Politics
Trump made many 'Day One' promises. Will he make good on them?
From the start of his campaign to retake the White House, President-elect Donald Trump promised to go big on his first day back in power.
In a series of early videos outlining his plans and in stump speeches across the nation, Trump said he would use executive orders on “Day One” to bypass the normal legislative process and secure major changes to U.S. policy with the simple stroke of his pen.
He promised to unilaterally upend the long-recognized constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship by signing an executive order informing federal agencies that “under the correct interpretation of the law,” children of undocumented immigrants do not automatically receive U.S. citizenship by being born on U.S. soil.
He said he would “reverse the disastrous effects of Biden’s inflation and rebuild the greatest economy in the history of the world,” place new restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, halt the transition to electric vehicles in favor of fossil fuels, and use a decades-old public health statute known as Title 42 and the U.S. military to initiate “the largest domestic deportation effort in American history.”
“We will secure our borders and we will restore our sovereignty starting on Day One,” Trump said. “Our country will be great again.”
Trump’s promises have long excited Republicans and set Democrats on edge, but the anticipation has built ahead of his inauguration Monday, especially as media outlets have reported more than 100 executive orders are in the works and conservative members of Congress have said the president-elect intends to move quickly and aggressively — with their encouragement.
President Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in 2019.
(Yuri Gripas / Pool Photo )
“There is going to be shock and awe with executive orders,” Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican and the Senate majority whip, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “A blizzard of executive orders on the economy, as well as on the border.”
Rep. August Pfluger, a Texas Republican, told Fox News Digital that a House caucus he leads — the Republican Study Committee — recently received a briefing on what to expect from Trump’s deputy chief of policy, Stephen Miller. The group “is in lockstep with the incoming Trump administration” and “committed to working around the clock to deliver on the promises we made to the American people, especially when it comes to securing our border and enforcing immigration policies,” Pfluger said.
What Trump’s plans will mean for the nation — and on what timeline — is not entirely clear. Executive orders indicate a president’s intention to take swift action without waiting on Congress, but initiating their underlying policies often takes time, experts said — requiring a president’s Cabinet appointments to win confirmation and his administration to settle in first.
“There’s a lot that’s possible, but not on ‘Day One,’” said Bert Rockman, a professor emeritus of political science at Purdue University and an expert on executive and presidential powers. “The expectation that a lot of things are going to be done right off the bat, above and beyond [Trump’s] mouth, is probably precipitous.”
There is also the matter of legal challenges. During Trump’s first term, his efforts to enact policy through executive orders were repeatedly stymied by litigation brought by California and other liberal states — and those states are already gearing up to challenge Trump’s agenda once more, said California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta.
“We’ve been talking, preparing, planning. We have [legal] briefs on the shelf where we just need to dot the i’s, cross the t’s, press print and file,” Bonta said in an interview with The Times. “We’ve listened to what Mr. Trump has been saying, his inner circle has been projecting, what Project 2025 says in black and white in print, and preparing for all the possibilities.”
Immigrant rights and other advocacy groups have also been preparing for a fight, including in consultation with Bonta’s office and at “Know Your Rights” events throughout the Los Angeles region, said Angélica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA.
“We had a meeting directly with [Bonta] to really talk about the things that we need to do to prepare and to ensure that we defend access to education, access to healthcare — that our schools, our clinics, our courtrooms, our shelters are all safe from [immigration] enforcement, and that we are ready to participate, as we did in the first Trump administration, as plaintiffs if necessary or as ourselves litigating directly against [these] kind of attacks,” Salas said.
Bonta said firestorms that have decimated some areas of L.A. County in recent days are a major part of his focus now and creating new demands on his staff, but that they will not undercut his team’s readiness to defend Californians’ interests against illegal Trump orders.
“We’re ready, we’re prepared,” Bonta said. “We expect the actions to flow on Day One, immediately — and we’re ready for what comes.”
Trump’s transition team did not respond to requests for comment. However, experts noted that Trump and his team are more prepared than they were at the start of his first term. Trump’s process for nominating Cabinet and other administration leaders is well ahead of where it was at his first inauguration, and that will result in a more efficient and successful start to his second term, they said.
In addition, conservative thought leaders — including those behind the Project 2025 playbook — have been contemplating Trump’s return for years, and have no doubt been helping Trump craft orders that are less vulnerable to legal challenges, the experts said.
“He certainly will have a more experienced administrative team — including himself. He’s been president,” said Mitchel Sollenberger, a political science professor at University of Michigan-Dearborn and author of several books on executive powers.
Still, Sollenberger said, “the realities of government are completely different than snapping one’s fingers.”
Executive orders may be unilateral dictates, but they still must follow a prescribed legal process.
Trump may be able to quickly undo executive orders put in place by President Biden — who himself issued a slate of executive orders in the first days of his administration, some to undo past Trump policies — and could issue orders that are more “symbolic” than prescriptive.
Pro-Trump demonstrators gather outside Manhattan criminal court after the sentencing in Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York on Jan. 10, 2025.
(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)
Trump also could pardon or commute the sentences of his many supporters who were criminally charged and convicted for their role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — which he repeatedly promised to do on the campaign trail.
However, Trump cannot issue orders that contradict the Constitution or existing laws set forth by Congress. And if he tries to do so, the experts said, he will be challenged in court by advocacy groups and a coalition of liberal states — opening the door for judges to halt his orders from taking effect while the legal battles play out.
California had great success in challenging Trump policies during his first term, filing more than 100 lawsuits against the federal government and winning many. And lawmakers and other leaders in the state have already signaled they are ready to do so again, with Gov. Gavin Newsom scheduling a special legislative session to secure funds for the expected legal fights ahead.
The L.A.-area fires have shifted priorities somewhat, and the special session will now be used in part to address fire needs. But Newsom and other officials have remained adamant that, when called for, they will take the Trump administration to court.
“We will work with the incoming administration, and we want President Trump to succeed in serving all Americans. But when there is overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will take action,” Newsom said recently.
Rockman and Sollenberger said they expect Trump to issue many executive orders. But because such orders are such a heavy and legally fraught lift, they also expect his administration to prioritize — and really come out swinging — on a select handful of orders that they deem most important to Trump’s base.
Orders with “some mass resonance, especially to his base, are the ones that I would expect him to give some priority,” Rockman said. “He’ll try to do the ones that are the most prominent.”
That’s likely to include orders on immigration that speak to border security and Trump’s promise to begin deportations, Rockman said. It may also include efforts to shore up loyalty among the vast federal bureaucracy, including by pushing “Schedule F” — or a plan to replace thousands of career civil servants with Trump loyalists, Rockman said.
Bonta said he also expects Trump to want to “come out with a splash” and to move most quickly, and brashly, on some of his biggest promises, especially around immigration. That includes his promises to end birthright citizenship and begin mass deportations, potentially using the military.
Those are also the sort of measures “that he can’t do” legally, and that California would challenge, Bonta said.
“We know exactly what court we’re going to sue him in and what our arguments are and who’s suing and who we’re suing with and how we create standing,” Bonta said.
The state is also readying responses to Trump challenges to clean-vehicle and other environmental regulations, a proposed ban on mail delivery of abortion pills, a unilateral shuttering of the U.S. Department of Education, the easing of Biden-era regulations on homemade “ghost guns” and other firearms, unlawful orders involving matters such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs or LGBTQ+ rights, the conditioning of emergency wildfire aid for the L.A. area on unrelated conservative demands being met, and more, Bonta said.
Already, Bonta’s office has intervened in court to defend a federal rule expanding healthcare access under the Affordable Care Act to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipients, and separately to defend Clean Air Act regulations on vehicle emissions, in anticipation of the Trump administration deciding to not defend the rules itself.
Bonta acknowledged that Trump’s team may have learned from early mistakes during his first term, when the administration lost policy fights because it tried to sidestep legal protocols for executive orders. But Bonta said he is also banking on the fact that Trump’s “desire to be aggressive” will once again cause him to “stumble.”
“He has not demonstrated discipline, he has not demonstrated compliance with the law, he has not demonstrated the willingness to stay within his actual grant of authority as the president of the United States. He reached outside of it many times under Trump 1.0. He used funding that he shouldn’t have used for a purpose it was not allowed for, he didn’t follow the required procedures and processes under federal law. He did it time and time again and we stopped him time and time again in court,” Bonta said. “I expect that again.”
Bonta said that the recent fires in L.A. County have created new demands on his office, but that it remains in “good shape” to handle those demands and any unlawful Trump administration orders simultaneously — in part thanks to millions of dollars in additional funding that he anticipates will be provided by the state Legislature.
“They’re up for the challenge. They want to do it. They’re mission-driven,” Bonta said of his team. “We are definitely busy, but not overly strained and certainly not over capacity.”
Bonta also stressed that fighting Trump’s agenda was not about “political gamesmanship” but “real outcomes for real Californians” that will also save the state money in the long run.
For example, California successfully fought a plan under Trump’s first administration to add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census, which state officials believed would have stoked fear and produced “an undercount that would have cost us billions of dollars,” given that federal funding for states is tied to population, Bonta said. It also fought off costly changes to environmental regulations and a proposed ban on federal public safety grants going to California’s sanctuary cities, he said.
Defending against unlawful immigration measures and attacks on green energy policies this time around will have a similar effect, Bonta said — protecting the California workers and industries that have made the state the fifth-largest economy in the world.
Salas, of CHIRLA, said she lives in the greater Pasadena area and has family and friends in the immigrant community who lost their homes in Altadena. The fires came right after Border Patrol agents launched one of the largest immigration enforcement sweeps in the Central Valley in years in Bakersfield, she noted — compounding fear and “panic” in the community.
And yet, the response has been one of compassion, generosity and resilience, she said — all of which will come in handy in the days to come.
“I see immigrants across my city helping neighbors, standing with each other, cleaning up debris, opening their doors to neighbors that lost their homes,” Salas said. “That’s the immigrant community that I know, and that’s the immigrant community that is willing to stand up for each other — and against this president.”
Politics
Pro-police group asks DOJ to probe Soros-backed Virginia prosecutor using Biden-era law once aimed at cops
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EXCLUSIVE: A pro-police group will request the Justice Department investigate a Virginia prosecutor accused of being unfairly lenient to illegal immigrant suspects, using an oversight law the Biden administration used to scrutinize police departments like one in Kentucky after the Breonna Taylor incident.
The law enforcement “pattern-or-practice” provision, under 34 USC 12601, was previously used to investigate alleged civil rights violations during the Biden era by police departments — including in Louisville after a no-knock warrant was served, leading to a shootout that killed Taylor.
It has also been used against departments in New Jersey, Mississippi and Tennessee, as well as a division of the NYPD, for allegations ranging from excessive use of force, to gender bias and allegedly unlawful traffic stops.
VIRGINIA AG CALLS DEM PROSECUTOR’S ACTIONS ‘WEAPONIZED INCOMPETENCE’ IN SCATHING REPORT
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund is calling for an investigation of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images; Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) told Fox News Digital it would ask the Trump Justice Department to use the same law in a different respect to investigate progressive Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano in Virginia.
Descano, who received at least $600,000 from a George Soros-funded political action committee during his first election bid in Virginia’s largest jurisdiction in 2019, came under fire recently for the nonprosecution of an illegal immigrant who allegedly murdered someone the day after he was released.
LELDF’s request “seeks to use established federal civil-rights tools to test whether a prosecutor’s office is operating a discriminatory system that endangers the public and erodes equal justice under law,” the group’s president, Jason C. Johnson told Fox News Digital. LELDF officials will formally ask Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon to investigate Descano’s office under the same “pattern-or-practice” concerns as Biden’s DOJ had in Louisville.
The group alleged the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office “violat[ed] the civil rights of US citizens by favoring illegal aliens and non-citizens in charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing decisions.”
They cited Descano’s “official policy” to consider “immigration consequences” when prosecuting cases.
“As a federal prosecutor, Steve protected immigrants from criminals who targeted them due to their immigration status… Steve knows that regardless of immigration status, all our neighbors deserve equal protection of, and equal access to, the law,” a passage on Descano’s campaign page reads.
“The fear of law enforcement that Donald Trump has fostered in immigrant communities does nothing but lead to increased crime,” Descano claimed in backing up his policy.
“In addition to providing a safe place, Steve’s office will take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions. Although prosecutors typically refer to immigration consequences as ‘collateral consequences,’ avoiding the unnecessary destruction of families and communities will be a top priority for Steve as Commonwealth’s Attorney. Wherever possible, Steve will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences.”
That type of prosecutorial discretion runs afoul of the law, LELDF claimed in their letter to Dhillon.
SEARS DEMANDS RECALL OF FAIRFAX PROSECUTOR AFTER ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CASE
Marvin Morales-Ortez was arrested by Fairfax County Police. (DHS)
They pointed to the case of Marvin Morales-Ortez, who reportedly had first-degree murder charges stemming from a 2019 incident dropped by Descano’s office — which in turn told Washington’s ABC affiliate their evidence showed it was “clear that he was ultimately not the perpetrator who had killed Mr. [Jose] Guillen Mejia.”
Nick Minock, a reporter for the outlet, later obtained a transcript of Morales-Ortez’ preliminary hearing where Descano’s office posited that Morales-Ortez was present when Guillen Mejia was murdered and had ambushed the man on a walking path.
A short time after he was released, Morales-Ortez allegedly went to a home on Fan Shell Court in Reston, Va. — near John F. Dulles International Airport — and allegedly shot a man inside.
That chain of events enraged the Trump administration, with Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying that “Fairfax County politicians [who] push[ed] pushing policies that released this illegal alien from jail” have “blood on their hands.”
In the letter, LELDF argued that “dozens of illegal aliens like Morales-Ortez have repeatedly received excessive leniency from [Fairfax] under Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.”
They pointed directly to a passage in a 2020 memo from Descano laying out similar to his campaign page that “[Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys] shall consider immigration consequences where possible and where doing so accords with justice.”
LELDF claimed the memo and the policy it forwards directly violates the Constitution and denies U.S. citizens equal protection under the law versus illegal immigrants.
Steve Descano speaks at an event at the Center for American Progress on Dec. 17, 2019. (Getty Images)
“It is both immoral and unlawful for a government agency to engage in systemic discrimination against U.S. citizens to the benefit of those illegally present,” the group told Dhillon.
The memo represents the necessary predicate for a federal investigation, they argued, while also taking issue with Fairfax’s “explicit policy directing prosecutors to weigh immigration consequences, including deportation’s ‘detrimental impact’ on families and communities, while ensuring no better outcomes than for non-immigrants.”
In a fuller excerpt from the memo, Descano says that when the seriousness of an offense and its harm is significant, the weight of “potential adverse immigration consequences” should be “minimal,” while the opposite is true for “less serious” offenses and those with “no identifiable victim.”
In those cases, subordinate prosecutors should “have greater latitude in negotiating a resolution that takes adverse immigration consequences into account.”
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While his office did not respond to a request for comment, Descano has also bristled at the notion of being tied to Soros — recently hitting back at a top Youngkin administration official who blamed prosecutors linked to the Hungarian-American financier for the crime crisis.
“I’m not a ‘Soros funded prosecutor’, I’m the CA for Fairfax County – where the murder rate is 75% lower than the entire Commonwealth’s. Maybe [she] should look at the numbers (especially since she works in public safety) before making such a ridiculous claim,” Descano tweeted in 2022.
Politics
Larry Ellison pledges $40-billion personal guarantee for Paramount’s Warner Bros. bid
Billionaire Larry Ellison has stepped up, agreeing to personally guarantee part of Paramount’s bid for rival Warner Bros. Discovery.
Ellison’s personal guarantee of $40.4 billion in equity, disclosed Monday, ups the ante in the acrimonious auction for Warner Bros. movie and TV studios, HBO, CNN and Food Network.
Ellison, whose son David Ellison is Paramount’s chief executive, agreed not to revoke the Ellison family trust or adversely transfer its assets while the Warner Bros. transaction is pending. Paramount’s $30-a-share offer remains unchanged.
Warner‘s board earlier this month awarded the prize to Netflix. The board rejected Paramount’s $108.4-billion deal, largely over concerns about the perceived shakiness of Paramount’s financing.
Paramount then launched a hostile takeover, appealing directly to Warner shareholders, offering them $30 a share. Paramount on Monday extended the deadline to Jan. 21 for Warner investors to tender their shares.
“We amended this Offer to address Warner Bros. stated concerns regarding the Prior Proposal and the December 8 Offer,” Paramount said in a Monday Securities & Exchange Commission filing. “Mr. Larry Ellison is providing a personal guarantee of the Ellison Trust’s $40.4 billion funding obligation.”
Warner Bros. Discovery did not provide an immediate comment.
Warner stock jumped 3.5% on the news to $28.75. Paramount shares climbed 4.2% to $13.61 and Netflix fell 1.2% to $93.23.
The Ellison family acquired the controlling stake in Paramount in August. The family launched their pursuit of Warner Bros. in September but Warner’s board unanimously rejected six Paramount proposals over the last three months.
Paramount started with a $19 a share bid for the entire company. Netflix has offered $27.75 a share and only wants the Burbank studios, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. The Netflix bid is a mix of cash and stock. It envisions Warner Bros. spinning off its linear cable channels, including CNN, into a new publicly traded company, Discovery Global, by the middle of next year.
Paramount upped its all-cash offer to $30 a share Dec. 4, in the waning hours of the auction.
That night, Warner Bros. Discovery’s board voted unanimously to accept Netflix’s $72-billion offer (the total value of the deal is $82.7 billion). The company, in regulatory filings, has cited Netflix’s stronger financial position.
Since then, Paramount executives launched their hostile bid and held meetings with Warner investors in New York, where they echoed the proposal they’d submitted in the closing hours of the auction.
On Monday, Paramount also agreed to increase the termination fee to $5.8 billion from $5 billion, matching the one that Netflix offered. Paramount would have to pay Warner that amount should the deal collapse.
Three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds representing royal families in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi have agreed to provide $24 billion of the $40.4-billion equity component that Ellison is backing.
The Ellison family has agreed to cover $11.8-billion of that. Initially, Paramount’s bid included the private equity firm of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, but Kushner withdrew his firm last week. Previously, Paramount dropped the Chinese firm Tencent from its financing consortium over regulatory concerns.
“In an effort to address Warner Bros.’s amorphous need for ‘flexibility’ in interim operations, Paramount’s revised proposed merger agreement offers further improved flexibility to Warner Bros. on debt refinancing transactions, representations and interim operating covenants,” Paramount said in its statement.
Paramount confirmed that the Ellison family trust owns about 1.16 billion shares of Oracle common stock and that all material liabilities are publicly disclosed.
“The Ellison Trust has financial resources well in excess of what would be required to meet its commitments to be entered into in connection with the Offer and the second-step merger [with Paramount], including, among many other assets and financial resources available to it,” Paramount said.
Paramount has been aggressively pursuing Warner Bros. for months, yearning for the scale the Warner assets would bring the company that, before the Ellison takeover, had suffered from years of under-investment.
David Ellison was startled earlier this month when the Warner Bros. board swiftly agreed to a deal with Netflix for $82.7 billion, including some of Warner’s debt, for the streaming and studio assets. He alleged during a CNBC appearance that the Warner Bros. board had failed to seriously consider the merits of his family’s bid.
Paramount subsequently launched its hostile takeover offer in a direct appeal to shareholders. The Warner Bros. board urged shareholders to reject Paramount’s offer, which includes $54 billion in debt commitments, deeming it “inferior” and “inadequate.” The board singled out what it viewed as uncertain financing and the risk implicit in a revocable trust that could cause Paramount to terminate the deal at any time.
Warner added that its shareholders also would have equity in the new Discovery Global, which Warner believes could fetch about $3 a share. Paramount has said its deal is more straightforward. The Ellisons, who enjoy friendly relations with Trump, have told shareholders their deal would face a smoother regulatory review.
Larry Ellison and Trump are on friendly terms, and Ellison’s software company Oracle is part of a consortium taking over social media app TikTok. That deal is expected to close next month.
Trump’s support was also key to the Ellison family’s takeover of Paramount. Before that deal was approved, Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over “60 Minutes” edits that most legal experts called frivolous.
Trump has said that he wants CNN to be included in the Warner Bros. sale. Trump has long chafed over CNN’s coverage.
In the past, the president indicated that he favored Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. — but he has been more circumspect in recent weeks, making complimentary comments about Netflix Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos.
Executives from both Paramount and Netflix have argued that they would be the best owners and use the Warner Bros. library and movie and TV production capabilities to boost their streaming operations.
Netflix also announced Monday that it has refinanced part of a $59-billion bridge loan with cheaper and longer-term debt.
Bloomberg contributed to this report.
Politics
The Biggest Moments of Trump’s 2025: Mass Deportations, Tariffs and More
When Mr. Trump signed an executive order in March that promised to restore the Smithsonian Museum “to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness,” historians and other observers were anxious about what he meant.
Months later, the president confirmed their worst fears.
“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been,” he wrote in a social media post in August.
The post, which came a week after the White House ordered a review of the museum’s exhibitions, offered the most candid look to date at what many of Mr. Trump’s executive actions on diversity have targeted: the history and experience of Black people in the United States.
High-profile Black leaders have been fired as the president builds an overwhelmingly white administration. Federal websites have been scrubbed to sanitize the country’s history of slavery and discrimination. And other government agencies, like the National Park Service, have also removed exhibits on slavery. At the same time, Mr. Trump has reinstalled statues that glorify Confederate soldiers.
In his first year, Mr. Trump has set out to rewrite the nation’s history by erasing the scars of its original sin.
Photographs by Al Drago, Doug Mills, Maansi Srivastava and Bettmann Archive, via Getty Images.
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