What should we expect from a Trump presidency? President-elect Donald Trump laid it out at the end of October in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in what his campaign called a “100-day plan to Make America Great Again.”
The plan includes measures and actions, some of which, like withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be good news for progressives, while many others, like opening up the U.S. to a fossil fuel production boom and going after immigrants, is downright terrifying.
In this “contract between [Trump] and the American voter,” Trump focuses on three main areas: cleaning up Washington, protecting American workers, and restoring rule of law.
He outlines six measures for cleaning up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC. These measures include imposing term limits on members of Congress, implementing a hiring freeze on all federal employees, rolling back federal regulations, and banning government officials from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments.
To protect American workers, Trump pledges seven actions. These actions include renegotiating or withdrawing from The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); withdrawing from the TPP; promoting a fossil fuel production boom in the U.S., including an increase in fracking; moving forward with the Keystone Pipeline; and canceling billions in payments to critical U.N. climate change programs.
His five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law include canceling executive actions, memorandums, and orders issued by President Obama; replacing Justice Scalia; canceling funding for “sanctuary cities” (cities that adopt local policies designed to not prosecute people solely for being an undocumented individual in the country in which they are currently living); deporting illegal immigrants; and suspending legal immigration from “terror-prone” regions of the world.
In addition to these measures and actions, Trump will work with Congress to introduce broader legislative measures. These measures include repealing and replacing Obamacare; making childcare and eldercare tax-deductible; building a wall on our southern border at Mexico’s expense; expanding military investment; and reducing the corrupting influence of special interests on politics.
It’s difficult to tell how much of this plan will be realized and how much was just campaign rhetoric. But in the words of Bernie Sanders:
”To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.”
For more details, you can read Trump’s action plan here.
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