This whirlwind that has been this past election season has given insight to what Donald Trump’s second term may look like. President elect Trump had endorsements from people like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk and has now nominated some cabinet members that include a former Fox News Host, Pete Hegseth, for the Secretary of Defense and RFK Jr being nominated for the head of Health and Human Services despite his lack of medical qualifications.
These picks for cabinet are shocking for many, but there are other things that still need to be focused on as the United States moves toward a second term for Donald Trump. During the course of his campaign, Donald Trump has made many promises ranging from a complete overhaul of the Department of Education as well as executive orders that may take away citizenship for many immigrants.
It is important to note that these promises may or may not fully come to fruition during President Elect Donald Trump’s second term. In many of the campaign speeches and official releases to the public these policies are stated, but many of them are vague and don’t always dictate a complete course of action.
Immigration:
Immigration has always been one of Donald Trump’s major concerns in every campaign he has run. From his drive to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico from his 2016 campaign to his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump has always had a major focus on immigration.
In his 2024 campaign, Trump stated that he wants to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. One of his main goals, which he says he will implement of day one of his presidency, is an executive order “ending citizenship for Children of Illegals.” (Agenda47) This executive order will also “make clear” the meaning of the 14th amendment is that U.S. Citizenship applies to those born in and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
According to the 14th Amendment of the United States constitution “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
In this plan, day one executive order is intended to ensure that federal government agencies do not incorrectly interpret the 14th amendment which he says has “nothing to do with the citizenship of immigrants, let alone the citizenship of the children of illegal aliens.”
However most people knowledgeable in law interpret the 14th Amendment differently from this. “Most legal scholars take that as an explicit protection of birthright citizenship — and think it will take much more than an executive order to change.” Joel Rose said in an NPR “FACT CHECK” article. While this article may be from 2018, Trump is still campaigning with this same idea of an executive order to end birthright citizenship.
The Economy
Many people when asked why they voted for Donald Trump, cited his economic plan. However, since his reelection, there has been a rise in people searching on Google, who pays tariffs or how tariffs work. While many people who voted for Donald Trump for the economic benefits, there is some benefits and drawbacks from his economic plan.
In terms of tax cuts, a Wells Fargo economists, Jay Bryson and Michael Pugliese spoke to NPR on the topic. They spoke about how there will probably be tax cuts given within this second term of presidency for Donald Trump, but the specifics of these tax cuts are not certain (NPR).
Regarding tariffs, the tax cuts that will be given out will likely have less of an impact because of the effects of these tariffs. Donald Trump has talked about implementing a 10-20% tariff on imported goods, and an even higher tariff on goods imported from China (NPR). This is meant to encourage businesses to keep their production in the United State, however the US has a high labor cost and even with these tariffs that are being proposed, it may still be cheaper for companies to keep outsourcing their products.
These tariffs for businesses that outsource their products may cause businesses to raise their prices for consumers to compensate for that tariff.
Education:
As a part of the 2024 Donald Trump campaign, he promised to overhaul the Department of Education. The goal of this overhauling of the Department of Education is to “give power to American Parents” (Agenda47) within the education system.
This plan would include cutting federal funding for schools and programs that push utilizing Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, and other racial, sexual, or political content to children and even creative a new credentialing body that will certify teachers who have patriotic value. The true goal of this overhaul of the Department of Education is to have teachers that “understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.” (Agenda47)
President Elect Donald Trump plans to have the federal government give huge funding preferences for states and school districts that make hefty reforms in the education. These huge reforms include abolishing tenure for teachers in K-12 settings, adopt Merit Pay (pay bonuses/increases based on how “good” or “bad” a teacher is), cut the number of administrators in schools including DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) departments, a Parental Bill of rights that promotes curriculum transparency, and even allowing parents to elect school principles (Agenda47).
The plan that President Elect Donald Trump has focuses on the fact that schools and teachers are “indoctrinating” children and that this plan would fix that problem.
Gender Affirming Care:
Another one of Donald Trump’s “day one” plans is revoking policies President Joe Biden has implemented about gender affirming care. In an Agenda47 video address, Donald Trump states, “I will declare that any hospital or healthcare provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth will no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare—and will be terminated from the program immediately.” Trump Said.
In policies that Donald Trump wants to implement in his Presidency regarding gender affirming care. It is stated that he wants to sign an executive order that federal agencies stop all programs that promote gender transition at any age (Agenda47).
Gender affirming care is often considered lifesaving care by doctors for transgender people. Banning gender affirming care as a whole leads some doctors to worry about transgender people, and the governments trust in doctors expertise.
Scott Schweikart, a writer for the AMA Journal of Ethics wrote an article about the dangers of criminalizing gender affirming are for adolescents. “Such bans serve to discriminate against transgender patients, raising serious concerns about constitutional equal protection violations. A further consequence of laws that criminalize health care is the undermining of trust in patient-physician relationships, which promotes a chilling effect that harms the practice of medicine more broadly.” Schewikart’s article said.
The notion of wanting to protect children from “left-wing gender insanity” (Agenda47) also comes along with Donald Trump wanting teachers to teach in school about the nuclear family, and ensuring that teachers do not talk to students about the possibility of being transgender.
President Elect Donald Trump also intends to ensure that the only two genders recognized by the United States will be male and female.
These are just some of the many promises that President Elect Donald Trump had made leading up to his campaign and during his campaign. Again, these plans that Donald Trump has are subject to change as things do in the fast-paced political world. However, many of these promises are considered “day one” policies, which means the United States can expect to see changes come about relatively quickly at the start of his term.
