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India Today
25-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Trump 2.0 and the new world disorder
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated Nov 18, 2024)If genius is the ability to make the complex simple, then Donald Trump's historic comeback as the 47th President of the United States can only serve as the best example of that. At his victory speech in Florida, Trump outlined his agenda quite plainly, but effectively. 'The core is common sense,' he wanna have borders. We wanna have security. We wanna have things to be good and safe. We want a great education. We want a strong and powerful military and, ideally, we don't want to have to use it. I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars. We will make America safe, strong, prosperous, powerful and free again.'At the end of his speech, he declared, 'We make promises. We keep promises.' Few political leaders have such a straightforward and uncomplicated world view, which seems to have struck a chord with the US electorate. They have voted him back with a handsome majority, ignoring the many felonies, including sexual abuse, various federal courts have charged him with. Many of Trump's promises are similar to the ones he had made to win his first term as president between 2016 and 2020. He could implement only some of them, that too with limited success. It was one of the reasons why President Joe Biden managed to thwart his bid for a second consecutive term. But that interlude proved short-lived as Trump returns reloaded and raring to reset the American dream when he formally assumes office on January 20, of the world waits with trepidation for, as Ashley Tellis, senior fellow at the Washington DC-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a top expert on Indo-US relations, puts it, 'We are going to have a tumultuous presidency. Trump is going to come with much greater confidence and with an army of acolytes and foot soldiers who regard him as an apostle of a revolution. They are determined to take an axe to the roots. He will do things no previous American president would have even contemplated doing. There will be serious perturbations in terms of the traditional American role in hegemonic stability.'In his second term, as in his first, Trump's domestic agenda will be his most compelling concern, and his foreign policy will be subservient to the radical reforms he has in mind for his country. During his campaign for re-election, Trump's team brought out a manifesto called 'Agenda 47', which listed a range of major policy initiatives, domestic and foreign, that he would implement, even if it meant trampling on the powers of the US include a radical downsizing of government bureaucracy and restructuring of administrative appointments, to fire those he calls 'rogue bureaucrats' and make way for those aligned to his policy. In the US Department of Justice, for instance, Trump has pledged to appoint 100 US attorneys to fight, among other things, anti-conservative bias and left-leaning law firms. On crime, he has promised to be tough and bring in the death penalty for human traffickers, drug dealers and plans in other spheres have elicited equal consternation domestically. In education, for example, among the initiatives listed is a plan to get rid of existing accreditors for colleges and universities and replace them with ones more in line with the Republican party values. Professor Sumit Ganguly, a senior fellow at the Hoover Foundation at Stanford University, describes much of what Trump is planning as 'a domestic Reaganite revolution on steroids'.Ronald Reagan, one of the best recent Republican presidents of America, brought about a major economic revival during his tenure between 1981 and 1989 by lowering taxes and freeing the economy of bureaucratic constraints, besides undertaking some path-breaking initiatives to tackle the Cold War. But while Reagan recognised there was a diffusion of power and there were things that the president could or could not do, Trump, Ganguly fears, 'is likely to steamroller those kinds of normative institutional procedural constraints'. The same is likely to be true of his foreign policy agenda as well, as the new president will try to ram through his disruptive transactional approachBut what is the world according to Trump? Simply put, it is ensuring America's interests first with those of every other nation coming a very distant second. Trump is unabashed about his transactional approach to key issues and is convinced that America's decline was because it ended up paying everyone else's bills to maintain the global order while the US itself got diminishing returns. As he puts it, 'these guys ate our lunch'.Despite the American economy doing well under Biden, Trump's campaign theme of high retail prices and low job growth got him the support of the working-class American, who felt the pinch the most. Equally resonant was his amplification of the perceived threat posed by immigrants, especially illegal ones, who would take away American jobs. Among the first things he promises to do when he takes charge in January 2025 is to execute 'the largest deportment program' of illegal immigrants ever than anything else, however, Trump is hell-bent on dismantling America's international statecraft which, after World War II, fashioned alliances and institutions that would foster a liberal order to enable peace and prosperity for much of the world while ensuring US supremacy and idealism. Post-war US presidents pursued an expansive foreign and trade policy that pushed for greater globalisation through openness to trade and investments and even intervening militarily against forces that threatened world wants to do just the opposite with his 3-D policy of disrupt, disengage and deglobalise. Shades of that agenda played out in his first term itself, as he locked into a trade war with China, pulled out of major international pacts, including the 2014 Paris Climate Change agreements, and antagonised NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) allies by saying the security blanket that the US provided them was no longer free and that they should up their own defence spending to meet the his second term, Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, says, the big concern broadly will be 'his volatility and transactional approach. Trump's volatility will be even harder to deal with. One day he could be competitive with China and tomorrow he could strike a deal'. This Trump presidency comes at a time of two major international challenges—the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Gaza conflict. Regarding the first, Trump boasted he would get Russian president Vladimir Putin to strike a deal on Ukraine and end the war within days of taking over. He said the same of the Gaza conflict, though with less conviction. His stance with his NATO allies is likely to remain the same—he will continue to ask them to cough up more for their does not want to assume any international leadership role if it involves a price tag that the US has to pay for,' says Tellis. He believes that Trump is likely to ask hard questions over sustaining major US policies, including defending Taiwan and could even swap it for a big deal with China. Madan's main concern is that the US may not want to get entangled in such conflicts and end up saying, 'Russia, you handle Europe, and China, you handle Asia. It doesn't suit India's interest for an American president to withdraw completely from Asia.'What many experts deeply fear is the possible decline in US power should Trump carry his insular and isolationist agenda into his second term. This could, in the long term, lead to greater world conflict. Condoleezza Rice, a key policy-maker in the George W. Bush presidency, without directly referring to the Trump administration, in a perceptive article in Foreign Affairs before the election results, warned: 'The new Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—populism, nativism, isolationism, and protectionism—tend to ride together, and they are challenging the political the United States can counter their advance and resist the temptation to go back to the future. But generating support for an internationalist foreign policy requires a president to paint a vivid picture of what that world would be like without an active United States. In such a world, an emboldened Putin and Xi, having defeated Ukraine, would move on to their next conquest.... American leaders should remind the public that a reluctant United States has repeatedly been drawn into conflict—in 1917, 1941 and 2001. Isolation has never been the answer to the country's security or prosperity.'Trading punchesTrump, though, is not one to heed such wise counsel. Ever since his first term, he has been convinced that others have gleefully exploited America's generosity for too long and that it was payback time now. Top among the list of policy changes he is contemplating is a drastic rise in tariffs (the most beautiful word in the dictionary, in his book). Doing so is likely to destroy the global trading system, particularly the effectiveness of the World Trade Organization, but Trump doesn't care because he believes it does not serve America's interests. He intends to erect protectionist walls around America, which could well mark the beginning of the end of prime target is China, but so is India, which he calls 'the Tariff King'. China has had a favourable trade balance with the US for long, which rankled Trump even during his first term. Even though he pushed China hard to set the imbalance right, it remains skewed in China's favour. Of the $575 billion worth of goods trade with the US in 2023, China enjoyed a favourable balance of $279 billion. Trump has vowed to impose an across-the-board hike of 60 per cent in tariffs on Chinese imports, which could result in the decoupling of the world's two largest while he may claim to be 'a true friend' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a $35.3 billion trade surplus in India's favour, Trump is likely to impose a 10 per cent rise in tariffs on Indian exports to the US. India had a taste of this Trumpian resolve during the first term, when in 2019 he withdrew the preferential tariffs New Delhi enjoyed under America's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) that covered $6.3 billion, or 12 per cent of the goods exported to the US. The tariffs on steel and aluminium exports also went up by 25 and 10 per cent, India could do was retaliate, by imposing higher tariffs on 29 goods it imported from the US, including almonds, walnuts, chickpeas and apples. Many experts expect Trump to only be tougher in his second tenure. Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), warns, 'Not just India and China, Trump is going to close the doors of America from the import perspective by putting in massive tariffs. There will also be lot of transactional uncertainty where there could be frequent changes in policy that could disrupt India's exports.'Some do spy an opportunity for India in Trump targeting trade with China, saying it could make Indian goods more competitive. Tellis is quick to curb that enthusiasm, saying he expects only a modest rise in exports on this count. 'At the end of the day,' he says, 'India has neither the quality nor the competitive pricing to match China. Also, since all this activity is essentially driven by the private actors in the global marketplace, India may not be able to become an adequate substitute.'The exceptions are niche areas like defence products that concern national security, where US companies may be willing to pay a premium to import from India rather than China. Also, rather than the retaliatory trade measures India responded with in Trump's first term, experts advise that we make concessions in some of the tariffs to accommodate the US. As an official experienced in such negotiations says, 'We should not look to balance every trade deal, but look at the macro picture and see where we can do business. The Trump administration is pragmatic and will be happy to go in for a win-win deal.'Another likely area of friction is Trump's policy on migrants, especially illegal ones. While he will use the strong-arm measures he has promised to evict illegal migrants, even in his victory speech, he was forced to concede that he was not against legal migrants. It is not only South Americans who will feel the heat of Trump's crackdown on illegal migrants. There are a large number of illegal migrants—an estimated 725,000—from India as well, particularly from Punjab and Gujarat, who seek refuge in the US. Last year, the Biden administration deported over 1,100 of them back to Trump is also likely to further trim the number of H1B visas for non-immigrant workers, which is currently limited to 85,000 annually, a bulk of which are cornered by Indians. The second Trump administration is likely to withdraw the spouse's work permits and make rules for issuing such visas far more stringent. This could have a downside for Trump, though. Along with his restrictive trade policy measures, mass deportations are likely to cause price rise and inflation in the US, since it will become costlier to produce and TrumpFor New Delhi, Trump's return does not evoke as much anxiety as it does in other world capitals. That is because, in the past two decades, India and the US have 'overcome the hesitations of history', as Modi calls it, and forged a strategic partnership that has grown both in stature, depth and breadth. In his first term, Trump's trade antagonism towards China saw him view India as an Asian bulwark against Xi Jinping's aggressive ambitions. The Trump administration worked hard to put in place agreements that would make transfer of defence technology and equipment to India on par with its closest allies. It was Biden, though, who took India-US relations to an altogether higher level by not only clearing deals to sell state-of-the-art drones but also, in a first, permitting jet engine production in and Modi also signed up for a major collaboration on critical and emerging technologies, including semi-conductor chips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and wireless telecommunication. 'The US and India,' says Tellis, 'have dipped their toes in high tech before deciding to swim together. What's important is that the embrace is not just of government but also between the two societies at the entrepreneurial and technological layers. We need to structure such opportunities for Indian and US entrepreneurs to explore other possible partnerships for the long term.'Experts, however, point out that there is no room for complacency and, given Trump's mercurial personality, urge India to work hard to stay on his right side. 'It has to be a win-win situation,' says an expert in dealing with India-US relations. 'For that, both sides must realise the inevitability of India-US cooperation. For India, aspiring to be a developed nation by 2047, there is no better partner than the US. For Trump's mercantile approach, India, with its large middle-class market and talent pool, makes it important to continue engaging with it more closely for America's economic growth and for creating jobs.'Another expert says that the key is for Trump to see India as a solution provider for all the major problems that America faces. Few, for instance, know that Indian pharmaceutical companies supplied 40 per cent of all drug prescriptions filled in the US in 2022, resulting in an annual saving of $219 billion to America's health expenditure because of their competitive must also try to be the first mover in the opportunities a Trump administration could throw up. The de-risking from China is critical for US companies, which offers Indian companies a chance to partner with them in a host of key areas. The Modi government needs to ensure that these companies have a level playing field, that there is transparency and consistency in policy, apart from making sure that there is absolute ease of doing Aghi of USISPF also offers the radical suggestion of converting the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) comprising the US, Australia, Japan and India into a common market that could become a platform for their own economic growth. Combined, these countries have a GDP of $35 trillion. These four countries, he points out, are already collaborating on technology, security and other key areas and could together drive a whole new agenda on the economic cannot be sure if Trump will buy into this form of mini-lateralism, especially as his 'Make in America' policy, which Biden also pursued, clashes with Modi's Make in India initiatives. Or if he will encourage friend-shoring some of the US production capacity to India. As Madan says, 'It depends on how Trump decides to deal with China. If he is hawkish towards Beijing, it incentivises his administration to give high priority to engage with India. Also, both India and the US will have to show willingness to manage their differences, including the pretty big stuff.'In addition to trade issues, Trump's position on climate change, including his decision to pull the plug on Biden's initiative to provide incentives to companies to lower their carbon emissions and fund greentech development, may be a source of worry. Trump's 'drill-baby-drill' slogan to encourage US domestic oil industry to expand production will mean a huge setback to the world climate change movement that India is committed to. On the plus side, it eases the pressure Europe has been putting on New Delhi to hasten its plans to phase out coal. Trump may also not press the brakes hard on green energy projects, so that his most vociferous supporter, Tesla chief Elon Musk, can fulfil his ambition to make his company the world's largest producer of electric may have one more thing going for it for Trump to maintain the relationship—the high-profile and prosperous 4.5 million Indian diaspora, which he has actively sought to woo. Kamala Harris may exit as vice president in January but Usha Vance, wife of VP-elect J.D. Vance, will ensure the India flavour remains. With Trump being an instinctive leader and responsive to personalised diplomacy, the old Modi playbook of hugs, rallies, catchy slogans like 'Namaste Trump' and blandishments could work return of President Trump is without doubt one of the greatest political comebacks the US has seen. We also know that he will be predictably unpredictable. And that is precisely why his second term promises to be one of the biggest turning points in world to India Today Magazine- EndsTrending Reel
NDTV
22-06-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
The 'Peacemaker' Who Struck First: How Trump Abandoned His Anti-War Crusade
New Delhi: A day after blasting the Nobel Committee for ignoring his anti-war legacy, US President Donald Trump ordered "spectacular" airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, shattering his long-crafted image as a peacemaker. Once the loudest voice against America's "forever wars," Trump is now at the centre of a high-stakes military escalation, one years in the making, and fuelled in part by his own decisions. In 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) brokered by Barack Obama and five global powers in 2015. The pact had curbed Iran's nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief and sweeping inspections. After the US exit, Tehran ramped up uranium enrichment, pushing the deal toward collapse. Tensions surged in January 2020 when Trump ordered the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and threatened to target Iran's cultural sites. Trump's Anti-War Comments: A Timeline In his 2016 presidential bid, Donald Trump repeatedly campaigned against US involvement in what he termed "endless, forever wars", a reference to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with entanglements in Syria and Libya. At his 2019 State of the Union address, Trump declared, "Great nations do not fight endless wars." The remark was widely seen as a rebuke of the military-industrial complex and the bipartisan consensus that had supported prolonged US deployments since 2001. As he prepared for the 2020 election, Trump reminded voters, "I'm the only president in generations who didn't start a war." Here, he was distancing himself from the legacies of George W Bush (Iraq, Afghanistan), Barack Obama (Libya, Syria involvement), and even previous Republican administrations. In both his 2020 campaign and later "Agenda 47" videos, Trump leaned heavily into his image as a dealmaker, not a warmonger. "We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into," he said. That line showed his preference for negotiations over military action, from outreach to North Korea to pushing the Abraham Accords in the Middle East. By early 2024, during the Republican primaries, Trump was again invoking this anti-war posture, this time to distinguish himself from rivals like Nikki Haley, who had taken more interventionist stances. In a January rally in Iowa, he told supporters, "Let's turn the page forever on those foolish, stupid days of never-ending wars. They never ended." He later criticised Haley by saying, " Nikki Haley was a warmonger whose mentality is 'Let's kill people all over the place...'" This May, when asked about US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, Trump made it clear, " It's not our war. We're going to try to end it, but if we can't end it... This is not our war." But that non-interventionist image was upended on June 21, when Trump ordered precision airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites. In an Oval Office address afterward, he issued a warning, "If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes." In the same speech, Trump justified, "For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America, Death to Israel.' ... It will not continue." He added, "Tonight's strike was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal."
Boston Globe
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
In his own words: Trump's Iran strike tests his rhetoric on ending wars
Here's a look at some of Trump's rhetoric before his announcement Saturday about the strikes: 2024 campaign Trump often drew lines of contrasts with his Republican primary opponents. In January 2024, at a New Hampshire rally, he referred to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was U.N. ambassador during Trump's first term, as a 'warmonger' whose mentality on foreign policy is, 'Let's kill people all over the place and let's make a lot of money for those people that make the messes.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up During a Jan. 6, 2024, rally before the Iowa caucuses, Trump told supporters that returning him to the White House would allow the country to 'turn the page forever on those foolish, stupid days of never-ending wars. They never ended.' Advertisement Rolling out his foreign policy priorities during that campaign — something Trump's orbit called " Agenda 47 " — he posted a video online in which he talked of how he was 'the only president in generations who didn't start a war.' Advertisement In that video, Trump called himself 'the only president who rejected the catastrophic advice of many of Washington's Generals, bureaucrats, and the so-called diplomats who only know how to get us into conflict, but they don't know how to get us out.' First term In his first term, Trump often referenced his anti-interventionist pledge. During his 2019 State of the Union address, he said, 'As a candidate for president, I loudly pledged a new approach. Great nations do not fight endless wars.' There were frequent clashes with some of his advisers over whether or not the United States should take a more involved stance abroad. That included his hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, with whom Trump had strong disagreements on Iran, Afghanistan and other global challenges. As Turkey launched a military operation into Syria targeting Kurdish forces, Trump in October 2019 posted a series of tweets citing his anti-interventionist stance. 'Turkey has been planning to attack the Kurds for a long time. They have been fighting forever,' Trump posted Oct. 10, 2019, on the platform then known as Twitter. 'We have no soldiers or Military anywhere near the attack area. I am trying to end the ENDLESS WARS.' A week later, he reiterated his position: 'I was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars, where our great Military functions as a policing operation to the benefit of people who don't even like the USA.' 2016 campaign Candidate Trump was vociferous in his disdain for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, calling them both mistakes. 'We made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place,' Trump told CNN in October 2015, referencing Afghanistan. Advertisement 'We spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don't even have the oil,' he said of the Iraq War during a March 2016 town hall hosted by the same network. During a primary debate, Trump engaged in a terse exchange with Jeb Bush particularly over U.S. military action in Iraq, launched by President George W. Bush, the Florida governor's brother. 'We should have never been in Iraq,' Trump said in February 2016. 'They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none and they knew that there were none.' What about earlier? Trump's press secretary said Wednesday that the president's beliefs that Iran should not achieve nuclear armament predated his time in politics. And his earlier writings indicate that, while candidate Trump has said he opposed the Iraq War, those sentiments were different before the conflict began. In his 2000 book 'The America We Deserve,' the businessman wrote that he felt a military strike on Iraq might be needed, given the unknown status of that nation's nuclear capabilities. 'I'm no warmonger,' Trump wrote. 'But the fact is, if we decide a strike against Iraq is necessary, it is madness not to carry the mission to its conclusion. When we don't, we have the worst of all worlds: Iraq remains a threat, and now has more incentive than ever to attack us.'
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Has Trump kept his day one promises?
Donald Trump made a lot of promises while running for president. He pledged to cut taxes, reduce prices, stem undocumented migration, raise revenue and strengthen American industry with new tariffs and end wars. Some of his proposals were detailed by his policy team or presented by Trump himself, in "Agenda 47" videos on his campaign website. Others were offered seemingly off-the-cuff - a product of Trump's "think out loud" style and openness to adopting ideas others had suggested to him. In his victory speech on 6 November, he made it clear he intended to keep the promises that sent him back to the White House: "I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept." It's become a slogan of sorts in his first month in office, which has been marked by a blizzard of activity and notable progress in achieving some of his goals. In areas such as immigration and foreign policy, Trump has broad power to act unilaterally - and has done so. In other areas, he has run up against legal challenges and political obstacles. Many of the other promises he's made will ultimately require action from Congress, under narrow Republican control, to become permanent. Here's a look at some of Trump's biggest first-day vows and his efforts to turn them into reality. What he's said: "When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one." press conference, Aug 2024 What he's done: This is perhaps his biggest challenge, given how often inflation topped the list of voters' priorities during the election campaign. In his inaugural address, Trump promised to "marshal the vast powers" of his Cabinet to rapidly bring down costs and prices, but it's unclear how. One way, he says, is by increasing drilling to reduce energy costs. A steep price rise in January, the biggest monthly increase for 16 months, has complicated Trump's task. He blamed Joe Biden, who left office on 20 January, and Democratic spending. "I had nothing to do with it," said Trump. At other times, however, he has admitted it's hard for US presidents to control prices. But economists warn some of his policies could fuel inflation and polling suggests voters would like to see him doing more. What he's said: "On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out." 4 Nov 2024 What he's done: Immigration has perhaps been Trump's main focus since taking power, with more than a dozen executive orders aimed at overhauling the system. His plan to deport foreign nationals in the country illegally, starting with those convicted of crimes, seems to have widespread public support. But it is uncertain whether he will meet his promise to deport so many. A few raids have made headlines but the number of people being removed does not seem to be record-breaking, according to the daily figures. In his first month in office, the US deported 37,660 people - less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden's administration, data obtained by Reuters shows. A DHS spokesperson told the agency that Biden-era deportation numbers were higher because illegal immigration was higher. Nationwide border encounters decreased 66% in January compared to 2024, according to the White House. What he's said: "I'll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes." Time Magazine, Dec 2024 What he's done: True to his word, hours after taking the presidential oath, Trump issued pardons and commutations that paved the way for the release of more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the US Capitol riot. A police officer who was punched that day told the BBC the pardons were a "slap in the face". What he's said: "They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done - I'll have that done in 24 hours." CNN town hall, 2023 What he's done: Trump has initiated the first talks between the US and Russia since the start of the war, but Ukraine has vowed to reject any deal hatched without it, and there's been an angry exchange between leaders. President Volodymyr Zelensky fears the US president delivering on his campaign promise to end the war but on Moscow's terms and with no security guarantees. There is also anxiety in European capitals that they are being sidelined, and that Trump may dismantle some of the sanctions imposed on Russia as punishment for the invasion. What he's said: Trump told NBC in December he "absolutely" planned to end birthright citizenship on day one: "If somebody sets a foot of just a foot… on our land, congratulations. You are now a citizen of the United States of America. Yes, we're going to end that." What he's done: In one of the first acts of his second presidency, Trump ordered an end to an automatic right to American citizenship currently received by nearly anybody born on US soil. Birthright citizenship is not the norm around the world, and Trump's move targets those who are in the US illegally or on temporary visas. Opponents say the plan interferes with a right that was established by an amendment to the US Constitution nearly 160 years ago. And the issue could be heading for the Supreme Court – the highest in America – after an appeals court ruled against Trump, upholding a legal block on his plan. What he's said: "On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders." 25 Nov What he's done: Trump announced on 21 January that he would levy blanket tariffs on his neighbours on 1 February, linking them to the flow of drugs and migrants into the US. The president has long seen tariffs, which are a tax on imports, as a way to protect domestic industry and increase revenue. Canada and Mexico said they would enact retaliatory taxes on US imports. But Trump delayed starting the tariffs for one month, after promises by both countries to increase border enforcement. There had also been volatility in the markets and warnings from economic experts that these actions could cause prices to rise. All you need to know about Trump presidency Is Trump right about unfair trade? Fact-checking Trump claims about Ukraine What is Doge and why is Musk cutting so many jobs?
BBC News
23-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Has Trump kept his day one promises?
Donald Trump made a lot of promises while running for president. He pledged to cut taxes, reduce prices, stem undocumented migration, raise revenue and strengthen American industry with new tariffs and end of his proposals were detailed by his policy team or presented by Trump himself, in "Agenda 47" videos on his campaign website. Others were offered seemingly off-the-cuff - a product of Trump's "think out loud" style and openness to adopting ideas others had suggested to his victory speech on 6 November, he made it clear he intended to keep the promises that sent him back to the White House: "I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept."It's become a slogan of sorts in his first month in office, which has been marked by a blizzard of activity and notable progress in achieving some of his areas such as immigration and foreign policy, Trump has broad power to act unilaterally - and has done so. In other areas, he has run up against legal challenges and political obstacles. Many of the other promises he's made will ultimately require action from Congress, under narrow Republican control, to become a look at some of Trump's biggest first-day vows and his efforts to turn them into reality. Reducing prices What he's said:"When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one." press conference, Aug 2024What he's done:This is perhaps his biggest challenge, given how often inflation topped the list of voters' priorities during the election campaign. In his inaugural address, Trump promised to "marshal the vast powers" of his Cabinet to rapidly bring down costs and prices, but it's unclear how. One way, he says, is by increasing drilling to reduce energy costs.A steep price rise in January, the biggest monthly increase for 16 months, has complicated Trump's task. He blamed Joe Biden, who left office on 20 January, and Democratic spending. "I had nothing to do with it," said other times, however, he has admitted it's hard for US presidents to control prices. But economists warn some of his policies could fuel inflation and polling suggests voters would like to see him doing more. Mass deportations What he's said:"On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out." 4 Nov 2024What he's done:Immigration has perhaps been Trump's main focus since taking power, with more than a dozen executive orders aimed at overhauling the system. His plan to deport foreign nationals in the country illegally, starting with those convicted of crimes, seems to have widespread public it is uncertain whether he will meet his promise to deport so many. A few raids have made headlines but the number of people being removed does not seem to be record-breaking, according to the daily his first month in office, the US deported 37,660 people - less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden's administration, data obtained by Reuters shows.A DHS spokesperson told the agency that Biden-era deportation numbers were higher because illegal immigration was higher. Nationwide border encounters decreased 66% in January compared to 2024, according to the White House. January 6 pardons What he's said:"I'll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes." Time Magazine, Dec 2024What he's done:True to his word, hours after taking the presidential oath, Trump issued pardons and commutations that paved the way for the release of more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the US Capitol riot. A police officer who was punched that day told the BBC the pardons were a "slap in the face". Ending Ukraine War What he's said:"They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done - I'll have that done in 24 hours." CNN town hall, 2023What he's done:Trump has initiated the first talks between the US and Russia since the start of the war, but Ukraine has vowed to reject any deal hatched without it, and there's been an angry exchange between leaders. President Volodymyr Zelensky fears the US president delivering on his campaign promise to end the war but on Moscow's terms and with no security guarantees. There is also anxiety in European capitals that they are being sidelined, and that Trump may dismantle some of the sanctions imposed on Russia as punishment for the invasion. Ending birthright citizenship What he's said:Trump told NBC in December he "absolutely" planned to end birthright citizenship on day one: "If somebody sets a foot of just a foot… on our land, congratulations. You are now a citizen of the United States of America. Yes, we're going to end that."What he's done:In one of the first acts of his second presidency, Trump ordered an end to an automatic right to American citizenship currently received by nearly anybody born on US soil. Birthright citizenship is not the norm around the world, and Trump's move targets those who are in the US illegally or on temporary say the plan interferes with a right that was established by an amendment to the US Constitution nearly 160 years ago. And the issue could be heading for the Supreme Court – the highest in America – after an appeals court ruled against Trump, upholding a legal block on his plan. Blanket tariffs on Canada and Mexico What he's said:"On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders." 25 NovWhat he's done:Trump announced on 21 January that he would levy blanket tariffs on his neighbours on 1 February, linking them to the flow of drugs and migrants into the US. The president has long seen tariffs, which are a tax on imports, as a way to protect domestic industry and increase revenue. Canada and Mexico said they would enact retaliatory taxes on US imports. But Trump delayed starting the tariffs for one month, after promises by both countries to increase border enforcement. There had also been volatility in the markets and warnings from economic experts that these actions could cause prices to rise. All you need to know about Trump presidencyIs Trump right about unfair trade?Fact-checking Trump claims about UkraineWhat is Doge and why is Musk cutting so many jobs?
