At a Donald Trump rally, it’s often an off-the-cuff one-liner that drives the headlines.
In between, in speech after speech, the former president lays out an aggressive and ambitious policy agenda for his second term — one that makes elements of his first term in the White House seem tame by comparison.
Most of the items on the agenda aren’t new—on immigration and other issues, many of the promises Trump made during the 2016 campaign never materialized due to lack of congressional support or limits on executive power. . But there are some unique areas of Trump’s focus that are a tougher approach to telegraphing if he returns to office.
Trump makes a series of statements all at once, such as his recent statement about It allowed Russia to attack a NATO ally that did not pay enough for defense. But here are some of Trump’s most repeated campaign promises from the campaign trail.
“Record” deportations
Immigration was perhaps the biggest driving force behind Trump’s 2016 campaign. Now, he’s unofficially made it a top priority of his 2024 White House bid, detailing it in every campaign speech he’s made.
“On my first day back in the White House, I will end all of the open borders policies of the Biden administration, end the invasion of our southern border, and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Iowa. December
Trump made similar unfulfilled promises in 2016, deporting fewer people than President Barack Obama did in both terms, according to federal government data. If anything, Republican voters may now be more energized by border and immigration policy, and a recent NBC News poll showed Trump’s biggest policy lead over President Joe Biden. it was about border protection.
Trump also promised not only to restore the travel ban to some Muslim-majority countries, but also to expand the ban to include Gazan refugees and impose certain “ideological vetting” on all immigrants.
“I banned refugees from Syria, I banned refugees from Somalia – very dangerous places – and all the most dangerous places in the world,” Trump said. Iowa rally in October. “In my second term, we will expand every one of these bans,” he said.
In 2016, Trump repeatedly promised to build a 1,000-mile wall along the US-Mexico border. What ended up coming together was 453 miles of border wall, the vast majority of which were reinforcements of existing walls. Trump also promised that Mexico would cover the costs, but failed to do so. This time, equally ambitiously, Trump promises to finish what he started.
A tough approach to global issues – including a huge import tax
The former president predicted a my-way-or-the-highway approach to international deals, pushing the idea of a universal 10% tax on all goods from countries outside the United States in an effort to prioritize domestic manufacturing.
On the campaign trail, Trump often summarized his economic approach as “America first,” threatening large tariffs on the goods of companies that chose to outsource their labor and manufacturing to the United States.
Economists on both sides of the aisle have warned against Trump’s universal proposal. The American Action Forum, a center-right think tank, said Trump proposed it would be politics “Distort global trade, inhibit economic activity, and have overall negative consequences for the American economy.” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, meanwhile the plan would “raise the prices of a wide variety of goods that American businesses and consumers rely on.”
Trump’s recent comments on Russia and NATO also drew rebuke from the NATO chief, who said it could put the lives of American and European soldiers at risk.
Military action against crime
Trump has suggested using the National Guard to fight crime, which he claims is worse than ever.
The former president has often hinted at expanding the military across the country to fight crime in cities. Calling Washington, DC and Chicago “crime hotbeds”, Trump promised intervening with military force without proper authorization from local leaders.
“One of the things I’m going to do — you don’t have to get involved, you just have to be asked to come by the governor or the mayor — next time, I’m not waiting,” Trump said. .
There is traditionally a glaring difference between the military and domestic law enforcement agencies. But figures on the right have advocated more aggressive use of the Sedition Act by Trump to deploy the military domestically during his second term.
Trump has also increased his tough-on-crime rhetoric: For some low-level crimes, Trump has proposed the death penalty.
“It’s just that if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot, to be shot as you walk out of that store,” Trump told a raucous crowd at the GOP convention in California in September.
Trump also regularly insists that drug traffickers should receive the death penalty depending on the severity of their crimes.
Abolishing the Department of Education and using federal dollars to fight local mandates
Trump intends to cut federal department completely, a A 4,400-person operation with a $68 billion budget. Trump argues that it would return full education authority to the states, although the department’s elimination would not be transferred directly to any new state authority.
While Trump has talked about returning power to states and localities, another promise that has been met with thunderous applause at every rally is to cut funding to any public school system with a mask mandate for child safety, an increasingly rare authorization.
When the former president ran for office in 2016, he wanted to eliminate the Department of Education. While in office, he unsuccessfully attempted to merge the Departments of Education and Labor into one agency. Trump has also attempted to cut billions from the department’s budget it’s over subsidized student loans and public service loan forgiveness program.
Political vendetta against Biden
One of Trump’s most consistent talking points has been his intention to impeach Biden if he regains executive power.
“I’m going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in American history, Joe Biden, and to go after the Biden crime family,” Trump said in June hours after his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey. was arraigned in a federal courthouse in Miami on charges of willful possession of classified documents.
Trump often points to the 91 felonies he faces as evidence of a “two-tiered” “weaponized” justice system that he says has opened a “Pandora’s box.”
At a South Carolina rally last week, Trump sarcastically reversed that messaging, saying he no longer wanted revenge on Biden because he was so incompetent. When Trump asked the crowd if they agreed not to retaliate against Biden, shouts of “no” and heated voices filled the square.