Some Trump Surprises for DAY ONE Amidst Dark and Scary New Reality

It is not uncommon for a president to walk into the Oval Office 30 minutes after his speech and walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to sign about 50 presidential orders that have a massive impact the dynamic on taking office. Very few, though, have had plans that so fundamentally change even the structure of the federal government, and toss individual lives into total chaos like President-elect Donald Trump. As everyone has been told – or forewarned – he plans to immediately dive into grievances and retribution, amidst a couple of surprises that are at least somewhat appealing to the left – though greatly overshadowed by impending promise and worry.

Trump sat down for his first real post-election interview with Kristen Welker of Meet the Press to set it all out:

President-elect Donald Trump vowed to make immediate and sweeping changes after he takes office on Jan. 20, such as pardons for those convicted in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and said he wants to find a legislative solution to keep Dreamers in the country legally. In an interview with Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump also said he’ll work to extend the tax cuts passed in his first term.

To take the above few in order of surprise, there is some optimism in Trump’s commitment to keeping Dreamers in the country even on the condition that it be fixed through Congress – something that will be quickly done if he supports it. Such a law would likely be extremely narrow given Trump’s concurrent commitment to deporting millions of undocumented immigrants and – into the future, seeking a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship. He is not banking on sweeping immigration reform to keep Dreamers in place – which is good because such broad legislation is unlikely. Only the promise to find a way to keep hundreds of thousands (Millions?) of now adults who came over the border as kids moved by adults and now a fundamental part of the nation, both in talent, work, and culture.

The promise to pardon the January 6ers across the board is terrible. He isn’t taking them on a case by case basis and thus believes that politically motivated violence against law-enforcement is perfectly acceptable if done to support him. This is especially true when contrasted with a comment that encourages jailing the January 6th committee: “They should be in jail” – short of a promise to do it, but there in spirit. The committee did not break the law, moved on a congressional duty, and was certainly not violent. It was merely critical of him. Thus lies the only difference. Breathtaking. Moving on:

He said he will not seek to impose restrictions on abortion pills. He plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and try to end birthright citizenship. And he said the pardons for Jan. 6 rioters will happen on day one, arguing many have endured overly harsh treatment in prison. Trump did segue into familiar grievances. He would not concede that he lost the 2020 election.

Everyone knew he would move to deport millions. Even setting aside the inevitable human rights abuses, split families, open-ended internment, all of it – there is a massive and unaccounted for economic impact. Florida got hammered by the voluntary migration of undocumented immigrants in the face of laws solely denying services and the requirements to report  – nowhere near a promise to deport. And yet Florida’s economy was hit hard. Imagine what an effort to deport tens of millions will do. Again, the real devastation lies in lives thrown into turmoil and pain, families ripped apart, people who have been here 35 years, all rounded up. Obviously this is the primary devastation. The economic impact is set out only because the detriment has seemingly flown right under the MAGA radar. The country needs workers even with immigrants, never mind deportations.

The promise to not seek to impose further federal restrictions on reproductive rights is certainly better than the alternative, but obviously leaves in place some of the more draconian state action and doesn’t address reversing military policy – another political area in which the ultimate impact will surely have a big impact on current military numbers and institutional knowledge.

The failure to acknowledge the 2020 loss is simply par for the course and necessary to reward those who fought for him while punishing those who merely investigated. The Dreamers’ commitment comes as a surprise. The reproductive compromise is better than the unstated alternative (And only “better” please don’t see that as support). The rest is predictable.

Still very newsworthy. Get ready for some possible hidden items, perhaps even declaration of a national emergency that is said to require bringing in the military for domestic purposes – a dictatorship, martial law – the ultimate change in policy, indeed, change in character. He didn’t say it will happen, but – again, if he is planning on doing it, he surely wouldn’t advertise it beforehand. Take that along with the express policies.

God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on X @JasonMiciak and now on Bluesky

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