Trade wars, mass deportation: Trump’s promises as U.S. president

A sweeping deportation programme, trade wars, and peace for Ukraine are some of the big promises made by United States President-elect Donald Trump as he returns to the White House on Monday, January 20, 2025.

Below are Trump’s promises for a second term as U.S. president – much of them likely to be enacted through executive orders.

Immigration

Trump has promised a hardline stance against an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Republican billionaire will declare a state of emergency on the border with Mexico, which would unlock additional Department of Defense funding and assets.

He also vowed on the campaign trail to end birthright citizenship, calling it “ridiculous”.

Analysts also expect him to issue executive orders on other aspects of immigration policy, including possibly to terminate an app used by migrants hoping to petition for asylum.

However, birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and any deportation program will face legal challenges as well as potential refusals by some countries to accept deportees.

Trade wars

Trump has vowed to slap a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada – top U.S. trading partners – as punishment for what he says is their failure to stem the flow of drugs and undocumented migrants into the United States.

But is Trump really ready to unleash a trade war with U.S. neighbours, rupturing a North American free trade agreement? Some see this – and an even more provocative suggestion that Canada should be absorbed into the United States – as pre-negotiation bluster.

Trump vows tariffs that threaten global trade on Canada, Mexico, China

Beijing should also buckle up, AFP reported.

Trump has threatened to impose a 10 percent tariff on Chinese products, adding to existing tariffs that date back to his first term. Trump accuses China of failing to crack down on the production of chemical components used to make fentanyl.

January 6 pardons

The president-elect has suggested he might pardon some or all of the people involved in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when his supporters tried to overthrow the 2020 election in which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump has described them as “hostages” and “political prisoners”.

He told a pre-inauguration rally that his supporters would be “very happy” with the decision he plans to make on the matter on his first day in office.

More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes in the deadly assault, and more than 1,100 of them have been sentenced.

Wars and diplomacy

Trump warned that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages before his inauguration – and promptly took credit when a ceasefire and hostage release deal negotiated by the Biden Administration was announced Wednesday.

Trump also says he intends to quickly end Russia’s war against Ukraine, though it is unclear when or how he plans to do that.

After promising over the summer to end the nearly three-year conflict “in 24 hours,” Trump more recently suggested a timeline of several months.

Climate

Climate skeptic Trump has promised to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and gas.
He plans to repeal some of Biden’s key climate policies, such as tax credits for electric vehicles, which are meant to encourage a transition to a green economy.

Trump also wants to boost offshore drilling, though he might need to secure congressional support to do that. Biden has selected swaths of ocean as protected no-drill areas.

Transgender rights and race

“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said in December, vowing to “end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.”

Trump’s inauguration to hold indoors over bad weather

He added the United States Government would recognise only two genders, male and female.

Also among his plans is cutting federal funding to schools that have adopted “critical race theory,” an approach that looks at U.S.history through the lens of racism.

TikTok lifeline

Trump has vowed to save the popular video-sharing app TikTok from a law banning it on national security grounds.

TikTok briefly shut down in the United States as a deadline loomed for its Chinese owners ByteDance to sell its U.S. subsidiary to non-Chinese buyers.

However, it went back online after Trump, who has credited the app with connecting him to younger voters, promised to issue an executive order delaying the ban to allow time to “make a deal.”

He said on his Truth Social platform that he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”

The Star