Jiang Haiyun of The New York Times
Donald Trump and his advisers are preparing to fundamentally reshape the US government if he returns to the White House. A crackdown on immigration, directing the Justice Department to prosecute opponents, expanding presidential powers, shifting US economic policy, withdrawing troops from Europe, and unilaterally deploying troops to Democrat-run cities are just some of Trump’s plans.
crack down on illegal immigration
If Trump returns to power in 2025, he plans to significantly expand the immigration crackdown he implemented during his first year in office, including:
1. Carry out mass deportations
Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration adviser, said a second Trump administration would seek to increase deportations tenfold to more than 1 million people per year.
2. Increase the number of agents for ICE raids
He plans to redeploy federal agents and the National Guard to immigration control, and he would also authorize the use of federal troops to arrest immigrants.
3. Building camps to house migrants
The Trump campaign plans to use military funds to build “vast detention facilities” to hold immigrants while their deportation proceedings proceed.
4. Encourage other countries to accept asylum seekers from the United States
He plans to revive “safe third country” agreements with Central American countries and expand them to Africa and elsewhere, with the aim of sending asylum-seekers to other countries.
5. Re-banning people from certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
Trump plans to end the country’s refugee program, re-impose a ban on visitors from Muslim countries and reinstate the travel ban that President Biden rescinded in 2021.
6. End “birthright citizenship”
His administration would declare that children born to illegal immigrant parents have no right to citizenship and would stop issuing them documents like Social Security cards and passports.
Using the Justice Department to Prosecute Adversaries
Trump has vowed to use the power of the presidency to exact revenge on those he considers his enemies. His allies have devised legal grounds to eliminate the Justice Department’s independence from the president. Trump has suggested:
1. Lead the criminal investigation into Biden and his family
As president, Trump has pressed the Justice Department to investigate his opponents, and has vowed to appoint a special counsel to “go after” Biden and his family if re-elected.
2. Prosecute opponents who challenged him politically
Citing the precedent of his own prosecution, Trump declared that if he were president again and someone challenged him politically, he could say, “Go and prosecute them.”
3. Targeting journalists for prosecution
Trump aide Kash Patel warned that Trump would target journalists for prosecution if he returned to power – a comment the campaign later distanced Trump from.
Strengthening the power of the president
Trump and his advisers have a broad goal of shifting the balance of power by expanding the president’s authority over all parts of the federal government that currently operate independently of the White House.
1. Put independent agencies under presidential control
Congress has created a range of regulatory agencies that operate independently of the White House, and Trump has vowed to place them under his control, setting up the possibility of a legal battle.
2. Reinstating the practice of “seizing” funds
Trump has vowed to return to a system in which the president has the power to veto spending funds appropriated by Congress for programs he dislikes.
3. Stripping job protections from tens of thousands of longtime public servants.
During his presidency, Trump issued executive orders that made it easier to fire career bureaucrats and replace them with loyalists – orders that Biden rescinded but that Trump has said he would do again in a second term.
4. Expel intelligence, law enforcement, State and Defense Department officials
Trump views professional national security and foreign policy officials as an evil “deep state” that he seeks to destroy.
5. Appoint an attorney who will recognize his plan as legal.
Under Trump, politically appointed lawyers sometimes challenged White House proposals, and several of his top aides are now vetting lawyers who they think are likely to adopt aggressive legal theories about the scope of Trump’s authority.
Reversing trade and other economic policies
Trump risks upending the economy by trying to transform it, with plans to impose new tariffs on most goods made overseas. Economists say his broad range of policies, including trade, deportations and taxes, could lead to higher prices.
1. Impose a new tax, the “universal baseline tariff,” on most imports.
Trump has said he plans to impose tariffs on most products made overseas, suggesting a 10% new import tax — a policy that would not only raise prices for consumers but also risk sparking a global trade war that would hurt U.S. exporters.
2. Implement tough new trade restrictions on China
Trump has said he will “phase out imports from China” of electronics and other essential products and impose new rules to block American companies from investing in China. The two countries are the world’s largest economies and exchange hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods each year.
3. Reduce restrictions on corporate profits
Trump has vowed to revive deregulatory policies and do more to rein in the so-called administrative state, the agency that issues rules on businesses – restrictions meant to keep our air and water clean and our food, drugs, cars and consumer products safe – but which it fears will stifle corporate profits.
4. Extension and expansion of tax cuts
Trump has said he would extend expiring tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including for all levels of personal income and large estates, and has privately told business leaders he wants to further cut corporate tax rates.
Withdrawal from military involvement in Europe
Trump has long made it clear that he sees NATO, America’s most important military alliance, as a free-rider drain on American resources, rather than a force multiplier with allies.
1. It could weaken NATO or force the U.S. to withdraw from the alliance.
Trump has threatened to withdraw from NATO during his presidency, and on his campaign website he said he would fundamentally reassess its purpose, stoking fears that he would undermine or end the alliance.
2. Resolve the Russia-Ukraine war “within 24 hours”
He has claimed he would end the Ukraine war in a day, without specifying how he would end it, but has suggested he would have made a deal to stop the war by just letting Russia seize Ukrainian territory.
Use of military force in Mexican and U.S. territory
Trump has been clearer about his plans to use US military force closer to home, saying:
1. Declare war on Mexican drug cartels
He announced plans to use military force to fight Mexican drug cartels, which would be a violation of international law if the United States were to use military force on Mexican territory without Mexican consent.
2. Deploy federal troops on the border
While using the military for domestic law enforcement is generally illegal, the Insurrection Act carves out an exception that the Trump campaign is likely to invoke to use soldiers as immigration agents.
3. Deploy federal troops in Democrat-run cities.
President Trump came close to using active duty troops to fight sometimes violent racial justice protests in 2020, but he remains tempted by the idea, saying he would send in federal troops alone next time to bring order to Democrat-run cities.
