What has President Trump promised to do on day one of his second term?

United States President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to be a dictator – but only on “day one” of his upcoming term.That was the statement Trump gave to Fox News in December 2023, in the midst of his most recent campaign for re-election.Sitting at a town hall with host Sean Hannity, Trump used a question about whether he would abuse presidential power to pivot to his long list of day-one priorities.”I love this guy,” Trump told the audience, gesturing to Hannity. He said, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said, ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling’.”Since then, Trump’s promises for his first day in office have only grown, spanning questions on immigration to redesigning the federal government.On Monday, Trump takes the oath of office, following a stunning political comeback in November’s elections.The swearing-in ceremony will officially kick off his second term as president. And all eyes are on how he will wield his authority once back in the White House.Trump is expected to sign a mountain of executive orders in the opening hours of his presidency.Such moves are common practice for incoming administrations looking to make their mark, even if those orders are muted by congressional or legal challenges.But with nearly 60 day-one promises and up to 100 executive orders expected, Trump’s workload as he re-enters the White House is set to be particularly hefty.One Republican senator, John Barrasso, has already predicted a “blizzard” of executive orders, designed to “shock and awe”.Here are some of the most consequential day-one promises Trump has made.Mass deportationsImmigration – and reducing irregular crossings at the southern border – turned out to be one of the leading issues in Trump’s re-election campaign.On November 4, just days before he won the presidency, Trump reiterated a pledge he made multiple times on the campaign trail: “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history. We’re going to get them out. We have to.”Details of how Trump would undertake – and fund – such a massive operation remain elusive.The US government estimates nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the country, although Trump has said he would “declare a national emergency and will use military assets”.Whom Trump might target is also ambiguous. Some supporters have argued that all individuals in the country without legal papers are “criminals”. Others hope Trump will limit the “mass deportation” effort to those convicted of crimes like theft or assault.’Muslim ban’Another one of his first-day pledges is a throwback to his first term in office, when he signed a 2017 executive order that became known as the “Muslim ban”.It restricted entry for travelers seeking to come to the US from several Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Libya, Yemen and Sudan. The ban faced an avalanche of legal challenges and was ultimately nixed under President Joe Biden.But during his new term, Trump has pledged to reinstate the ban as well as “suspend refugee admissions, stop the resettlement and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country”.”We will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip, and we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban,” he told Republican donors in Washington, DC, in September.“Remember the famous travel ban? We didn’t take people from certain areas of the world because I didn’t want to have people ripping down and burning our shopping centers and killing people.”Restricting citizenshipOne executive order Trump is considering for his first day back in the White House would seek to restrict who is eligible for US citizenship.The plan has been long in the making. As far back as May 2023, Trump posted a video to his campaign website, outlining his intentions.”On day one of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making it clear to federal agencies that, under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic US citizenship,” Trump said. said.Under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, anyone born inside the country becomes a citizen, regardless of their parent’s status.Bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an endTrump has repeatedly maintained that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza would never have erupted under his watch.While a ceasefire deal to halt Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza was reached just days before Trump’s inauguration, fighting continues in Ukraine, where Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.Trump has pledged to bring that conflict to a swift end during his second term. During a CNN town hall in May 2023, Trump said the war would be “absolutely over” within “24 hours” of him taking office.Trump has been more circumspect lately, as his second term approaches. Still, on January 13, he announced