In the two years since Donald Trump launched his third bid for the White House, the former president has laid out many of the things he would do on his first day if returned to power.
His engagements include issues related to his ongoing federal cases, as well as border and immigration.
Here’s a look at what Trump said he would do on day one if he won a second term.
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dances on stage after his speech at a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, October 29, 2024.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Be a dictator for the day
Trump raised further alarms last year when he called himself a “dictator,” but only on “Day 1” at a town hall in Iowa.
When asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity if he promised he would “never abuse his power in retaliation against anyone,” Trump responded, “Except for day one.” .
When asked what he meant by that, Trump replied, “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
“We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling,” Trump said. “After that, I’m not a dictator.”
Fire the special prosecutor who indicted him
If he returns to the White House, Trump has pledged to fire Jack Smith, the special counsel who filed two federal lawsuits against him, “within two seconds.”
“We got immunity in the Supreme Court. It’s that simple. I would fire him in two seconds. He’ll be one of the first topics discussed,” Trump said during a call on the “Hugh Hewitt Show ” October 24.
Trump also said he would punish prosecutors and judges who oversee his multiple criminal cases, as he focuses his third presidential campaign on retaliation.
Vice President Kamala Harris has made this point during her presidential campaign, telling a rally this week that if elected, “Trump from day one would walk into this office with a list of enemies. When I am elected, I will come in with a to-do list, on your behalf.
Free some rioters convicted on January 6
Trump said one of his first acts if elected to a second term would be to “release” some people convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which he continues to claim was they are “wrongly imprisoned”.
“I’m inclined to forgive a lot of them. I can’t say that for all of them, because a few of them probably got out of hand,” he said on his media platform social workers in March, announcing this promise.
Trump repeatedly downplayed the violence that followed that day, calling the defendants “J6 hostages,” calling for their release.
As of early October, more than 1,530 people had been criminally charged in federal court in connection with the events of January 6, and more than half had pleaded guilty, according to the Justice Department. There were “approximately 1,000” assaults on police officers during the Jan. 6 riot, according to the DOJ.
Ending the atrocities of the “Green New Deal”
Trump said in a campaign video last year that he would end the “atrocities of the Green New Deal on day one” if re-elected.
The Green New Deal – a public policy initiative to combat climate change launched by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey – was never signed into law, although Trump used the term to refer to generally to the climate of the Biden administration. and energy policies, such as the landmark Inflation Reduction Act.
“To further defeat inflation, my plan will end the Green New Deal, which I call the new green scam. The biggest scam in history, probably,” Trump said during a speech at the Economic New York Club in September. “[We will] cancel all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.
At a rally in New Jersey in May, Trump promised to stop offshore wind energy projects “on day one” if elected.
“I’m going to write it into an executive order. It will end on day one,” Trump said, claiming wind turbines are “killing” whales, which was later denied by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He also relaunched his slogan “drill, baby, drill” during this campaign.
Trump has said his motivation for withdrawing from climate initiatives and promoting continued reliance on oil and gas was driven by economic need.
While taking steps toward a clean energy future during President Joe Biden’s term, the United States has continued to produce and export the largest amount of crude oil of any country, at any time, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.
Campaign signs for Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump are seen outside a pop-up store, in Traverse City, Michigan, October 25, 2024.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Mass deportations
With immigration a top issue for voters, Trump said he was determined to round up and deport millions of migrants living in the United States without legal authorization. He reiterated his campaign promise to enact mass evictions on “day one” during his rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden last weekend.
“On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get criminals out,” he said. “I will save every city and village that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in prison, then expel them from our country as quickly as possible.”
To do this, the former president said he would use local law enforcement and the National Guard to track down migrants living across the United States.
Trump spoke out against the Biden administration’s immigration policies, saying in part they made America less safe, even though statistics show U.S.-born citizens are more than twice as likely more likely to be arrested for violent crimes than undocumented immigrants.
An estimated 11 million people live in this country without legal immigration status.
If feasible, the cost of deporting 1 million undocumented immigrants per year would cost more than $88 billion, for a total of $967.9 billion over more than 10 years, according to a new report from the American Immigration Council.
Green Cards for College Graduates
Trump deviated from his usual anti-immigration rhetoric when he advocated “automatically” granting green cards to non-U.S. citizens when they graduate from college – not just people who go through the immigration process. selection – during an episode of “All In”. podcast released in June.
“[What] I want to do, and what I will do, is if you get a college degree, I think you should get, automatically as part of your degree, a green card to be able to stay in this country. That includes colleges as well,” Trump said in the episode recorded Wednesday.
“Anyone who graduates from a university, goes there for two or four years. If you get your degree or a doctorate from a university, you should be able to stay in this country,” he continued.
When asked on the podcast if he would expand H-1B work visas for tech workers after fixing the border, Trump said “yes.”
“Someone who graduates at the top of the class, he can’t even make a deal with the company because he doesn’t think he can stay in the country. It’s going to end on day one,” » Trump said.
“It’s so sad to lose people from Harvard, from MIT, from the biggest schools,” he added.
