The Memo: Trump set to ‘shock and awe’ with executive actions

President-elect Trump is expected to unleash a blizzard of executive orders as soon as he takes office on Monday, seeking to demonstrate he can deliver on the hopes of supporters who elected him to change the nation’s direction.

Trump could make immediate moves on immigration, energy policy and tariffs. He could also make rapid changes on hot-button cultural issues, shifting issues like abortion and trans rights in a more conservative direction.

The incoming president and his allies are signaling the general thrust of his intentions clearly, even if much is yet to be revealed when it comes to specifics.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told CBS’s “Face the Nation” last weekend: “When President Trump takes office next Monday, there is going to be shock and awe with executive orders. A blizzard of executive orders on the economy, as well as on the border.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Trump had told Senate Republicans in a two-hour private meeting that he had roughly 100 executive orders ready to go.

The advantage in the “shock and awe” approach, especially for an incoming president as controversial as Trump, is that it could leave his opponents uncertain what to focus on – and struggling to bring sustained opposition to bear on any one proposal.

It would also reassure the Trump base that their decision to re-install the most disruptive figure in the nation’s politics was likely to pay off – even as the very same dynamics would likely outrage Democrats and liberals.

Back in November’s election, roughly one-quarter of voters said they wanted “complete and total upheaval” in the nation, according to an expansive voter analysis commissioned by the Associated Press and Fox News. Trump won those voters by a huge margin over Harris, 71 percent to 27 percent.

There are also real doubts about whether the anti-Trump resistance can recapture anything close to the intensity it possessed in the early days of his first term.

Much is different this time around.

Trump’s victory over Vice President Harris last November was far more foreseeable than his shock win over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump prevailed in the popular vote this time around, and there is no question regarding the legitimacy of his victory.

There also seems a certain resigned weariness to liberals who have seen Trump increase his support even among young voters, urban voters and Black voters.

As to the specifics, immigration is considered especially ripe for immediate action. The issue was one of Trump’s strongest during the election campaign, as he capitalized on voter disquiet about unauthorized border crossings that hit an all-time high roughly a year ago.

Some possible areas for action could be a reinstitution of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, under which asylum-seekers had to remain south of the border while their claims for refuge in the U.S. were adjudicated, or a return of the use of Title 42 authority, which enables authorities to turn would-be migrants back in an expedited fashion.

Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem, at her confirmation hearing on Friday signaled a return to the “Remain in Mexico” policy was forthcoming.

The president-elect has also said he would like to get rid of “birthright citizenship” – the constitutional guarantee that anyone born on U.S. soil is an American – though the legality of any such shift would face instant challenge.

Critics argue that “Remain in Mexico” left asylum-seekers vulnerable to unsafe and abusive situations at overcrowded camps. They also contend that any claim that migrants pose a specific public health risk – the heart of Title 42 --- is specious as the COVID-19 pandemic fades further away in the rearview mirror.

Another key question surrounds what kind of moves Trump makes on tariffs – and at what scale.

A president has unusually wide latitude on tariffs, which can be levied by the commander-in-chief if they are asserted to be necessary to national security.

Trump has at various times suggested he would impose tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico, 60 percent on China and up to 20 percent on a global scale.

But even some voices sympathetic to the president-elect believe such threats could be a negotiating tactic, especially when it comes to U.S. neighbors, whom Trump wants to take more robust action on migration.

The other complicating factor is that most credible economists believe tariffs to be inflationary. If the incoming president presses ahead, and the tactic misfires, it could cause him serious political damage.

Energy and environmental policy offers Trump several inviting targets when it comes to pushing back on Biden’s legacy.

The incoming president could erase fuel-emission standards for new vehicles, withdraw from the Paris climate accords – as he did during his first term, only for Biden to reverse the position – and expand oil and gas exploration permitting.

On abortion, it is widely expected that Trump will, at a minimum, reimpose the “global gag rule,” which prohibits foreign nongovernmental organizations in receipt of U.S. aid from providing abortion services or referrals. At home, abortion rights activists fear Trump could take action to further restrict medication abortion.

On other culture war issues, Trump has previously suggested he will instantly cut federal funding for schools pushing “woke” topics such as critical race theory and what Trump brands “transgender insanity.”

He has also pledged to act on his first day to prevent trans young people from participating in girls’ sports, though exactly how that goal would be accomplished is not immediately obvious.

But it all together and liberals are bracing for impact across the board, starting at midday on Monday.

For Trump’s MAGA supporters, the multitude of changes can’t come soon enough.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

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