What Trump said he will do on Day 1

(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump is set to enter the White House for his second non-consecutive term in less than a week.

Trump has vowed to take swift action on various policies on day one, telling Republican senators that he has prepared more than 100 executive orders for the first day, the Associated Press reported.

Signing orders on the first day is common for an incoming president, but “there will be a substantial number,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.

You can watch the full Inauguration Day proceedings on NewsNation on TV, online at newsnationnow.com or on the NewsNation apps for your television or phone. Not sure how to watch NewsNation? Find your channel here.

Here’s a look at what Trump could do on his first day in office.

Mass deportations

Trump ran a campaign in part largely focused on immigration and the southwest border, saying he would order the largest mass deportation in American history of people who crossed illegally.

The Obama administration holds the record for the largest number of annual removals. In fiscal year 2013, more than 430,000 people were deported, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The process is lengthy and civil rights groups could challenge Trump’s actions on immigration policy.

“It’s not a question of a price tag,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News last November. “When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”

Seal the border

Most recently, it was reported that Trump’s advisers were searching for a disease that would trigger a public health emergency, allowing him to close the border as he did during the COVID-19 pandemic under Title 42.

Title 42 allows officials to prevent people from coming into the U.S. if a communicable disease from a foreign country presents a significant danger.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is responsible for issuing a public health emergency at the border, not the president.

FILE – Men seeking asylum, including Peruvians, line up as they wait to be processed after crossing the border with Mexico nearby, on April 25, 2024, in Boulevard, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Travel bans

In January 2017, Trump issued a travel ban on countries with predominantly Muslim populations. President Biden reversed the ban upon assuming office in 2021.

Last September, Trump said he would reinstate the ban and expand it to include Gazan refugees.

“I will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip, and we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban,” Trump said at an event in Washington, Time Magazine reported.

As Trump returns to the White House for a second term, some U.S. colleges and universities have urged their international students, who hold nonimmigrant visas to study, to return early from winter break with the threat of another travel ban looming.

Cornell University is one school that warned its students last November, two months in advance of the inauguration.

“A travel ban is likely to go into effect soon after inauguration. The ban is likely to include citizens of the countries targeted in the first Trump administration: Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia,” an online notice from the school said.

Terminate CBP One app

The CBP One phone app launched in October 2020 and was intended to streamline asylum seekers’ appointment scheduling process.

Trump said he wants to deactivate the app.

FILE – A boy looks through a border wall separating Mexico from the United States, Nov. 26, 2024, in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

End birthright citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution guarantees American citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. Children born on U.S. soil to immigrant parents are citizens regardless of their parents’ citizenship status.

Children born abroad to U.S. citizens are also considered citizens themselves.

Only constitutional amendments, not executive orders or legislation, can change the Constitution.

Trump said he intends to issue an executive order to end the practice, although executive orders cannot overturn constitutional amendments. Congress also does not have the ability. Only another constitutional amendment could do that.

“The Executive Order is part of a larger strategy to fully secure the Southern Border starting on Day One,” Trump’s campaign website said, posted in May 2023. “It will remove a major incentive for illegal aliens and other foreign nationals to come to and remain in the United States in violation of our laws and National sovereignty.”

To gain citizenship at birth, at least one parent would need to be a citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Border Czar’s plans

Trump selected Tom Homan, former acting ICE director under Trump’s first administration, as “border czar,” an unofficial title for someone who oversees major issues at the border.

Homan told NewsNation late last month that he will aggressively enforce immigration laws in sanctuary cities and may seek prosecution of officials who “knowingly harbor” undocumented immigrants.

“Sanctuary jurisdictions aren’t going to stop what we’re going to do,” Homan said in an interview with NewsNation. “If they don’t want to protect their communities, then the Trump administration will.”

In his first term, Trump implemented the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until claims were processed. He could revisit this policy.

Although Trump has said he will take action on the border on day one, there could be legal challenges or other roadblocks that could delay such actions.

Cutting inflation

Trump has vowed to end inflation, which surged during President Joe Biden’s presidency.

“I will instruct my cabinet that I expect results within the first 100 days, or much sooner than that,” Trump said last year, promising to bring consumer prices down.

A customer shops at a grocery store in Wheeling, Ill., Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

He also said he would impose tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico.

“I’m going to inform (the Mexican president) on Day 1 or sooner that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send into the US,” Trump said last year.

Tax cuts

Trump issued provisions in 2017 that provided tax cuts, but this is set to expire this year. He said he plans to reintroduce the tax cuts for some people and corporations.

Part of the proposal includes eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits and on tips for tipped workers.

The tax cuts would lower the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, which he said would result in more jobs.

American flag displayed on a laptop screen and representation of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency stocks surged upon Trump’s election win last November.

He plans to establish a U.S. Bitcoin strategic reserve and is considering naming a “crypto czar” as part of his administration.

Social Security and Medicare

Trump said he would not make cuts to Social Security or Medicare and would not raise the retirement age.

“I will always protect Social Security as I did just four years ago,” Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social on Sept. 9. 

Energy + gas and oil production

“Drill baby drill” became one of Trump’s many tag lines during his presidential campaign.

To increase gas and oil production, he said he wants to cut federal regulations around drilling, revoke offshore drilling bans, and recommend sweeping changes to electric vehicle mandates.

The expansion of oil and gas drilling would lower gas prices below $2 a gallon, Trump said.

The U.S. already pumps more crude oil than any other country, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Jan. 6 pardons

Rioters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Trump has the power to pardon the people accused of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and he has said before that he planned to do just that.

More than 1,500 people were charged, and nearly 170 were charged with crimes causing serious bodily harm to officers. More than 300 pleaded guilty to felonies.

Four years ago, his supporters stormed the Capitol in protest of the 2020 election results.

Last month in NBC’s “Meet the Press” interview, Trump said he would begin pardons on day one.

“I’m going to look at everything. We’re going to look at individual cases,” Trump said. “I’m going to be acting very quickly… First day.”

Special counsel Jack Smith of the Justice Department, who led the Jan. 6 investigation, resigned from his post on Friday after submitting his investigative report on Trump.

Trump previously said he would fire Smith when he took office.

Wars in Ukraine

In this image provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, firefighters work on a site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian attack in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and the warfare has not ceased. Similarly, the war in Israel rages on after the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.

Both wars escalated during the Biden administration, which has not been successful in influencing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and has provided arms funding to Ukraine and Israel in their battles.

Trump said he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the “bloody mess,” though he said he would conduct the meeting after his inauguration.

War in Gaza

President-elect Trump has said there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages kidnapped from Israel and held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are not released before his inauguration.

“It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,” Trump said last week during a press conference at his residence in Florida, Mar-A-Lago. “All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is.” 

Steve Witkoff, his special envoy to the Middle East, said at the same press conference that there’s been a lot of progress on efforts to release about 100 hostages held in the Gaza Strip, saying he’s hopeful a deal is achieved ahead of the inauguration. 

If a deal isn’t reached, it’s possible Trump could turn up military pressure on Hamas. Trump has called for an end to the war in Gaza, but has not enumerated specific plans to do so. He also said during the campaign that he would support what he described as Israel’s “right to win its war on terror.” 

TikTok ban

In this photo illustration, the TikTok app is seen on a phone on March 13, 2024, in New York City. (Photo Illustration by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court is expected to move forward with banning the popular social media app TikTok, a Chinese-owned company, unless it is sold to another entity by Jan. 19, the day before Trump takes office.

Trump has requested the decision to be delayed until he enters the White House.

Should the ban be delayed, Trump likely will move forward with attempting to broker a speedy sale of the app to save its presence in the U.S.