By: Shilpi Mohanty
On November 7th, 2024, Donald Trump won the presidential election against Kamala Harris. He is now the 47th president of the USA.
The first time Trump was president I was unsure what that meant for America. I was just a scared 8th grader petrified of what will happen to the United States. I was uneducated so I assumed the worst without reading about Trump and Hilary’s presidential campaigns. After his win this year however, I decided I want to educate myself. I want to at least be a little mentally prepared for changes. Changes have been my biggest enemy and biggest fear. Now, I’m done cowering away. I’m ready to face the possibilities through research.
I’m writing this piece so more people can also feel a bit more ready for changes without being over their heads. There are so many articles and topics pertaining to Trump’s plan so I will briefly mention Trump’s stance on as several critical issues.
One key topic Trump’s campaign has a strong stance on is immigration. Trump wants to institute a large deportation process to remove millions of illegal immigrants from the US (Yilek et al., 2024). This is potentially one of the first things Trump will try to pass as Trump’s advisor Stephen Miller “expects deportations to begin the moment Trump is again president on January 20, 2025” (Wolf, 2024) He also wants to revoke birthright citizenship rights for people who are related to illegal immigrants (Yilek et al., 2024). Legal experts are skeptical whether both those plans can actually be initiated (Yilek et al., 2024). He wants to reestablish his border policies. His policies state that Mexican immigrants have to stay in Mexico while their asylum case is reviewed and there will be National guards at the border of the USA and Mexico to arrest people who are trying to enter the US (Yilek et al., 2024). He wants to limit immigrants “on public health grounds” and make it really difficult for people from specific “majority-Muslim Nations” to move to the US (Barrow 2024).Â
Another key topic discussed is education. Trump mentioned that he wants to reduce government funding for schools that mention issues relating to transgender people (Yilek et al., 2024). Trump wants to reduce government funding for schools that teach inappropriate racial;, sexual or political content (Barrow, 2024). Trump also supports that people choose schools for their children and let parents use tax dollars for private schools not public schools (Yilek et al., 2024).Â
One of the most important topics throughout the election was abortion. Trump’s view is that abortion should be regulated as a decision by each whole state. One question Trump was asked was whether he would support a national abortion ban and he stated an indirect answer where he said that “He won’t have to” (Yilek et al., 2024). However, in the past Trump stated that the 6-week abortion ban passed in Florida is a “terrible mistake’ and explains how the time period for allowing an abortion should be more than 6 weeks (Yilek et al., 2024). Conservatives that supported Trump gave him backlash so he refuted his statement and then agreed that 6 weeks is good enough (Yilek et al., 2024). Therefore, it is unclear whether he wants to institute a nationwide abortion ban or give the states the choice to vote on abortion.
An additional topic that Trump has a strong stance on is trans rights. Trump wants to revoke Medicare and Medicaid for doctors that provide care for transgender youth (Dorn, 2024). He also wants to take away government funding for schools where teachers mention that a child was born in the wrong body. He advocates having legislation that the only genders accepted by the US government are male or female (Dorn, 2024). Trump has exclaimed that one day he will undo the expansion of Title IX. Consequently, transgender people will not be able to use pronouns, locker rooms and bathrooms that “align with their gender identities” at schools (Dorn, 2024).Â
Furthermore, Trump wants to add taxes. Trump wants to initiate tariffs on foreign goods. Trump wants to have a 10-20% tariff on all US imported goods that in total cost 3 trillion dollars and have a 60% tariff on goods from China (Payne, 2024). He also wants to lower the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% (Barrow, 2024).
One last key topic is climate change. Trump claims that “climate change is a ‘hoax’” (Barrow, 2024). His slogan for energy use is “drill, baby drill” which equates to his desire of America producing the most oil and gas globally (Yilek et al., 2024). He plans to accomplish this through removing restrictions on energy production. He promotes the use of fossil fuel to reduce US utility bills (Barrow, 2024). In 2020, Trump exited the Landmark Paris Climate agreement, and he mentioned that he would leave that agreement again as president (Yilek et al., 2024).Â
There are so many topics that Trump has made plans to address in his presidential term. Make sure to stay up to date because information is power.
Works Cited
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/07/politics/donald-trump-government-what-matters/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-heritage-foundation-e2b1be71422f4afcfd4a397828f7cab6
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-platform-policy-positions-2024/
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/06/donald-trump-second-term-policies-00187157