Donald Trump's Priorities in First 100 Days2:29
President-elect Donald Trump has a laundry list of priorities for his first 100 days in office, and with a Republican majority in Congress, he is likely to implement many new policies. WSJ's Shelby Holliday has the story. Photo: Associated Press
Donald Trump, pictured on Capitol Hill with wife Melania, will move into the White House in January. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP
ON the morning of January 21, 2017, Donald Trump will begin his first day in office as the United States’ 45th president.
The 70-year-old is said to be ready to hit the ground running at the White House, with his aides already working on the ambitious “First Day Project”.
He’s sketched out a jam-packed schedule of meeting top military generals to work out how to defeat Islamic State, calling manufacturers to warn he will tax them for taking jobs out of the country, creating an action plan to build his “beautiful wall” with security officials and removing gun-free zones.
In August, he vowed to begin his plan to expel undocumented migrants in his very first hour in the Oval Office. “On Day One, I am going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country,” he said during a speech in Des Moines. “It’s going to happen within one hour after I take office.
“We’re going to bring them back where they came from. In this task, we will always err on the side of protecting the American people. We will use immigration law to prevent crimes.”
What exactly he’ll do to make that happen is uncertain. He has said he will triple the size of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and set up a deportation taskforce, but analysts have warned this could cost $US50 trillion over five years.
All eyes will be on the White House for Mr Trump’s first day in office. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFPSource:AFP
‘MY FIRST DAY, IT GETS SIGNED’
Instead of immediately carrying out his most controversial promises to ban all Muslim immigration, and any from conflict zones, he may instead begin to enact his more nebulous promise of “extreme vetting.”
Sitting at the Resolute Desk, he could sign an order to ramp up scrutiny of new arrivals from war-torn countries at ports, and the cancellation of the program to resettle Syrian refugees.
He could also undo an Obama order that gave legal status and work rights to millions of young unauthorised migrants and another that promised to extend those rights to their parents but has been blocked in court. He may give immigration officers greater powers, including access to home addresses, and give thousands of law enforcement officers deportation duties.
His team have claimed he will spend the first few hours signing papers to begin process of erasing President Barack Obama’s legacy. These could include documents renouncing the Paris Agreement on climate change, ending the Clean Power Plan to promote sustainable energy.
He’s also planning to remove the order for gun-free zones, including at schools, and could relax checks on gun purchases. “My first day, it gets signed, OK?” he’s said. “My first day. There’s no more gun-free zones.”
While Mr Obama spent his first day in the White House signing an order to shut down Guantánamo Bay prison — something he never achieved — Mr Trump may cancel that or even sign one to expand it. He’s previously said he plans to add more inmates to the controversial detention centre, where prisoners can be held indefinitely without charge, because “torture works”.
Anti President-elect Donald Trump protesters chant outside the White House in Washington, DC, November 10, 2016. Picture: Jim Watson.Source:AFP
‘HE CAN DO IT’
As for the infamous 10-metre-high wall he repeatedly promised to build along the Mexican border, this was such a central tenet of his campaign that his advisers say he will have to take steps to make it happen.
While Mexico has insisted it will not be forced to pay for the estimated $10 billion project, as Mr Trump suggested, Rudy Giuliani on Thursday told CNN “he can do it by executive order by just reprogramming money” already approved by Congress for tightening immigration policy and slightly extending the existing border fence.
He has said he will hold meetings with Homeland Security officials about his immigration plans and with military generals, to get started on his plan to “bomb the hell out of” Islamic State.
“I am also going to convene my top generals and give them a simple instruction: They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for defeating ISIS,” he told a rally in North Carolina in June.
He also vowed to call the heads of car and other major companies to warn them they face 35 per cent tariffs for moving jobs out of the country.
Mr Trump may also start taking steps to get the US out of the trans-Pacific Partnership, “tear up free trade agreements” and announce his selection of a sympathetic judge to complete the make-up of the US Supreme Court.
His vow to revoke Obamacare may take a little longer, since it will need the approval of Congress, and a plan to ensure the 20 million people who achieved health care coverage under the law don’t lose it.
It sounds like an exhausting, impossible program for a first day, but if anyone has the ability to surprise, it is the future President. “I’ll be working from the first day with my vice president and staff to make clear that America will be changing in major ways for the better,” he told the New York Times.
Mr Trump’s campaign adviser Stephen Moore told the newspaper his advisers want to find 25 executive orders he can sign in that first, crucial 24 hours.
While rescinding an order can take a year, putting pen to paper will start the ball rolling — and reassure his supporters that the new President is a man of action.