Trump’s Big Promises: Trade Wars and Immigration Impact
A massive deportation effort, “drill, baby, drill,” and peace in Ukraine: President-elect Donald Trump has promised to move quickly and decisively when he returns to the White House on Monday.
Here’s a look at his dramatic but usually unclear promises for a second term, many of which are likely to be carried out by executive orders.
Immigration
Trump has promised to take a harsh stance against the estimated 11 million unauthorized migrants in the US.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Republican billionaire will proclaim a state of emergency at the border with Mexico, allowing for additional Department of Defense cash and assets.
He also promised on the campaign trail to remove birthright citizenship, calling it “ridiculous.”
Analysts expect him to issue executive orders on other elements of immigration policy, like as terminating an app used by refugees seeking asylum.
However, the US Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, and any deportation scheme will face legal challenges as well as probable refusals from some countries to accept deportees.
Trade wars
(Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
Trump has pledged to impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada, two of the United States’ largest trading partners, as punishment for their failure to curb the flow of drugs and unauthorized migrants into the country.
But is Trump truly prepared to launch a trade war with his neighbors, rupturing the North American free trade agreement? Some regard this, along with the far more daring idea that Canada be absorbed into the United States, as pre-negotiation bravado.
Beijing should also buckle up.
Trump has threatened to levy a 10% tariff on Chinese goods, adding to current levies dating back to his first administration. Trump accused China of failing to limit the production of chemical components used to create fentanyl.
The president-elect has suggested he might pardon some or all of the people involved in the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol, when his supporters tried to overthrow the 2020 election in which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has described them as “hostages” and “political prisoners.”
He told a pre-inauguration rally that his supporters would be “very happy” with the decision he plans to make on the matter on his first day in office.
More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes in the deadly assault, and more than 1,100 of them have been sentenced.
Wars and diplomacy
Trump warned that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages before his inauguration — and promptly took credit when a ceasefire and hostage release deal negotiated by the Biden Administration was announced Wednesday.
Trump also says he intends to quickly end Russia’s war against Ukraine, though it is unclear when or how he plans to do that.
After promising over the summer to end the nearly three-year conflict “in 24 hours,” Trump more recently suggested a timeline of several months.
Climate skeptic Trump has promised to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and gas.
He plans to repeal some of Biden’s key climate policies, such as tax credits for electric vehicles, which are meant to encourage a transition to a green economy.
Trump also wants to boost offshore drilling, though he might need to secure congressional support to do that. Biden has selected swaths of ocean as protected no-drill areas.
Transgender rights and race
“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said in December, vowing to “end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.”
He added the US government would recognize only two genders, male and female.
Also among his plans is cutting federal funding to schools that have adopted “critical race theory,” an approach that looks at US history through the lens of racism.
TikTok lifeline
Trump has vowed to save the popular video-sharing app TikTok from a law banning it on national security grounds.
TikTok briefly shut down in the United States as a deadline loomed for its Chinese owners ByteDance to sell its US subsidiary to non-Chinese buyers.
However, it went back online after Trump, who has credited the app with connecting him to younger voters, promised to issue an executive order delaying the ban to allow time to “make a deal.”
He said on his Truth Social platform that he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”
AFP
