JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – President-elect Donald Trump is laying out an agenda for his second term in the White House.
And with the first female Chief of Staff in history by his side, a lot of people wonder if Susie Wiles, a political operative from Jacksonville, will have a profound impact on the tenor of a second Trump term.
I’ll flesh that out more in a bit.
President-elect Trump promises the largest deportation of immigrants in American history, sweeping new tariffs on imports, and freezing climate-related regulations.
Also on the docket: remaking federal health agencies and making ideological changes to the education system.
Mr. Trump will get his chance to do those things, and he promises to keep his promises.
“We’re gonna fix everything about our country,” Trump says.
The fact is, many of his proposals are complicated, and he has yet to lay out any specifics.
On immigration, Trump has called for the use of the National Guard and empowering domestic police forces. “Build the Wall” from 2016 has become “creating the largest mass deportation program in history.”
Trump said: “I will stop the invasion of criminals into our country, and I will bring back the American dream.”
But he stopped short of saying how. Few details were released. We have no idea how the plan will look or how he would ensure only people in the U.S. illegally would be targeted.
Trump’s tax policies largely favor corporations and the wealthy. He basically promised to extend the 2017 tax overhaul. There are a few notable changes that include lowering the corporate income tax rate to 15% from the current rate of 21%.
We also know he is calling to roll back society’s emphasis on legal protections for LGBTQ+ citizens and transgender rights. Also promising to end “boys in girls’ sports,” Mr. Trump claims the practice is widespread. Is it?
The administration is downplaying the abortion issue as a second-term priority. That’s interesting because he is taking credit for the Supreme Court ending a woman’s federal right to terminate a pregnancy and returning abortion regulation to state governments.
But it remains unclear if he would defend legal challenges seeking to restrict access to abortion pills, including Mifepristone.
During his first four years in office, Trump made major policy changes but often complained bureaucracy got in the way. It will be interesting to see if the president-elect’s staff, which he is in the process of assembling, is better equipped to handle things.
With lessons learned from the first term, perhaps they’ll better navigate those bureaucratic hurdles.
Some of the biggest items on the agenda will take Congressional approval. Of course, if the GOP controls both the House and Senate, it will be less of an issue because Trump and the GOP would have complete control of Washington.
If the Democrats wrestle control of the House from Speaker Mike Johnson, they may have more oversight.
The Democrats admit that they worry about what they characterize as “Trump’s crazy chaos careening from one thing to another. One minute firing staffers by tweet -- the next minute trying to buy Greenland.”
So, for the Democrats, whether they make up the majority or minority, they need to be unified.
There are worries that Trump will test the limits of his presidential power. There are concerns about the claims he has made publicly. Trump has said he wants the authority to fire civil servants he views as disloyal. He vowed to use federal law enforcement agencies to investigate or prosecute perceived enemies, including political rivals.
Red flags are waving about promised roles in the administration. Roles promised to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Musk contributed at least $119 million to a pro-Trump spending group, giving him extraordinary influence to help his companies secure favorable government treatment.
Kennedy made no secret that he may play a prominent role in the administration. He disclosed that Trump gave him a three-fold directive to transform the nation’s health care landscape, clean up corruption in health agencies, restore evidence-based science, and end the chronic disease epidemic to make America healthy again.
Kennedy is known to have some contentious views; some would describe them as unorthodox or even wild or dangerous. Many in the main-line health care fields worry about the changes he might bring about compromising the health and well-being of Americans in general.
The Trump victory may have substantial consequences on the global stage. If Trump enacts just a fraction of his pledges -- from higher trade tariffs to deregulation, more oil drilling, and more demands on America’s NATO partners -- the strain on government finances, inflation, economic growth and interest rates will be felt in every corner of the world.
That doesn’t even take into account the situations in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Now to a major point we alluded to at the start. One thing that signals the second coming of a Trump presidency might be different is the appointment of Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff. She is a seasoned Republican strategist and lobbyist, not to mention one of Trump’s longest-serving advisers.
While Trump says she likes to stay in the background, the truth is Wiles is not in the background at all.
Sources in Washington say she had conditions for accepting the second-highest job in the West Wing. That source says she wants to control access to Trump. Why? Presumably to prevent unofficial advisers from influencing him.
The impact of that has the potential to be profound and may set the tone for the administration.
Wiles is taken seriously in Washington and in many political circles. Understand when it comes to Trump, she is taken seriously not just on the MAGA side, but the establishment side of the GOP as well.
Taking all that into consideration, what might we expect after Jan. 20 when Trump once again occupies the White House?
News4JAX Political Analyst and Head of the Jacksonville University Public Policy Institute Rick Mullaney joined med on this week’s episode of Path to the Polls to answer that question and much more.
If you missed the live show, you can catch our 7 p.m. Tuesday encore presentation on News4JAX+ or watch on demand anytime on News4JAX.com, News4JAX+ and our YouTube channel.