Trump's plan for term 2
A look at what Donald Trump has proposed for his second term | AP News
(to one blogger - I know you're frustrated with the politics blogs as of late. It'll cool down soon, I'm sure.)
I want to get a sense of what specific things to track, things I want to keep an eye on for the next four years, things I want to get a refresher on four years from now and reflect on before casting my next presidential vote.
Most of the below is from the AP article linked above. Some is just other stuff I've remembered. Several things are copy+pasted from AP without quotes present bc lazy. Also not everything I've listed is stuff he's actually promised to do.
Big Fears (propaganda?)
I don't think these will happen, but they're the big fears that dems & liberal media have tried to use to get votes.
- There won't be any more elections
- We'll fall into fascism
- Project 2025
- Going after political opponents, possibly with power of presidential immunity for assassinations or sham investigations
- deporting or locking up political dissidents / leftists
Other concerns
- Generally abusing presidential power thanks to the immunity ruling
- Removing Lina Khan, our hero
- will prices come down? What will happen to the stock market?
- his relationship with Elon Musk (will it affect nasa?)
- Food stamps/LINK, disability benefits, medicaid
- Regulations that protect us from pollutants and toxic products
- lowering funding for public transit and walkable cities
- crime rates & incarceration rates
- police and justice reform
- judicial appointments
- making it harder to vote
- ai regulation
- data privacy regulation
immigration
- Mass deportation (using national guard / local police)
- ending birth-right citizenship
- "ideological screening" for migrants
- Banning migration from muslim nations
- remain in mexico
- separating families at the border (he did this last time)
- reducing immigration overall
- ending sanctuary cities
- Ending the app that lets migrants schedule appointments with immigration officials
Abortion
- promises to veto a national abortion ban
- Might use other schemes to limit national abortion rights (comstock act, mifepristone access)
- "Trump is also unlikely to enforce Bidenâs guidance that hospitals must provide abortions for women who are in medical emergencies, even in states with bans."
Taxes
- Corp tax rate down to 15% (a vid I watched talked about how meaningless this is because corps use tax loopholes to avoid this tax rate anyway)
- Scrapping Biden's income tax hikes on wealthy americans
- "scrapping Inflation Reduction Act levies that finance energy measures intended to combat climate change"
- exempting earned tips, social security income & overtime income from being charged income tax
- wealthy people ("hedge-fund managers or top-flight attorneys") using loopholes in this to avoid taxes (depends how congress writes it, says AP)
- could hurt social security funding
Tariffs and Trade
- 10% to 20% flat tax on all imported goods
- may cause inflation? Supposed to encourage domestic manufacturing?
- Require fed gov to buy "essential" meds from U.S. Companies via exec order
- Block purchases of "any vital infrastructure" in the U.S. by Chinese buyers.
Civil Rights (LGBTQ, DEI)
- "Trump has called for rolling back societal emphasis on diversity and for legal protections for LGBTQ citizens. Trump has called for ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government institutions, using federal funding as leverage."
- On transgender rights, Trump promises generally to end âboys in girlsâ sports,â
- Title IX protections for trans students (trans girls/women? idk)
- ask Congress to require that only two genders can be recognized at birth
Regulation, federal bureaucracy and presidential power
- lower household utility bills by removing obstacles to fossil fuel production
- open all federal lands for oil exploration (i.e. will oil production actually increase under Trump?)
- end âfrivolous litigation from the environmental extremists.â
- encourage house construction by cutting regulations
- Reclassify civil servants as political appointees, firing them or replacing them with political loyalists, weakening the fed's ability to enforce laws
- Congress sets a "ceiling" for spending but not a "floor", so Pres can choose to just not spend money that congress has allocated. might lead to court battle
- Give pres more power to control federal reserve / interest rates
Education
- Eliminate dept of education
- abolish tenure and adopt merit pay for teachers and to scrap diversity programs at all levels of education, using fed funding as leverage
- pull federal funding âfor any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.â
- taking over accreditation processes for colleges, a move he describes as his âsecret weaponâ against the âMarxist Maniacs and lunaticsâ
- âtaxing, fining and suing excessively large private university endowmentsâ at schools that do not comply with his edicts. (to raise "billions and billions of dollars"). Legal battles likely.
- âAmerican Academyâ offering college credentials to all Americans without a tuition charges. âIt will be strictly non-political, and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowedânone of thatâs going to be allowed,â Trump said on Nov. 1, 2023.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
- will protect SS
- his first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. (my state proposed work requirements for food stamps but hasn't enforced them and they scare the shit out of me because I can't fucking work)
Affordable Care Act and Health Care
- Appointing JFK to health dept
- vaccine critic
- critic of pesticides
- repeal ACA and subsidized health insurance marketplaces
Climate and energy
- transportation & infrastructure building geared toward fossil fuels (roads, bridges, & gas vehicles)
- abolishing biden's fuel efficiency standards for new cars
- end all Biden incentives to encourage EV market development
- Paris climate accords
Workersâ rights
- Leadership of the national labor relations board
- weakening unions??
- increasing wages? (i don't think he's promised that)
National defense and Americaâs role in the world
- Israel/Gaza (will he further the damage to Palestinians? Will Israel take their land? will he stand in the way?)
- Ukraine/Russia (will he provide arms to Ukraine? Will he support Russia?)
- Authoritarians - North Korea/Kim Jong Un, Hungaryâs Viktor Orban, Putin.
- protect pentagon funding
- missile defense shield
- NATO (funding, withdrawal from nato?? adding new partners?)
- Relationship with the international court of justice & with the UN.
- UN Security Council vetoes and stuff ...
- military bases across the globe
- U.S. corporations dominating resources in the global south