What a second term of Donald Trump would entail

 What a second term of Donald Trump would entail

A significant portion of Donald Trump's presidential campaign has been spent introspecting and challenging his loss in the 2020 election. However, in the background, he and his group are working to develop a new strategy, determined to learn from the errors made in 2016.

In case American voters decide to re-elect Mr. Trump in a year, the former president is providing all the details for those who are curious.

It is available in brief bursts on his campaign website, audible during his rally speeches, and recorded by those he has assigned to handle the details of his second term preparations.

The proposal is dubbed Agenda47, alluding to Mr. Trump's potential as the 47th president of the United States if elected. Favored to win the Republican nomination, he would face off against President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in November.

When Donald Trump began his improbable campaign for the presidency eight years ago, he did it on a tight budget and with a motley crew of political outsiders and hangers-on.

Make America Great Again was his motto. His signature initiatives included erecting a wall along the border and temporarily excluding Muslims from entering the US. He also had a drain-the-swamp, anti-establishment mindset.

He began putting his expansive political agenda into practice after his unexpected win, although the outcomes were not quite clear-cut.

His "Muslim ban" was eventually enacted into law in a watered-down version after being repeatedly overturned by judges. Democratic congressional leaders and lawsuits scuttled his promise to erect a wall along the border.

Those in Mr. Trump's inner circle believed it was a personnel and preparation disaster.

If they prevail in 2024, they don't plan to make the same errors again.

Shortly after delivering his inaugural address on January 20, 2017, Mr. Trump and Marc Lotter, a member of his transition team, entered the Oval Office at 6:55 p.m.

Mr. Lotter tells the BBC that he soon realized the administration was ill-prepared to handle "moving the Titanic-sized ship of government" after the talks that ensued.

He claims that this time, along with other Trump administration veterans, they are planning ahead and making sure they are better equipped.

This is a play script. This is how you accomplish it. Above all, these are the locations, spaces, and roles where a leftist bureaucracy would attempt to thwart your efforts."

Throughout the year, that playbook has come to light.

A few of his statements are almost unbelievable. On unused federal property, his administration would invest in flying automobiles and create "freedom cities" where people can live and work without having to worry about onerous rules.

Some are contentious, like his proposal to gather homeless people and relocate them to makeshift camps outside US cities until their "issues can be determined." His proposal to mandate that public school instructors "embrace patriotic values" is one that clearly veers toward the culture wars.

Additionally, he intensifies his advocacy of protectionist measures, proposing a "universal baseline tariff" on all imports that may be increased in response to nations that participate in "unfair" trade practices.

Regarding immigration, he seeks to bring back the rule that requires unauthorized immigrants to remain in Mexico until they submit an asylum application. He also demands a halt to the automatic naturalization process for children of illegal immigrants born in the United States.

He promises to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine by cutting "hundreds of billions" of dollars in US foreign assistance. Media sources claim that he is considering the US pulling out of NATO or, at the very least, reducing the US's commitment to the trans-Atlantic defense alliance.

In a video released in March, he states, "Russia is not the greatest threat to Western civilization today." "It's probably, more than anything else that ourselves together with some of the horrible, USA-hating people that representing us."

Mr. Lotter claims that increasing the supply of energy would be the main priority on Mr. Trump's 2024 agenda in order to lower family expenses.

He believes that one of the main causes of the inflation that plagued the first few years of the Biden administration was rising energy costs.

"Opening up the spigots as well as sending the signal to the markets along with the energy companies that we are available for business again will actually start to lower the cost of energy long term."

The Republican Party has been transformed in Mr. Trump's image, and these initiatives mark the pinnacle of his efforts in this regard.

The conservatism of the party's presidential candidates in the four elections before Mr. Trump's triumph in 2016—George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney—has been completely overtaken.

Republican strategist Bryan Lanza, who has connections to the Trump campaign, asserts that "the party has evolved, there is no other way to put it." We are now the party of tariffs. Who would have thought that through?"

According to Mr. Lanza, the new Republican Party combines conservatism with a populism that appeals to people from the working class, particularly laborers who have historically supported the Democratic Party. The current agenda is centered on immigration, trade, and a circumspect foreign policy supported by American "strength".

Legislation approved by a Congress now controlled in part by Democrats who are fiercely opposed to Mr. Trump's agenda would be necessary for many of his promises. Others, such as removing birthright citizenship, would undoubtedly be contested in court since they likely violate the US Constitution.

But as chief executive, he may implement some of them if he so chooses, provided he has the team of obedient aides and government employees to carry them out. And for a considerable amount of time, Mr. Trump has been getting ready to solve that particular piece of the problem.

Shortly before being voted out of office in October 2020, Mr. Trump signed an executive order establishing a new class of government servants. Senior policymaking posts known as "Schedule F" have historically been occupied by government officials throughout their careers. They could now be sacked by Mr. Trump's orders, and the president and his top political staff would take their position.

It would effectively give a president the power to fire thousands of federal workers and install loyalists in their stead.

The order was swiftly revoked by Joe Biden, but Mr. Trump says he would reimpose it as one of his first actions as president. He extols the benefits of the transformation in both his campaign films and his talks in front of the general public.

In a January video, he declares that he would "find and remove the radicals, zealots, as well as Marxists who have gained entry to the federal Department of Education."

At a rally in South Carolina the previous year he said, "We will pass crucial changes such as making every executive branch personnel fireable by the president of the United States." "The strong state must and will be brought to heel."

Several organizations are in charge of making sure that Mr. Trump's agenda is realized, and they operate behind his campaign machinery.

These organizations, which are mostly run by former senior Trump officials and go by names like the Center for Renewing America alongside the America First Policy Institute, where Mr. Lotter works, are producing papers and position papers that may serve as a guide for carrying out the policies Mr. Trump has been outlining for the past year.

The Conservative Partnership Institute provides jobs, trains, and recruits conservatives who could join a future Conservative presidential administration. Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows is listed as a "senior partner" on the organization's website. They have assembled a database of willing pawns in the massive reorganization of the federal bureaucracy that President Trump intends to carry out.

Some of Mr. Trump's former advisers, who are now his detractors, are afraid of this development.

"There wouldn't be sound people around Trump if he was elected to a second term," claims Cassidy Hutchinson, a top adviser to Mr. Meadows who testified against Mr. Trump at the congressional hearings on January 6 of last year.

But a more cooperative group of appointees and staffers will translate into a less chaotic and more productive Trump administration, according to Trump's backers.

Mr. Lotter believes that Mr. Trump will be able to fully outline his ideas as soon as he becomes office.

Mr. Lotter imagines Mr. Trump stating, "Here are 50 policies, and here are 50 executive orders, and here are 1,500 positions I would like to fill." "And here's my legislative proposal - to get energy back, to secure the border, and to address inflation."

The Trump supporters should be encouraged by such discourse, but outlining a specific program might give Democrats a chance to criticize.

Craig Varoga is an adjunct professor at American University and Democratic political the consultant. "I think there is the chance to define Trump and his policy-wonks-for-hire friends as not solely and completely out of touch, but in a position to deny a majority of Americans their proper place in American society," says Varoga.

"And in some cases - abortion rights for example - [they want to] make unlawful what many people consider to be reasonable freedoms."

Trump's birthright proposal: history, politics, and legalities

Furthermore, he raises the possibility that the ever-evolving Trump may decide against all of the policy recommendations his advisors have prepared.

But Mr. Lanza plays it down, pointing out that this group is well familiar with Mr. Trump.

"These people are going to include the president's trust from being in the management and they'll have the inside track upon having an impact," he claims. Will the strategy evolve over time? No doubt. Plans alter."

Mr. Lanza dismisses Democratic attempts to undermine Mr. Trump's objectives. He claims that criticism of the previous president's 2016 campaign platform was similar.

"It scared people and it was aggressive, but it still got people paying attention to his core message," according to him.

"What President Trump does exceptionally well is he breaks the standard of how you think the electorate is going when it comes to something controversial."