Following his impressive victory in the Nov. 5 election, President-elect Donald Trump will return to the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025, as the 47th president of the United States. It promises to be a very busy day.
Trump has made a lot of promises about what he will do on his first day in office. Apart from the comment that he would only be a dictator on that first day — a comment that became an overblown campaign issue — there are literally dozens of things he has promised to do that day.
Whether one takes those “day one” promises seriously or not, they are important because they point to major themes of intended focus by the president-elect. And, since Trump and his team now have a better understanding of the levers of government, there is good reason to believe that upon his return to the White House, Trump will hit the ground running and work faster and more efficiently than he did during his first administration.
Among the more prominent Trump “day one” promises are the largest deportation of immigrants in American history, sweeping new tariffs on imports, a freeze on climate regulations, a remake of federal health agencies and ideological changes in the education system.
Some agenda items, like tax breaks and changes to the Affordable Care Act, will take congressional involvement. Others, like changes to immigration enforcement, imposition of tariffs, intervention in foreign affairs and changes to health regulations, do not.
Trump has said he wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza by January. But the only public information we have about that is his encouragement to Netanyahu to “get the job done.” How that plays out over the next two months could generate some concern from the more tactical, hands-on involvement of the Biden administration.
Trump has also said he will end the war in Ukraine before he even begins his presidency. Details are meager. But with more than one million people reportedly killed or injured in the grinding two-and-a-half-year war, it would be a major accomplishment if Trump could resolve things by simply speaking with both sides and bringing them together as he has promised to do.
Trump’s promise to close the southern border on day one is a big deal. The border has only been closed twice before — once, for six hours, after former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, and again, for nine days, during the Reagan administration following the abduction of a DEA agent. Closing the border is no simple thing, as it impacts those who want to depart as well as those who want to get in.
He has also promised to build huge deportation camps, implement mass deportations at an unprecedented scale, hire thousands more border agents, funnel military spending toward border security and invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs without a court hearing.
There is much more on Trump’s list, including tariffs, international relations, health care, student debt, race and gender in schools, education policy, climate issues, housing and taxes. In each area, Trump’s stated objective is not simply to undo the work of the Biden administration. He is looking to remake policies and the federal agencies that create them.
A lot is going to start happening on day one.
