2 weeks Ago
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Donald Trump took the stage in West Palm Beach, Florida, thanked his supporters, and walked them through some of what he plans to do when he gets back to the White House: "America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate. We have taken back control of the Senate. Wow.
" That mandate he referred to is part of what he'll lean on as he implements his vision for America, saying "I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises." In his nearly two year campaign, Trump made a lot of promises – one of them – an immigration crackdown, specifying that "We wanna have borders.
We wanna have security. We wanna have things be good, safe. We want great education.
" For a second Trump administration, being safe is defined by mass deportations and closing the border, ""But we have the greatest people also. Maybe that's the most important thing." Trump has already identified tech billionaire Elon Musk for a high-profile role in government, as well as the controversial Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr. "And he's going to help make America healthy again. And now he's a great guy and he really means it.
He wants to do some things, and we're gonna let him go to it." In just over 70 days, Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States will become the 47th, and he'll begin implementing his vision of an all powerful chief executive. You're reading the Consider This newsletter, which unpacks one major news story each day.
Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to more from the Consider This podcast . The first 100 days Trump has made many promises that he says he wants to enact on day one of his second term. As NPR political correspondent Daniel Kurtzleben relays, two main points Trump has made is that border security and drilling are priorities.
"It's unclear what this means. As with many Trump policies, it's a simple slogan that gets applause, but it has few to no details attached to it. Now, I've asked the campaign what this would look like, but they did not explain in response either.
" One possibility is the use of Title 42, Kurtzleben explained. That's the shorthand for the policy by which Trump and later the Biden administration used to stop and deport migrants. But, it was a public health measure and the COVID emergency is over.
Making it unclear if or how Trump could use that again. "He might also try to end the Biden policy of allowing people to make appointments for asylum using something called CBP one. Trump has railed against this, but also it's not clear that's what he means either by, 'closing' the border.
So that's something we're still unclear on." There's also the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which Trump has referenced in his aim to deport undocumented immigrants. But Kurtzleben says there are various hurdles to this effort: economic, legal, diplomatic, and logistical.
"Now I say all of that, none of it is to say that deportations won't happen. I'm not saying that at all. Really, what I'm saying here is that those deportations might not be as rapid, as easy or as big as he and his supporters hope.
But you can bet he'll do something. This was central for him. It's just unclear what he'll be able to do.
" Who will join the administration? Donald Trump's first presidency was marked by near-constant turnover of senior personnel, some of whom went on to say Donald Trump is unfit for office. In this second administration, the focus seems to be on hiring loyalists who will not challenge the incoming president's wishes as the former and future president plans his next term. So what could come next for both the Departments of Defense and State? NPR's State Department correspondent Michele Kelemen says that what we know so far is that Trump's former point person on Iran, Brian Hook, is going to lead.
"The transition team over here in the office is ready for his team. As for who is going to be secretary of state, there are kind of a few names in the mix. One is Rick Grenell.
He was Trump's ambassador to Germany and then acting director of national intelligence. He's been a fixture on the campaign trail, very close to the Trump family and has some business deals in the Balkans, for instance, with Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner," Kelemen added. She noted that Grenell is known to be quite caustic, but there are a handful of other senators who may also want the job.
As for the Department of Defense, NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman says that Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas (R) is being considered for a role. The former Army officer served combat time in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is generally well-respected.
"He's advocated, however, using the military in a support role against protesters in American cities. So [he's] more controversial now, Axios is reporting," Bowman added. Listen to the full episode of Consider This to hear more in depth from our correspondents on what could come next.
This episode was produced by Linah Mohammed.It was edited by Courtney Dorning, Megan Pratz, Andrew Sussman & John Ketchum. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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