President Donald J. Trump outlines an assertive plan for his second term

New York: President-elect Donald J. Trump laid out a forceful agenda for his second term in his first televised network interview since winning reelection. He pledged to implement significant policy changes and take contentious measures on executive leadership, immigration, and criminal justice.

According to the New York Times, Trump pledged to punish his opponents, including members of Congress who looked into him, eliminate automatic citizenship for children born to immigrants in the US, and pardon hundreds of Capitol rioters.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, Trump said that he will pardon his supporters convicted of their roles in the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault on his first day in office next month.

“Yes. When asked whether he would think about pardoning all those implicated, Trump said, “But I’m going to be acting very quickly.” He said, “There may be some exceptions, those who were radical, crazy.” “Because they had no choice,” Trump stated, defending individuals who attacked police during the riots. He also claimed that the rioters who were imprisoned were being held in “a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”

Trump’s vow to abolish birthright citizenship—a 14th Amendment constitutional promise that confers citizenship to everyone born in the United States, regardless of their parents’ legal status—further underscores his desire to change immigration policy.

Trump said, “We’re going to have to get it changed,” leaving open the prospect of seeking executive acts or constitutional changes, despite the fact that legal academics have overwhelmingly rejected this as unconstitutional. “We may need to return to the people. But we must put a stop to it,” he said. According to the New York Times, the president-elect falsely said that “We’re the only country that has it,” even though 34 other countries also provide unfettered birthright citizenship.

Trump said that he would be open to working with Democrats to defend Dreamers, illegal immigrants who were brought to the US as children, in a significant break from his extreme stance. “We have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age,” he said. And a large number of these individuals are now middle-aged.

They don’t even speak their nation’s language. Indeed, we will take action on the Dreamers. Although he accused Democrats of not protecting Dreamers, former President Barack Obama was the one who implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, which prevented 700,000 people from being deported. Trump has tried to revoke DACA before, but the Supreme Court has blocked his efforts.

Significant changes inside government agencies, especially the FBI, were also alluded to by the president-elect. Citing complaints about the FBI’s investigation into his handling of sensitive data and its reaction to his assassination attempt earlier this year, he proposed removing FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, whom he nominated in 2017. Trump said, “He invaded my home,” alluding to the FBI’s raid of his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022.

I got shot in the ear, and he responded, ‘Oh, maybe it was shrapnel.’ From whence is the shrapnel coming? Does it originate in heaven? Not in my opinion.” It would sort of seem pretty obvious that if Kash [Patel] gets in, he’s going to be taking somebody’s place, right?” Trump said, hinting that he would likely dismiss Wray, though he did not state it directly.

Trump supporter and prospective FBI director Kash Patel has come under fire for his harsh tactics against alleged enemies, as detailed in a 2023 book that named over 60 people as belonging to the so-called “executive branch deep state.” Trump left leeway for interpretation even as he downplayed concerns that Patel might look into political opponents. “If they were crooked, if they did something wrong, if they have broken the law, probably,” he said.

In addition, Trump subtly threatened members of the House bipartisan committee that looked into his involvement in the January 6 assault throughout the interview. “For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail,” he said, referring to former Representative Liz Cheney and others. He did clarify, however, that he would not order the FBI director or attorney general to conduct such investigations; rather, he recommended that they do it on their own. “I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to order them to,” he said.

Cheney replied by saying, “Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.” “There would be no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutional basis” for the committee members to be prosecuted, she said.

According to reports, President Joe Biden and his aides are thinking about pardoning Cheney and other people who have angered the president-elect as Trump gets ready to take office. The upcoming nomination of supporters like Patel to important posts has heightened concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and threats of retaliation, according to the New York Times.

Legal and political discussions have already been triggered by Trump’s comprehensive policy changes, which include possible challenges to constitutional protections. Above all, federal judges have voiced concerns about pardoning Capitol rioters in bulk. A Trump appointee, Judge Carl J. Nichols, recently said, “It would be beyond frustrating and disappointing if there were blanket pardons for Jan. 6 defendants or anything that close.”

Trump is determined to change the political and social landscape of the country while igniting debate about the morality and constitutionality of his planned acts. He wants to launch executive actions on immigration, the economy, and energy on the first day of his second term.