Americans are called in November to choose between the oldest president and the only former president criminally charged since the Constitution came into effect, 235 years ago. The names, faces and policies of both are known, and in their speeches they call to “finish the work” they started during their presidency. With the nominations of the two candidates already secured, President Joe Biden last week highlighted the contrasts between his “decency and honesty” and Donald Trump’s “hatred and anger” in the State of the Union address. But the tycoon’s loyal base of followers remains intact almost a decade after his leap into politics: eight months before the elections, polls give the tycoon an advantageous position in the six key states, so it is worth imagining what it could entail. his return to the White House.
The headlines that Trump generates in all his speeches tend to leave his campaign promises in the background. Between his incendiary statements against NATO allies, his mockery of Biden’s old age, his victimhood for the existence of an alleged “deep state” that conspires against him and his promise to be “dictator for a day” or “avoid a World War III”, promises to end irregular immigration – or “criminal invasion”, in his rhetoric -, massive tax cuts and use the army to prosecute crime, drug addiction or even close the Department of Education.
“On my first day back in the White House, I will end all of the Biden administration’s open border policies, stop the invasion of our southern border, and begin the largest deportation operation in American history,” he said in a statement. a speech in Iowa prior to the caucuses in that state, and has reiterated in each of his campaign events.
The immigration issue – the construction of a wall paid for by Mexico and large-scale deportation – was already one of his key promises in 2016. However, during his presidency he deported fewer immigrants than Barack Obama did in each of his two terms; and his famous wall, which should have measured about 1,600 kilometers, remained at 729, and mainly consisted of reinforcing the existing one. Mexico did not pay for it either, nor does it seem like it will do so in a second Trump term.
He did then apply discriminatory policies against immigration from countries with an Islamic majority, an immigration veto that Biden lifted on his first day in the White House and that Trump now promises to apply again. “I banned refugees from Syria, I banned refugees from Somalia and all the most dangerous places around the world. In my second term, we’re going to expand every single one of those bans,” he boasted in another recent primary speech. .
The magnate has also promised to repeal parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, the regulation promoted by Biden with the most green investment in the country’s history, which allocates $391 billion in policies against climate change, mainly in the form of subsidies for the construction of electric batteries in American territory.
Trump’s response to climate policies is another recurring slogan: “drill, baby, drill.” That is, he advocates for a major increase in oil and gas drilling, something that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns would “roll back decades of progress made to protect public health and safety.” Furthermore, as he already did in his previous mandate, he wants to leave the Paris Agreement again.
Regarding foreign policy, his isolationist vision, America First, would once again characterize the US relationship with the world, after four years in which Biden has tried to return the country’s “leadership” in the West. The first consequence is the end of aid to Ukraine against the Russian invasion, which its allies in Congress have been blocking for months and which would be even more in question if Trump wins in November and consolidates Republican power in both chambers. He has not spoken out as openly about Israel’s war in Gaza, but he has shown his support for the Jewish state, stating that Israel needs to “end the problem” and asserting that the Hamas attacks “would never have happened” if he had been president.
Furthermore, the former president openly shows his skepticism with NATO and recently said that he would “encourage” Putin to “do whatever the hell he wants” with European allies that do not fulfill their defense spending commitment. And in terms of trade, he advocates a 10% international tariff on all products from third countries, with the idea of ??prioritizing domestic production and counteracting relocation to countries like China or India.
Another of Trump’s favorite battlegrounds is his fight against the rights of the LGTBI community, especially trans people, and the defense of the “natural family” against “anti-Christian bias.” According to him, “subjective notions of gender identity threaten the fundamental freedoms of Americans” and the protection of such identities in schools involves the “sexualization of children.”
Although he has not specified what policies he will promote in this field, he praises and is likely to be reflected in the laws signed by the governor of Florida and former Republican candidate, Ron DeSantis: the ban on gender-affirming treatments for minors, the public defunding of such treatments for adults and the ban on trans women in women’s sports.
The policies that Trump defends in 2024 are not far from those he defended in 2016. But he has hardened his xenophobic and authoritarian discourse. And his legal, financial and reputational situation is, to say the least, more delicate. If this campaign is marked by something, it is by his two civil convictions (for which he owes more than 400 million dollars) and his four criminal charges, two of which (in Georgia and Washington) have to do with his attempt to manipulate and reverse the 2020 elections.
Trump promises “revenge” for an election that he continues to defend was a fraud and for a judicial cornering that he claims to be part of a “witch hunt.” “On the first day of my presidency, I will free those of January 6,” he usually promises, referring to those imprisoned for the assault on the Capitol. And “I will appoint a special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in history, Joe Biden, and his crime family,” he said in June, a few hours after being indicted in Miami for intentionally taking and retaining classified documents at his residence. from Mar-a-Lago in Florida. That was the signature of his mandate; He remains to see what form his possible return to the helm of the world’s leading power may take.