Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the White House after he was projected to win the presidential race, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.
During Trump’s third campaign for the presidency, he laid out many of the things he would do on his first day back in office.
Here’s what Trump has said he would do on Day 1:
Be a dictator for the day
Trump raised new alarms last year when he referred to himself as a “dictator” but only on “Day 1” during a town hall in Iowa.
When asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity if he was promising that he “would never abuse power as retribution against anybody,” Trump responded, “Except for Day 1.”
MORE: What to make of Trump’s ‘dictator’ comment
When asked what he meant by that, Trump said, “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 counsel who indicted him
If he returns to the White House, Trump has vowed to fire Jack Smith, the special counsel who has brought two federal cases against him, “within two seconds.”
“We got immunity at the Supreme Court. It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds. He’ll be one of the first things addressed,” Trump said on a call into the “Hugh Hewitt Show” on Oct. 24.
MORE: Garland vows DOJ won’t be used as ‘political weapon’
Trump has also said he would punish the prosecutors and judges overseeing his multiple criminal cases, as he’s focused his third presidential campaign on retribution.
Vice President Kamala Harris has honed in on this during her campaign for president, saying at a rally this week that if elected, “Trump on Day 1 would walk into that office with an enemies list. When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list, on behalf of you.”
Free some convicted Jan. 6 rioters
Trump has said one of his first acts if elected to a second term would be to “free” some people convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, whom he continues to claim are “wrongfully imprisoned.”
“I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control,” he said on his social media platform in March when announcing the promise.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the violence that ensued that day, referring to the defendants as “J6 hostages,” calling for their release.
As of early October, more than 1,530 individuals have been charged criminally in federal court in connection with Jan. 6, with more than half pleading guilty, according to the Department of Justice. There were “approximately 1,000” assaults on police officers during the Jan. 6 riot, according to the DOJ.
MORE: Trump’s ‘enemy from within’ threat spurs critics’ alarm about his authoritarian shift
End ‘Green New Deal atrocities’
Trump said in a campaign video last year he would end the “Green New Deal atrocities on Day 1” if reelected.
The Green New Deal — a public policy initiative to address climate change pitched by Democrats Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey — was never signed into law, though Trump has used the term to generally refer to the Biden administration’s climate and energy policies, like the landmark Inflation Reduction Act.
“To further defeat inflation, my plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam. Greatest scam in history, probably,” Trump said during remarks at the Economic Club of New York in September. “[We will] rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.”
MORE: Where Kamala Harris stands on Green New Deal and climate initiatives
During a New Jersey rally in May, Trump promised to halt offshore wind energy projects “on Day 1” if elected.
“I’m going to write it out in an executive order. It’s going to end on Day 1,” Trump said, claiming that wind turbines “kill” whales, which was later denied by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He has also revived his “drill, baby, drill” slogan during this campaign.
Trump has said his motivation behind withdrawing from climate initiatives and pushing for continued reliance on oil and gas is driven by economic needs.
While taking steps toward a clean-energy future during President Joe Biden’s tenure, the U.S. has continued to produce and export the most crude oil out of any country, at any time, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Mass deportations
With immigration a top issue for voters, Trump has said he’s determined to round up and deport millions of migrants living in the U.S. without legal permission. He reiterated a campaign promise to enact mass deportations on “Day 1” during his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City last weekend.
“On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out,” he said. “I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail, then kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.”
MORE: Trump wants a mass deportation program. How much could it cost?
To do so, the former president said he would use local law enforcement and the National Guard to find migrants living across the U.S.
Trump has railed against the Biden administration’s immigration policies, in part claiming they have made America less safe, though statistics show that U.S.-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than undocumented immigrants.
An estimated 11 million people are living in this country without legal immigration status.
If feasible, the cost to deport even 1 million undocumented immigrants a year would cost over $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-immigrant rhetoric when he advocated for “automatically” giving noncitizens in the U.S. green cards when they graduate from college — not just people who go through the vetting process — during an episode of the “All In” podcast released in June.
“[What] I want to do, and what I will do, is you graduate from a college, I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. That includes junior colleges, too,” Trump said in the episode, which was taped on Wednesday.
“Anybody graduates from a college, you go in there for two years or four years, if you graduate, or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country,” he continued.
Asked on the podcast if he would expand H-1B work visas for tech workers after fixing the border, Trump said “yes.”
“Somebody graduates at the top of the class, they can’t even make a deal with the company because they don’t think they’re going to be able to stay in the country. That is going to end on Day 1,” Trump said.
“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools,” he added.
What Trump said he would do on Day 1 if reelected originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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