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You went to bed. You woke up. Donald Trump is still President-Elect. When will the shock wear off?
Trump’s stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election has left a lot of people wondering what’s next. But in fact, Trump has been unusually specific about his plans for at least the immediate future. Here are nine things president-elect Trump has promised to do on his first day in the Oval Office.
Both Trump and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence have said consistently that repealing the Affordable Care Act will be one of Trump’s first acts in office. “Obamacare is a disaster. You know it. We all know it,” Trump said during the second presidential debate. “We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely much less expensive.”
While erasing Obamacare with the stroke of his pen on day one isn’t possible, Trump could work with the Republican-led Congress to begin the legislative manoeuvres necessary to end Obama’s signature domestic policy.
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed that the Senate will move quickly to repeal Obamacare. Though Trump would need 60 votes in the Senate to definitively repeal the act, NPR reports that even without that support, he can make a number of smaller legislative changes with impunity, which would effectively end Obamacare in its current form.
2. Reverse Every One of Obama’s Executive Orders
The First Day Project, as one Republican called it, will see Trump spend several hours of his first day signing papers to repeal as many of Obama’s executive orders as possible.
“We want to identify maybe 25 executive orders that Trump could sign literally the first day in office,” the Trump campaign advisor Stephen Moore told The New Yorker, describing a strategy apparently inspired by Reagan’s swift deregulation of energy prices during his first week in office.
Orders on the table include the Paris Agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions, the Syrian refugee programme, and background checks on gun purchases.
3. Begin the Process of Deporting Illegal Immigrants
If you’re trying to get your head around how the scheduling of this packed first day will work, put this first: “Within one hour” of taking office, Trump will begin the process of removing illegal aliens from the United States, focusing on undocumented immigrants’ criminal records. “We will begin moving them out, day one. My first hour in office, those people are gone,” he said in September, promising to prioritise this “before the wall, before anything”.
Trump has vowed to bolster this effort by suspending visa access for countries that refuse to take back their “dangerous illegal immigrants”.
4. Begin Building the Wall
Construction of that “beautiful” southern-border wall, which Trump insists Mexico is going to pay for, will begin on day one, according to the President-Elect. On his first day, Trump has promised to issue a written warning to Mexico demanding that they pay, according to The Washington Post. If it refuses, he will enact a federal provision to confiscate money that undocumented Mexicans in the US send back to Mexico.
Also on day one, Trump plans to meet with Homeland Security officials to begin work on securing the southern border.
5. Fix the Department of Veterans Affairs
“It’s a day-one project,” Mike Pence told a group of two dozen military veterans over the summer. “We are committed to fixing the VA, not privatising.” Pence went on to promise that Trump would expand mental-health care for veterans, which is one of 10 points in his Veterans Affairs Reform plan.
An image taken from an ISIS propaganda video.
6. Give Top Generals A 30-day Window to Stop ISIS
On his first day in office, Trump will give the military’s generals 30 days to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS. Trump has said he knows more about ISIS than the generals, so this will be an interesting meeting.
7. End the War on Coal
“On day one of a Trump-Pence administration, the war on coal comes to an end,” Pence said last week. “Trump digs coal.” This has been a repeated promise throughout the campaign, with Trump and Pence identifying the so-called war on coal and on miners as a major failing of the Obama administration, claiming that the Democrats’ focus on curbing emissions via regulations has stifled the industry. It’s unclear what executive moves he’ll deploy to fulfil this promise.
8. Abolish Gun-free Zones at Schools
“I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools, and… on military bases,” Trump said at a rally back in January, suggesting that more mass shootings could be prevented if there were fewer restrictions on citizens arming themselves. “My first day, it gets signed, OK? My first day. There’s no more gun-free zones.”
9. Impose High Tariffs on Companies Moving Jobs Out of The US
On day one, Trump will ring the heads of US-based companies, including Pfizer, Ford and Nabisco, to warn them that they will face a 35 per cent tariff on their products for moving jobs out of the country.
