2023

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican Donald Trump is planning to punish his political enemies, deport millions of migrants and reshape global trade with pricey tariffs if he wins a second White House term in the November 2024 presidential election, according to his campaign and media reports.

Here is a look at some of the policies Trump has pledged to institute:

TRADE

Trump has floated the idea of a 10% tariff on all goods imported into the United States, a move he says would eliminate the trade deficit but one critics say would lead to higher prices for American consumers and global economic instability.

He has also said he should have the authority to set higher tariffs on countries that have established tariffs on American imports.

Trump, in particular, has targeted China. He proposes phasing out Chinese imports of goods such as electronics, steel and pharmaceuticals over four years. He seeks to prohibit Chinese companies from owning U.S. infrastructure in the energy and tech sectors.

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY

Trump would seek to decimate what he terms the “deep state” – career federal employees he says are clandestinely pursuing their own agendas – through an executive order that would reclassify thousands of workers to enable them to be fired. That would likely be challenged in court. He has vowed to fire what he terms “corrupt” actors in national security positions and “root out” his political opponents.

Trump would require every federal employee to pass a new civil service test of his own creation. His team is also vetting scores of potential hires who could be counted on to implement his policies or perhaps investigate Trump’s political enemies.

He would crack down on federal whistleblowers who are typically shielded by law and would institute an independent body to “monitor” U.S. intelligence agencies.

Trump also would seek to bring independent regulatory agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission under presidential control.

ENERGY

Trump has vowed to increase U.S. production of fossil fuels by easing the permitting process for drilling on federal land and would encourage new natural gas pipelines.

He has said he will pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords, a framework for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and would support increased nuclear energy production. He would also roll back the Biden White House’s electric-vehicle mandates and other policies aimed at reducing auto emissions.

ECONOMY

Along with his trade and energy agendas, Trump has promised to slash federal regulations he argues limit job creation. He and his economic team have discussed a further round of individual and corporate tax cuts beyond those enacted in his first term. He said as president he would pressure the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

Trump is proposing the government establish so-called “freedom cities” on federal land that he says would spur job growth and technological innovation.

IMMIGRATION

Trump has vowed to reinstate first-term policies targeting illegal border crossings, roll back Biden’s pro-immigrant measures and forge ahead with sweeping new restrictions.

Trump has pledged to limit access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and embark on the biggest deportation effort in American history, which would likely trigger legal challenges and opposition from Democrats in Congress.

Trump has said he would seek to end automatic citizenship for children born to immigrants, a move that would run against the long-running interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

ABORTION

Trump appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who were part of the majority that did away with constitutional protection for abortion. He likely would continue to appoint federal judges who would uphold abortion limits.

At the same time, he has said a federal abortion ban is unnecessary, and that the issue should be resolved on a state-by-state basis. He has argued a six-week ban favored by some Republicans is overly harsh and that any legislation should include exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Trump has been critical of the U.S.’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and has said he could end the war in 24 hours if elected. He has argued that Europe should reimburse the U.S. for ammunition used in the conflict. Trump has also said that under his presidency, America would fundamentally rethink “NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.”

He has supported Israel in its fight against Hamas despite initially criticizing its leaders after the October attacks. On the campaign trail, he has also floated sending armed forces into Mexico to battle drug cartels and slapping expansive tariffs on friends and foes alike.

EDUCATION

Trump has pledged to require America’s colleges and universities to “defend American tradition and Western civilization” and purge them of diversity programs. He said he would direct the Justice Department to pursue civil rights cases against schools that engage in racial discrimination.

On the K-12 level, Trump would support programs allowing parents to use public funds for private or religious instruction.

CRIME

Trump has pledged to appoint U.S. attorneys who would launch probes into liberal prosecutors and district attorneys he says are failing to contain crime in America’s cities.

He has said he would institute the death penalty for human traffickers and drug dealers. He also has suggested that looters of retail stores could be “shot” while on site.

HOMELESSNESS

Trump has vowed to ban so-called “urban camps” from America’s cities and require homeless people to accept drug treatment or face arrest.

He said he would then “open large parcels of inexpensive land” where tent cities would be relocated and staffed with doctors, drug counselors and mental health experts.

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Ross Colvin and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Donna Bryson

(Reuters) – Photographs can say a lot without words. After a school shooting in Tennessee, they recorded the frustrations of parents and state legislators whose cries for gun control were silenced.

In one photo, it’s almost possible to hear Representative Justin Pearson’s measured tones as he stands in prayer with one hand raised at the Capitol following a legislative session that failed to change any gun laws.

In March, a former student at the Covenant School in Nashville killed three 9-year-old children and three staff members. Pearson and his fellow Representative Justin Jones, both of whom are Black Democrats, were briefly expelled for leading a protest for gun control on the House of Representatives floor. A third Democrat representative, Gloria Johnson, who is white, was not expelled for her role in the protest, leading to accusations of racism. Republicans who overwhelmingly control the chamber deny they are racist and oppose anything seen as a retreat from the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”

Cameron Sexton, the Republican who is speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, did not see racism as a problem to be addressed in the chamber.

“Sometimes people use that word (racism) as a drop the mic moment to try to stop people from having conversations,” he said.

Pearson represents Memphis, a city with a Black majority that has struggled to contain gun violence. Pearson has lost friends and relatives to gun violence.

“When we went to the well of the House floor, it wasn’t just the Covenant kids that I was thinking about,” Pearson told Reuters. “I was thinking about the people in Memphis who are mourning every day.”

Months after the protest, a special legislative session called by Tennessee’s Republican governor ended with no progress on gun safety laws. During the special session, Republican leaders banned members of the public from holding signs during proceedings and limited their access to the Capitol building. State troopers, whose presence was increased during the session, at one point ejected members of the public, including Covenant parents, from a hearing after a lawmaker said the crowd was unruly.

Mary Joyce, a real estate broker whose daughter was in the Covenant classroom where three of her classmates were killed, spoke to lawmakers during the special session and took part in protests for gun control at the Capitol.

“It feels like we were just screaming under water,” Joyce told Reuters. “No one could hear us.”

WEIGHT OF HISTORY

Johnson said gun control advocates will continue to push for change in the next legislative session, which opens in January.

“I always have hope. I wouldn’t be in this business if I didn’t hope that people would listen,” said Johnson, who also is running for the U.S. Senate. “And we know that 80% of Tennesseans want to see gun sense legislation, 70% want red flag laws, 80% want safe storage laws. At some point the super majority has to start listening to the people. Because it will affect their elections.”

Jack Johnson, a Republican leader in the state Senate, said his constituents do not support such gun control measures as red flag laws to temporarily remove guns from individuals who might harm themselves or others.

“Dispossessing law-abiding citizens of constitutional rights is not an answer to our violence problem in Tennessee,” Johnson said.

Tennessee has laws to keep guns out of the hands of people involved in domestic violence cases. Democrats and even the Republican governor have called for broader red flag measures.

Looking at the photographs, it’s almost possible to hear chants for change that echo the soundtrack of civil rights era demonstrations. In the 1960s, John Lewis, then a student at the American Baptist Theological Seminary — one of four historically Black colleges and universities in Nashville — was a leader in the sit-in movement that ended racist discrimination at Nashville businesses such as a Woolworth’s lunch counter. It was the start of a career of challenging segregation for Lewis, who went on to represent Georgia in the U.S. Congress and have a Nashville street named for him.

Lewis’s faith inspired him and infused his political rhetoric. Pearson and Jones have tapped into that tradition. And deeper. Jones read from the Bible’s Book of Jeremiah – whose remonstrations fueled the abolitionist orations of Frederick Douglass – during the campaign for more gun control.

“Until we act, there will be no peace for the thousands of children who came here demanding we act, who are afraid that if they’re in school they will be gunned down because you have passed laws that make it easier to get gun than it is to get health care in this state,” Jones said on the House floor. He also walked the state house hallways carrying a child’s coffin, drawing attention to the many young people affected by gun violence.

A state office building located on Representative John Lewis Way offers another glimpse of history. When Sarah Shoop Neumann, a nurse whose son is a Covenant student, entered the building to testify for gun control, she was struck at the portraits of lawmakers on the walls.

“It’s all white men,” she said. “Even in the recent years, it’s still not that different.”

Melissa Alexander, a commercial real estate broker whose son is a Covenant student, said, “The make-up of the legislature also needs to be more diverse to represent the issues and constituencies, what the constituents want in the state of Tennessee.”

Alexander along with Neumann and Joyce have organized to push for gun control.

Slavery, segregation and violence have had an enduring impact on race relations, not just in the South, but across the United States.

Pearson acknowledged the weight of the past. But he sees hope for a better future.

“Not so much that we are able to see that future become a reality even though I pray for that, but that a hundred years from now the next kid that’s protesting that’s marching that’s fighting, they’re fighting for something different, they’re fighting for something new,” he said. “They hope and pray that the fight is worth it because there is somebody, they do not know who they were, do not know their names, who fought for them today. And that’s us.”

(Reporting by Donna Bryson; Photography by Cheney Orr, Kevin Wurm and Seth Herald; Editing by Kat Stafford and Lisa Shumaker)

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