaucrats work for Democratic and Republican presidents. Apolitical personnel have the competence and experience to keep the government running, especially during transitions.
Trump wants to turn some careerists into political professions, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. The 2020 executive order known as “Schedule F.” would be revived to do that. This decree stripped federal workers of employment rights and created a new class of political employees. About 50,000 of 2.2 million civilian federal employees may be affected.
After taking office in January 2021, Democratic President Joe Biden revoked the directive. A federal employee protection bill failed in Congress. The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s top human resources agency, prohibited reclassifying workers this spring. Trump may have to spend months or years undoing it.
Trump has targeted “corrupt bureaucrats who have weaponized our justice system” and “corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus.”
Trump wants to punish federal leakers beyond firings. He also wants a new civil service test for government workers.
Charge duties on imports, especially Chinese goods.
Trump vowed tariffs on imported products, especially Chinese goods, throughout the campaign. Such import levies would keep US manufacturing employment, reduce the federal deficit, and slash food prices, he claimed. He made them fundamental to his national security agenda.
“Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,” Trump said at a Flint rally in September.
Pledged tariffs vary in size. He recommended a 10% tariff on all imported items, a 60% import tax on Chinese goods, and a 25% tariff on all Mexican imports, if not more.
Trump could apply these duties without Congress, as he did on steel and aluminum imports in 2018 using Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Trump claims that that statute allows a president to adjust tariffs on imports that threaten national security, according to the Congressional Research Service.
“We’re being invaded by Mexico,” Trump declared at a North Carolina rally this month. Trump said of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s new president,: “I’m going to inform her on Day 1 or sooner that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send into the United States of
Reverse transgender student protections
Trump promised throughout the campaign to bring back Biden administration measures protecting transgender students from school discrimination on day one.
Opposition to transgender rights was Trump’s closing argument. The final days of the race saw his campaign run an ad against Vice President Kamala Harris that said, “Kamala is for they/them.” President Trump supports you.”
In April, the Biden administration announced new Title IX protections that outlawed transgender discrimination. Trump promised to bring back such measures on his first day in office and noted that he can act without Congress.
“We’re going to end it on Day 1,” Trump stated in May. “Remember, the president ordered that. It was an executive order. We’ll update it on Day 1.
Trump will likely continue.
Trump stated at a June Wisconsin rally that “on Day 1″ he would “sign a new executive order” to remove government funding for schools “pushing critical race theory, transgender craziness and other unsuitable racial, sexual or political themes upon the lives of our children.”
Any substantial cut to schools’ federal funding would require congressional action, and Trump hasn’t indicated how.
Drill, drill
Trump is aiming to overturn climate policies aimed at curbing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
He can roll back environmental regulations, stop wind projects, torpedo the Biden administration’s electric car ambitions, and eliminate company environmental standards with an executive order on Day 1.
He promised to “drill, drill, drill” when he takes office on Day 1 and to open the Arctic wilderness to oil drilling to cut energy costs.
Resolution of Russia-Ukraine conflict
Trump has repeatedly stated he could settle the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day.
When asked to comment to the remark, Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, stated “the Ukrainian crisis cannot be solved in one day.”
After Trump won the election on Wednesday, Leavitt told Fox News that he could “negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.” Later, she said, “It includes, on Day 1, bringing Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table to end this war.”
Russia attacked Ukraine about three years ago. Trump, who admires Putin, has slammed the Biden administration for funding Ukraine’s war.
At a May 2023 CNN town hall, Trump declared, “They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. Stop their deaths. I’ll finish that in 24 hours.” He promised that after meeting with Zelenskyy and Putin.
Start mass US migrant deportations
At his Madison Square Garden event last month, Trump claimed, “On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out. I will rescue every city and town that has been attacked and conquered, throw these terrible and murderous criminals in jail, and kick them out of our land as soon as possible.”
Trump may order his administration to start deporting the almost 11 million illegal immigrants the day he takes office, but it’s harder. That would require a large, skilled law enforcement force, big prison facilities, airplanes to transport people, and accepting nations.
Trump has threatened to use the Alien Enemies Act. That rarely used 1798 legislation empowers the president to remove non-citizens from countries with a “declared war” or a threatened or attempted “invasion or predatory incursion.”
He has discussed sending the governor-activated National Guard. Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller suggested supportive Republican governors send soldiers to adjoining states that refuse to participate.
When asked about his plan’s cost, he told NBC News, “It’s not a price tag. Not really—we have no choice. When people have slain and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. No cost.”