(AFP) – Mass expulsions? Political revenge? World peace? A new golden age? As Donald Trump vies for another term in the White House, the country is abuzz with speculation over how life might look with the ex-president back at the helm. Here are Trump’s plans for the United States and the world, in five emblematic measures.
– **Mass deportations**
Vice President Kamala Harris’s rival in November’s election has pledged to launch the biggest deportation operation of illegal migrants in US history on his first day in office. “We’re going to get them out as fast as we can,” he has said, accusing undocumented migrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.” The 78-year-old, known for his unfinished US-Mexico border wall project, has said he would be happy to “use the military” as part of the effort and would open detention camps to process targets for expulsion. “On day one of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic US citizenship,” he said in a campaign video. He has confirmed he also plans to reinstate his ban on entries from several Muslim-majority countries, as a means of “keeping terrorists the hell out of our country.”
– **’Drill, baby, drill!’**
Trump slammed the door on the 2015 Paris climate accords during his first term, and his campaign has said he intends to end US participation again if reelected. He told supporters at a rally earlier in the summer that he would “stop Biden’s wasteful spending and rapidly terminate the green new scam” — a reference to the funding committed by his successor to mitigating climate change. “I will repeal crooked Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate and we will ‘drill, baby, drill,'” Trump said in Wisconsin, using an old Republican slogan. “Energy costs will come down very quickly,” he vowed. “In many cases, we’ll be cutting your energy costs in half.”
– **Crypto-a-go-go**
Trump has pledged to make the United States the “Bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world,” and to put tech billionaire and right-wing conspiracy theorist Elon Musk in charge of a wide-ranging audit of governmental waste. Trump also envisages tariffs of “more than 10 percent” on all imports. US companies — and eventually their customers — pay for import tariffs, not the companies exporting the goods. He insists that the revenue collected will finance a “middle class, upper class, lower class, business class big tax cut.” Having waged a fierce trade war with China during his first term, he also plans to revoke the Asian giant’s “most favored nation” status, granted to promote trade.
– **Abortion ambiguity**
Trump never misses an opportunity to point out that it is partly thanks to him — and his three conservative Supreme Court appointments — that abortion rights have been considerably weakened in the United States. But he is more ambiguous about the future of access to reproductive health care. Insisting it should be an issue for the individual states, the Republican has balked at pushing a nationwide abortion ban, a commitment that would win him support from the religious right. “You must follow your heart on this issue but remember, you must also win elections,” he has said. And he promised: “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
– **Ukraine war ‘plan’**
Trump has been saying for months he could end the war in Ukraine within “24 hours,” without explaining how. Critics suggest his plan would involve pressuring Kyiv to cede territory illegally occupied by Russia in both 2014 and 2022. “I have a very exacting plan how to stop Ukraine and Russia, And I have a certain idea — maybe not a plan, but an idea — for China,” he said in an interview. “But I can’t give you those plans, because if I give you those plans, I’m not going to be able to use them, they’ll be very unsuccessful. You know, part of it’s surprise, right?” Trump presented himself as an unconditional defender of Israel when the war with Hamas broke out. But he has since appeared more critical in his comments about the US ally’s military offensive in Gaza, saying: “I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it.”
– Camille CAMDESSUS
© 2024 AFP
