In rally after rally, and speech upon speech, Donald Trump built a verbal skyscraper of campaign promises about what he would do on his first day in the White House.
Begin building a wall at the nation’s southern border. End the “war on coal.” Label China a currency manipulator. The list went on and on.
But now, as Trump prepares to take the oath of office Friday, his Day One executive actions and policy plans are a closely held secret, another prop in the Donald Trump show waiting to be unveiled with his trademark flourish and fanfare. And, his aides are playing down how much will be done during that first day, while also sending conflicting signals about whether the real work of governing will begin Friday, when Trump officially becomes president, or Monday, his first full workday in the White House.
Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump will probably sign four or five executive actions on Friday, mainly focused on logistics and government operations, with more coming Monday.
Asked Thursday about Trump’s coming executive actions, Spicer declined to give specifics, but he mentioned Obama’s health-care law, the fight against the Islamic State and immigration as “key issues” important to Trump.
undoing executive orders
“He is committed to not just Day One, but Day Two, Day Three, of enacting an agenda of real change,” he told reporters. “And I think that you’re gonna see that in the days and weeks to come.”
Regardless of what happens on Day One, advisers to the president-elect and others close to the transition process say Trump will act quickly in the early days of his administration. His initial plans are to undo many of President Barack Obama’s executive actions and begin rolling back regulations, especially those he believes are financially burdensome. At least to start, the advisers said, he will focus more on unraveling the past eight years of the outgoing administration than on a new Trump vision.
Several advisers used the word “aggressive” to describe Trump’s early actions, with another predicting “a tsunami.” The plans are still being drafted and tweaked, in a last-minute effort that spans the transition team, including the legal department, policy shop, legislative team and communications operation. The effort is being spearheaded by Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior policy adviser.
One said to expect actions undoing aspects of Obama’s health-care policy in the first wave of signings and added that Trump will probably reinstate the “Mexico City” policy, first implemented under President Ronald Reagan, that basically prevents groups receiving U.S. foreign aid from performing or promoting abortion services.
Trump’s promises both on the campaign trail and since the election have set high expectations among his supporters for what he will do in the first days and weeks of his presidency. A failure to deliver likely will be seen as a setback.
promised quick action
Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a member of Trump’s transition team, said that when Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with congressional Republicans earlier this month, he offered them a simple message: “That President-elect Trump is going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue in the parade and go into the Oval Office with a stack of papers on the desk and start signing them to roll back what we call Obama’s unconstitutional executive actions.”
Trump aides have yet to clarify, however, how many of his first moves will be actual executive actions that will take effect immediately and how many will be grand proclamations that may take time to fully implement.
Senate leaders, meanwhile, hope to confirm several of his Cabinet nominees as early as Friday, especially those filling national security posts, including retired Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security and retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense.
A speech Trump delivered in October in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – at the time intended to be his closing argument to voters – will serve as a blueprint for his initial policy prescriptions, according to his aides. There, in the shadow of the Civil War battlefield, Trump promised on his first day in office more than a dozen actions, ranging from the less likely – proposing a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress – to the more plausible- withdrawing from and beginning to renegotiate key trade deals.
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