Provided you haven’t been living under a rock the past few weeks, you have probably noticed that Donald J. Trump is set to return to the Oval Office. With all of America, and essentially the entire world, wondering whether Kamala Harris’s step-in for Biden would hold or fail to rally the nation, the 2024 election was certainly a nail-biter.
After months of mishaps, media coverage, and the growing intensity of the political divide, Trump earned 312 out of 538 electoral votes, leaving Harris in the dust with 226. According to Al Jazeera, six whole states flipped from blue to red in the 2024 election compared to the 2020 election, with Republicans leading the popular vote by around 4 million votes.
That’s saying something—potentially the fact that Donald Trump did something right, whether during his first term as president or his campaign. So, now that Trump has emerged victorious from the chaos, what will happen next? With four years ahead to transform the nation as he wishes, what sort of bold and inevitably controversial moves will Mr. President make? Especially if you didn’t vote for Trump, his new presidency will be much like a non-gambler reading a guide to no wagering casinos in the US—you’ll have to sit back and watch how things unfold and play out from a distance.
How exactly does Trump want to “Make America Great Again?” Out of all the challenges at hand, what are his most pressing issues to tend to?
Restoring Key Policies from His Previous Administration
Out with the old and in with the new is likely going to happen sooner rather than later, above all else. After all, with the Biden Administration out of office, Trump is set to restore those key policies that put him in such high regard among his supporters. One of these issues is immigration. With his “America-first” commitment, the current state of immigration certainly doesn’t align with his vision.
Plans to complete the border wall and address illegal immigration are bound to pick up right away, with plenty of military resources redirected to defending the southern border. Mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and ending pathways to US citizenship, such as birthright citizenship, are also expected to be at the top of his priority list.
Implementing New Healthcare Measures
Much of Trump’s first term revolved around repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with multiple attempts to do so. Will there be an alternative? The President has mentioned putting a less expensive (for the government) one in place but has been relatively vague about it.
Trump is interested in expanding access to private healthcare and making changes to Medicaid and Medicare on the basis of reducing government spending. That decentralized control will shift the power to the states, allowing them to implement their own solutions. While this could provide room for innovation, it could also end up breaking up the regulatory landscape. Although healthcare isn’t planned to be a hot-button topic in the first 100 days of his presidency, healthcare is still a strong priority in the Trump administration.
Appointing Key Figures
With the need to craft a team for his second administration, Trump has already kicked off the process with a number of selections. Unsurprisingly, he’s being much more “selective,” in his opinion, after being burned during his first term. So far, he’s nominated several former US representatives as the Director of National Intelligence and the UN Ambassador, to name a few, as well as a few figures who served in the first Trump administration. Trump will continue to appoint people with values that match his and who can drive policies home.
Addressing the Economy
It seems that in the first 100 days of his new presidency, economic policies will be just as important, if not more so, than immigration. As Americans have openly stated their gripes with the current state of the economy, it’s prime time for Trump to deliver on tax cuts on tips, prioritize job creation, and reinvigorate the economy as a whole. In particular, the nation has urged Trump to focus on inflation above all.
Going with his “America-first” agenda again, he’s promised to work on cutting corporation tax for companies that make their products locally. It’s part of a broader scheme to avoid outsourcing and draw manufacturers to the US. In the same vein, he’s set to impose tariffs on foreign goods and a massive levy on Chinese products, ranging from 60% to 100% compared to the 10% to 20% the rest of the world pays. The problem with these moves is that high tariffs and tax cuts will combine to increase prices and demand at the same time.
Tackling Social Issues
Trump is a vocal guy who has made a lot of claims about what he’ll do, not just in the first 100 days but on Day 1. Other than conducting “the largest deportation program in American history” and ending the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, he’s also focused on the “culture wars.” After he’s sworn in on January 20th, 2025, he’s promised to sign an executive order to cut federal funding for schools “pushing transgender insanity,” critical race theory, and other political, racial, and sexual content on children.
He’s also been discreetly supporting homeschooling with his no-tax rule on the first $10,000 of education costs for parents of homeschooled children and overtly supporting the removal of the Education Department and tasking each state to deal with education on its own.