WASHINGTON, DC – US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to become a dictator, but only on the “first day” of his next term.
This was a statement President Trump made to Fox News in December 2023 during his latest campaign for re-election.
Trump, sitting in a town hall with host Sean Hannity, was asked whether he would abuse his presidential power to pivot to a long list of opening day priorities.
“I love this man,” President Trump told the audience, gesturing toward Hannity. “He said, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said, ‘No, no, no, except on the first day.’ We close our borders and drill, drill, drill. ”
Since then, President Trump’s first day promises have only increased, ranging from immigration to redesigning the federal government.
On Monday, Trump will take the oath of office following his surprising return to politics in November’s election.
This swearing-in ceremony will officially begin his second term as president. All eyes are now on how he will exercise his authority once he returns to the White House.
President Trump is expected to sign a slew of executive orders in the opening hours of his term.
Such moves are common for incoming administrations seeking to make a mark on themselves, even if their orders are overruled by Congress or legal challenges.
But with nearly 60 first-day promises and up to 100 executive orders expected, President Trump’s workload will be especially hefty as he re-enters the White House.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso is already predicting a “blizzard” of executive orders aimed at “shock and awe.”
Here are some of the most important promises President Trump made on his first day.
mass deportation
Reducing immigration and irregular crossings at the southern border has turned out to be one of President Trump’s key issues in his re-election campaign.
On November 4, just days before he was elected president, Trump reiterated a promise he had made many times during his campaign. I’ll kick them out. we have to. “
The details of how President Trump would carry out and finance such a large-scale operation remain unclear.
The U.S. government estimates there are nearly 11 million illegal immigrants living in the country, but President Trump has said he will “declare a national emergency and use military assets.”
It is also unclear who President Trump will target. Some proponents argue that all individuals in the country without legal documents are “criminals.” Some hope President Trump will limit his “mass deportation” efforts to people convicted of crimes such as theft and assault.
“Muslim entry ban”
Another of his first day promises is to reflect on his first term in office, when he signed a 2017 executive order that became known as the “Muslim Ban.”
It restricted entry to travelers attempting to enter the United States from several Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Libya, Yemen and Sudan. The ban faced an avalanche of legal challenges and was ultimately repealed under President Joe Biden.
But President Trump has vowed to reinstate the ban during his new term, and to “suspend refugee admissions, block resettlement, and rid our country of terrorists once and for all.”
“We will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip, close borders and reinstate travel bans,” he told Republican donors in Washington, D.C., in September. Ta.
“Remember the famous travel ban? We didn’t want people to be brought in from certain parts of the world because we didn’t want them to tear down shopping centers and set fires and kill people. .”
citizenship restrictions
One executive order President Trump is considering on his first day back in the White House would seek to limit who is eligible for U.S. citizenship.
The plan has been in the making for a long time. Back in May 2023, Trump posted a video on his campaign website explaining his intentions.
President Trump: “On the first day of my new term, 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 no longer automatically receive U.S. citizenship.” I’m going to do it.”
Under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, anyone born in the country is a citizen, regardless of parental status.
end the Russia-Ukraine war
President Trump has repeatedly claimed that wars in Ukraine and Gaza never broke out on his watch.
A ceasefire agreement to end Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza was reached just days before Trump took office, but fighting continues in Ukraine, where Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
President Trump has vowed to quickly end the conflict during his second term. During a CNN town hall in May 2023, President Trump said the war would be “absolutely over” within “24 hours” of taking office.
Trump has become more cautious lately as he approaches his second term. Still, on January 13, he announced that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” after taking office.
President Trump’s team has said it will increase pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to reach a deal, raising concerns that he may make concessions to Russia.
Pressure to increase tariffs
Part of President Trump’s vision for his first day in office is to reimagine the federal government.
On January 14, President Trump announced on Inauguration Day that he would create the “External Revenue Service” to “collect tariffs, duties, and all foreign revenues.”
President Trump has called for a broad tariff program, including up to 60% on Chinese goods, to boost domestic manufacturing.
President Trump also threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25% on Mexico and Canada if they did not do more to stop border crossings and drug smuggling.
But economists have expressed skepticism about this approach, saying such high tariffs could lead to a trade war that would hurt the U.S. economy.
Pardon the defendant of January 6th
President Trump has repeatedly referred to those arrested for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 as “political prisoners” and “hostages.”
He even promised to begin issuing pardons within minutes of taking office.
But President Trump has since become a bit more vague about the timeline and whether all defendants charged in the riot will be eligible for pardons.
“We’ll probably do it very quickly,” Trump said on the “Meet the Press” show last month, but added that “there may be some exceptions” to his pardon plan. Ta.
Also on Sunday, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance irritated some supporters by saying only peaceful protesters should be pardoned. He added that in some cases there is “a bit of a gray area”.
deregulated industry
President Trump has indicated that he intends to pursue a wide-ranging deregulation program even after he takes office again.
He blames regulations for hindering business and imposing excessive costs on American consumers.
On the campaign trail in October, President Trump said, “On day one, I will sign an executive order directing all federal agencies to immediately eliminate all burdensome regulations that drive up prices.”
He added: “This will be the largest regulatory cut in the history of our country, and it will happen very quickly.”
At a press conference in December, President Trump went even further, pledging to cut 10 regulations for every new one added.
A new non-governmental commission he plans to create, the Ministry of Government Efficiency, will be tasked with identifying regulations that can be rolled back.
Some of the regulations in President Trump’s crosshairs are related to the environment.
This includes a promise on day one to reverse an executive action taken by President Biden to ban offshore drilling across 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 standards on automakers to combat climate change.
Action against “woke” ideology
President Trump’s opening day pledges include several “culture war” issues that have long motivated his base.
That includes ending “transgender madness,” as President Trump said in December.
The president-elect has promised to ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports. He also said he would move toward banning gender-affirming care for minors, which he called “child sexual mutilation.”
“From day one, we will reverse Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called gender-affirming care,” Trump said in a February 2023 campaign video.
“I intend to sign a new executive order directing all federal agencies to discontinue all programs that promote the concept of gender and gender reassignment at any age.”
President Trump also threatened to immediately cut off federal funding from schools and universities that promote “critical race theory, transgender insanity, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.” .
Resigns due to withdrawal from Afghanistan
On the reality show “The Apprentice,” Trump developed the persona of a tough-talking real estate mogul with ruthless business acumen.
Following his catchphrase, “You’re fired,” he forayed into the world of politics.
Even during his campaign, Trump wowed audiences with plans to fire people he deemed incompetent.
As he envisioned his first day in office, he told the audience he would seek accountability for the disorderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
President Trump signed a deal with the Taliban in 2020 that stripped the US of its presence in the country. However, once US forces withdrew, the Taliban launched an offensive and overthrew the weak US-backed government.
After the fall of the capital, Kabul, there was a hasty evacuation during which a suicide bomber killed 13 American soldiers and an estimated 170 Afghan civilians.
Trump has blamed his successor Biden for the deaths, but a 2023 report shows both leaders are responsible. But President Trump continued to criticize elsewhere.
“The resignations of all the high-ranking officials involved in the Afghanistan disaster will be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day,” he said in Michigan in August. “You know, you have to fire people. You have to fire people who do a bad job.”