Politics
Trump promises to 'save' America with mix of lofty, vague, legally dubious policies
The way former President Trump tells it, the United States is a “crime-ridden mess” with “the worst border in the history of the world,” simultaneously headed for the next Great Depression and World War III.
Also according to Trump, electing him to a second term will change all of that almost immediately. Foreign wars will abruptly end as millions of undocumented immigrants are deported. The U.S. will “DRILL, BABY, DRILL!” and the associated revenue will “rapidly” transform a weak U.S. economy into one where “incomes will skyrocket, inflation will vanish completely, jobs will come roaring back, and the middle class will prosper like never, ever before.”
Trump’s critics say that’s all bluster. They say he’s a showman who speaks in lofty, populist rhetoric, but whose policies portend the opposite of his promises. Rather than America’s savior, they say, he would be its destroyer.
They note Trump has admitted he would act like a “dictator” on “Day One,” and warn that multiple conservative playbooks for his next term — including Project 2025 and Trump’s own Agenda 47 — suggest a full-scale adoption of authoritarianism.
They believe Trump would dismantle social safety nets for the poor and middle class, illegally discriminate against vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ+ people, and reduce the rights of women, including to reproductive healthcare. Empowered by a recent Supreme Court ruling granting presidents sweeping immunity, they fear, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted former president who helped incite an insurrection the last time he lost an election would be unleashed — and unhinged — if he wins.
The one thing Trump loyalists and critics agree on is that the candidate has said quite a lot about what he plans to do. How they feel about him often comes down to how they feel about those promises — many lofty, vague or legally dubious — and whether they take him at his word or believe he’s lying.
On immigration
Trump has been heavily focused on immigration, claiming an “invasion” of murderers, terrorists, “insane asylum” patients and fentanyl-smuggling gang members along the Mexico border.
Trump has said he will “seal the border” with a physical wall, finishing a job he prioritized during his first term, and “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” He has promised to punish so-called sanctuary cities that don’t coordinate with federal immigration enforcement and to deport immigrants without considering asylum claims.
Trump has said he will order his military to attack foreign drug cartels, and seek the death penalty for “drug dealers, kingpins and human traffickers.” He has also said that on his first day in office, he will issue an executive order doing away with birthright citizenship — contradicting long-established constitutional precedent by simply declaring that the “correct interpretation” of the law is that U.S. citizenship is not granted to everyone born on U.S. soil.
Chris Zepeda-Millán, an associate professor of public policy, Chicana/o studies and political science at UCLA, is co-author of “Walls, Cages, and Family Separation: Race and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era.”
His research has found most Americans did not support Trump’s first-term immigration policies, especially those that separated kids from their families, and do not believe a border wall would be effective. Zepeda-Millán said those who supported Trump’s policies — sometimes despite believing them to be ineffective — also held the “most racist views,” including general discomfort with growing Latino populations.
Trump’s hyper focus on immigrants today is an “anti-Latino symbolic action” aimed at those same people, Zepeda-Millán said — his way of “doubling down on getting the most racist white Americans out to vote.” Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris in recent polls on who would handle immigration better, including 51% to 46% in a New York Times/Siena College poll of key swing states.
Trump can be counted on to continue using racism to win political points, Zepeda-Millán said, but he doubts Trump will actually try to deport millions of people, many of whom would be farmworkers. “Everyone knows — including Trump — that significant parts of our economy are completely dependent on not only immigrants, but undocumented immigrants,” he said.
On abortion
When Trump ran for president in 2016, he campaigned on overturning the federal right to an abortion under Roe vs. Wade. As president, Trump appointed three of the six conservative Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe in 2022, ushering in a wave of state abortion restrictions and bans.
Reproductive healthcare advocates have blamed Trump for decimating those rights, which most Americans support, and Harris has campaigned on restoring them.
In response, Trump has tried to walk a fine line on the issue, in part by dodging questions or answering them vaguely. He has taken credit for dismantling Roe and returning the power to restrict abortion to individual states, but resisted calls for a nationwide abortion ban. He has said he personally supports exceptions for abortion in cases of rape and incest and when a woman’s life is in danger, but also left the door open to further restrictions on commonly used abortion pills.
Arneta Rogers, executive director at the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice at Berkeley Law School, said Trump paved the way for extreme antiabortion laws that are disproportionately harming people living “on the margins” — including people of color and the young, poor and queer — and should be made to own that legacy, because “the stakes couldn’t be higher.”
“When people show you who they are, you have to believe them,” Rogers said.
On the economy
Trump has promised to stop taxing Social Security income for seniors, and to stop taxing tips received by service workers. Both promises would cost the government billions, though the exact price tag is unknowable without more specifics. Harris has also pledged to work to end federal tax on tips.
Trump has said he would pay for his agenda by increasing domestic energy production through drilling and driving down fuel costs, by striking better trade deals with foreign countries and implementing tariffs on those that don’t fall in line, and by eliminating waste in the federal bureaucracy.
Blaming inflation in part on “unnecessary spending” by President Biden, Trump has said he would use a special “impoundment” authority — which presidents do not legally have — to withhold “large chunks” of each federal agency’s budget, regardless of how Congress allocated the funding. He has promised to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.
Susan Minato, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, a union representing service workers across Southern California and Arizona, called Trump’s promise to end taxes on tips a “red herring” that workers recognize as a distraction from his long record of attacking union labor and the Affordable Care Act, which provides many wage earners with vital healthcare.
“Our members see straight through it,” she said — and are spreading out across Arizona, a key swing state, to knock on doors and talk to working voters about Harris being a better option for the working class.
On the climate
Trump has promised to dismantle environmental programs and increase drilling for oil and gas.
Trump has ridiculed wind power as “weak” and electric vehicles as too expensive, and suggested a turn back to fossil fuels will rapidly reduce energy costs. He has promised to withdraw funding from clean energy initiatives under the so-called Green New Deal, ridiculing it as the “Green New Hoax.”
Project 2025 has rejected the threat of global warming outright, calling for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, to be dismantled as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”
On Ukraine and Gaza
During his speech at the Republican convention last month, Trump said, “I don’t have wars,” that he “could stop wars with just a telephone call,” and that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza never would have started were he president.
The U.S. was at war in Afghanistan when Trump was president.
After a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last month, Trump said he would end the war in Ukraine by convincing Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin — who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — to “negotiate a deal.”
Trump has repeatedly professed his support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which has devastated civilian populations, and said that any Jewish person considering voting for Harris “should have their head examined.” Agenda 47 says Trump will “deport pro-Hamas radicals” from the U.S. and make college campuses — the site of many pro-Palestinian demonstrations — “safe and patriotic again.”
Trump has also said he would build an “Iron Dome” over the entire U.S., referring to Israel’s short-range antimissile defense system. Experts have said building such a system in the U.S. would not make sense given the nation’s size, geographic position and existing defense capabilities, but allowed that Trump may be using the familiar name of Israel’s system as a “metaphor” for a more complex antimissile defense system in the U.S.
The U.S. is threatened by unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles and other weapons systems, said Tom Karako, a missile defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and is already in the process of building out its defenses.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions from The Times on the above policy areas.
EXCLUSIVE: New House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., wants to focus on two key issues for the remainder of this year – government funding and next year’s House GOP Conference rules.
“I’ve been on the Freedom Caucus, really, since, since the beginning,” Harris told Fox News Digital on Tuesday night, in his first interview since being elected chair of the ultra-conservative group.
“I’ve watched, you know, all our chairs do a great job pushing the conservative agenda with Congress, and with the American people. And right now our big fight is going to be on controlling spending. It’s going to be on what the rules look like for the next Congress.”
Harris promised, “I’m going to roll up my sleeves and battle those two issues.”
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Rep. Andy Harris has been selected the next House Freedom Caucus chair (Getty Images)
The Maryland Republican, who was first elected in 2010, was chosen to lead the Freedom Caucus for the remainder of the year after Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., vacated the role following his June primary loss to another Republican.
Harris has not been known to be particularly chatty with reporters on Capitol Hill, making him an understandable successor for a group that keeps even its membership list undisclosed.
The Freedom Caucus has also long been seen as a thorn in the side of House GOP leaders, pushing them to go further in pushing conservative policies through Congress.
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Harris, however, praised Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership on government funding ahead of a Wednesday vote on a Freedom Caucus-backed plan to avoid a government shutdown.
The plan is a six-month extension of this year’s federal funds known as a continuing resolution (CR), to give lawmakers more time to hash out fiscal year 2025’s priorities, paired with a measure requiring proof of citizenship in the voter registration process.
Rep. Bob Good recently stepped aside from the chairmanship (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“The leadership he’s shown on this issue is excellent,” Harris said. “I think if we had had this discussion one month ago and someone suggested that Speaker Johnson was going to bring a six-month CR to the floor, and, oh, by the way, we add the [Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act] into it – most people wouldn’t believe it.”
But the Democrat-controlled Senate and White House have called the legislation a nonstarter.
Harris would not say how conservatives could force Johnson to stick by the plan, even as several Republicans have publicly opposed the measure over concerns the speaker would not fight for the SAVE Act if it was rejected by the Senate.
“If it fails, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.
Harris did, however, urge those GOP critics to take a “second look” at the bill ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
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“I hope they take a second look before tomorrow and realize that the important signal would send to the American people,” Harris said. “I’d love to hear the argument Chuck Schumer is going to make to say, ‘Yeah, you know, we’re going to reject that because we want illegal aliens to vote.’”
The Maryland Republican similarly would not go into detail about what changes he would want to see to the House GOP Conference rules – though the issue is expected to take center stage in the end-of-year leadership elections.
Harris praised Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership in the government funding fight (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., agreed to changing certain conference rules to win over his critics after House Republicans won the majority in the 2022 midterm elections.
That notably included lowering the threshold for triggering a vote on the speaker’s ouster – called the motion to vacate the chair – from a simple majority to just one vote.
“I hope that in its wisdom, that the Republican majority next year – because I believe there will be a Republican majority – not only adopts and endorses all those changes we made this term, but maybe make some further changes. Those will be discussed more obviously in the next two months.”
When pressed for details, Harris noted there were other members of the group besides himself.
“That’s going to be up to what the Freedom Caucus says,” Harris said. “I’m the chairman, but I’m not all the members.”
FLINT, Michigan – Former President Donald Trump argued that it is “consequential” presidents who face the threats he has over the last few months at a town hall event in Flint, Michigan, the former president’s first since surviving an assassination attempt Sunday.
“You wonder why I got shot at right. You know, only consequential presidents get shot at right,” Trump said during the town hall at Flint’s Dort Financial Center.
The event marked Trump’s first official campaign stop since the latest attempt on his life Sunday, when a lone gunman was spotted by U.S. Secret Service agents while Trump was playing a round of golf at Trump International Golf Club in Florida.
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Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
The gunman, identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, was spotted by Secret Service agents as Trump moved between holes five and six on the course, with the agents firing at Routh after spotting his rifle and scope poking out of the brush.
Trump, who was about 300-500 yards away from the shooter at the time of the incident, escaped uninjured.
The attempt marked the second time Trump faced an assassination attempt, coming just over two months after the former president was grazed in the ear by a bullet fired at him during a rally in Butlery, Pennsylvania.
Trump reflected on the attempts on his life during the Michigan event, saying being and running for president is a “dangerous business.”
FBI investigators gather evidence from the perimeter of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, September 16, 2024. (Mega for Fox News Digital)
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“It’s a dangerous business. However, being president, it’s a little bit dangerous. It’s. You know, they think race car driving is dangerous. No, they think bull riding. That’s pretty scary, right? No, this is a dangerous business, and we have to keep it safe,” Trump said.
The former president spent much of the event, which took place in a critical swing state, hitting Vice President Kamala Harris on issues such as inflation and the auto industry.
“’I’ll say this for Michigan, if I don’t win, you will have no auto industry within two to three years,” Trump said. “China is going to take over all of your business because of the electric car and because they have the material we don’t.”
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Michigan figures to play a key role in this year’s election. Trump won the state by less than one percentage point in 2016, but lost it to President Biden in 2020 by less than three percentage points.
Polls show a close race brewing in the state again, with Harris holding a less than one percentage point lead as of Tuesday, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.
Politics
Biden admin moves to reinstate Trump-era rule, delist gray wolves from endangered species list
The Biden administration is moving to reinstate a Trump-era rule that lifted endangered species protections on gray wolves in the U.S.
Wolves were delisted from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) under President Trump in 2020, returning management of gray wolf populations to state and tribal wildlife professionals, according to a press release from the Department of Interior.
However, a federal judge reversed Trump’s decision in 2022 after environmental groups sued the Department of the Interior over the delisting, reinstating protection for the species.
Gray wolves are currently protected under the ESA as “threatened” in Minnesota and “endangered” in the remaining states, except for those in the Northern Rocky Mountain region, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. However, a new filing by the Biden administration suggests that the Trump-era ruling should be reinstated.
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Stebbins, a gray wolf in the exhibit pack at the Minnesota Zoo, walks through their snow-filled enclosure on March 15, 2022 in Apple Valley, Minnesota. (Anthony Souffle/Getty Images)
Attorneys with the Justice Department filed a motion with the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals on Friday to reverse the court’s decision on the Trump-era delisting and lift ESA protections on gray wolves.
WASHINGTON OFFICIALS WILL VOTE TO REMOVE GRAY WOLF FROM ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST
The filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco claimed that the court was wrong in overturning the Trump-era ruling on the species.
“The district court misunderstood the ESA’s clear mandate and compounded that error by imposing its own views of the science,” court documents read. “Its decision invalidating the rule should be reversed.”
The Biden administration is moving to reinstate a Trump-era rule that lifted endangered species protections on gray wolves in the U.S. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg )
The Biden administration claimed in its 87-page filing that gray wolves no longer meet ESA standards of protection in that they are no longer considered “endangered” or “threatened.”
Court documents referenced the 2020 ruling from Trump’s Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service that delisted the wolf species.
“After that thorough analysis, the Service concluded that no configuration of gray wolves was threatened or endangered in all or a significant portion of its range. That analysis was well-reasoned and well-supported by the administrative record,” the brief reads.
The move comes just months after a group of 20 House Republicans sent a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Martha Williams, urging the Biden administration to remove protections for the gray wolf, citing sometimes life-threatening conflicts with ranchers and farmers.
Wolves were delisted from the Endangered Species Act under President Trump in 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Newsroom)
In February, FWS rejected requests from conservation groups to restore protection for gray wolves across the Northern Rocky Mountain region.
Most recently, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers passed legislation in April to end federal protection for gray wolves and remove them from the endangered species list.
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