cover of episode BONUS: Trump's Day One Promises

BONUS: Trump's Day One Promises

2024/11/15
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Key Insights

Why might Trump's pardon of January 6th rioters be controversial?

The pardon could be seen as condoning illegal acts and undermining the rule of law, especially given the Supreme Court's recent decision on presidential immunity.

How might Trump's promise to close the Department of Education impact public schools?

Closing the DOE would remove federal assistance for education, including college loans and special education aid, potentially leading to funding gaps and reduced support for students in need.

What are the potential consequences of Trump's plan to increase fossil fuel production?

Boosting fossil fuel production could lead to increased emissions and environmental degradation, despite the U.S. already being the largest producer of oil and gas.

How might Trump's immigration policies differ from the Biden administration's?

Trump plans to cancel humanitarian parole, change deportation guidelines to target more people, and potentially use military bases for detention, unlike the Biden administration's more restrictive approach.

What is the significance of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in Trump's immigration plan?

The Act could be used to detain and deport foreign nationals without full status, overriding due process and potentially leading to legal challenges.

How might Trump's rollback of protections for transgender people impact federal programs?

Trump could issue executive orders to ban federal support for gender transition, affecting programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination protections.

What is the likely impact of Trump's plan to eliminate tax credits for clean energy and electric vehicles?

Eliminating these credits could slow down the growth of clean energy projects and electric vehicle adoption, putting private investments at risk.

Chapters

President-elect Trump's vow to pardon individuals convicted in the January 6th Capitol attack raises legal and ethical questions. Discussion focuses on presidential pardon powers and potential consequences, including concerns about abuse of power and lack of accountability.
  • Presidential pardons have no express limits according to the Constitution.
  • The Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity complicates the issue.
  • Trump's promise raises concerns about potential criminal enterprise and political prosecutions.

Shownotes Transcript

President elect Donald trump has made a lot of promises for the first Davis presidency, and he has made a clear he intends to keep them.

I govern by a table model. Promises make, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises.

So what are some of those promises and how .

might we keep? This is a bonus episode of birth from N. P. R. news. For morning addition this week, my coast and I have been taking a deeper look at some of the promises the present elect has made for his return to the White house from a pledge department january six writers and start mass deportations .

to a commitment to get rid of the department of education, increased fossil fuel production and roll back protections for transgender people. Stay with us to hear more about these daytime promises.

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Hey, everyone, n ba Parker, a host of the podcast code switch, and on my show I get to dig into all of the facts of being a black woman from honing my ancestors to explore representation in reality TV codes, which is a place where I think out loud about how race identity are connected. Join me on the cosmic podcast from N. P. R.

We start with president elect Donald ms. Vow to party hundreds of people convicted in connection with the attack on the U. S. capital.

I am inclined to, apart on many of them, I can say, for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they roll to deeper .

on this promise and a recent decision from the press court I poke, she's a legal scholar and author of the book harden power.

the constitution and article to just says that the president has the power to grant reprieves in partis and IT puts no express limits on a part in and although there has been some supreme court case law putting some constraints on the party, there is no law that would limit donal trump's ability to part in the people who participated in the january interaction and ended up embroiled in the criminal justice system.

So another thing that trump promised was to fire the special prosecutor investigating him, jack smith, right away. And the investigations are being wound down now as we understand that from the department of justice, but the supreme court decision that anything he does as president would be subject to presidential community, what does that mean?

So I think what that means is that Donald trump directed the tourney general to abuse the massive power of the department of justice and law enforcement. So that's the number one. This second is the partner.

Of course, the supreme court held that if the president uses his official power, long enforcement, surveilLance power, investigative power, prosecutorial power, that kind of power cannot be subject to the rule of law, but the community ruling only applies to the president. IT doesn't apply to people around the president, so he would have to get them to commit crimes on his behalf. And the way to do that would be to promise apart and and then actually part of them. So the part in when you add that with this immunity for the president's illegal act, as long as they use, he uses his official power, it's sort of a recipe for, you know, a massive criminal enterprise in the White house.

And he has said on the campaign trail that he would go after his political and personal opponents.

that is, body said for quite a while. And law is all about incentives and disincentives. And we have laws in place to disincentivize behavior. We don't like we have a stop signs to disincentivize driving in a way that's dangerous. But people will blow through those limits if there is no consequence.

And right now, what the supreme court is done by injecting an immunity into a constitution that does not have IT, is to change the incentives for presidents to be. They lift any threat of consequences for abusing the massive power of the office. Of course, the frames of the constitution understood, as medicine said, of men, more Angels.

We would not need government. The rules are now lifted. This is a president who has promised with vittoria all prosecute and go after people who who he believes have prosecuted him in in unfair ways. So I think we can take him as water. At least we should be prepared for that.

Now that's one perspective on what the next president could IT do.

Next up, one of the president elect signature campaign promises .

was on immigration. Launched the largest deport program of criminal in the history of battle. The effort .

trump has tap tom homan to be his administrations borders are, he is the former acting head of immigration and customs enforcement, examining what a mass deportation plan might look like our cold. Steve inskeep spoke with Andrew silly, his president of migration policy institute, a nonpartisan organization on immigration policy.

I think the first thing we know he will almost certainly do is cancel humAnitary parle for people that received that, people who came through C B B one, this apt, people who used to the schedule appointment to come across the border, people who came through the C H N B program for human sation nick rowland in venezuelans, he will go after people in these sort of tenuous statuses, and eventually people who have temperately protected status, although that may take longer because they have to run their legal course.

I think the second thing we'll see is changing guidelines for for deep vocation for immigration customs enforcement officials so they can arrest anyone and and put them into deportation proceedings. Um that is something that changed under the by administration where they were primarily pursuing people who had criminal records or people are a threats to national security. I think you're also going to see a shift on workplace rates and looking at places where employers are hiring people without documents, which was not happening for most of the by administration.

And then I think we get into the big question Marks. I mean, he's talked about using expanding detention facilities that will most certainly en, but whether he'll be able to use military bases or not or other federal facilities, and whether he will try to use the military itself. And that would require going back to the alien institution acts of seventy, eighty eight. And that will almost certainly be litigated in the courts.

Imagine the alien enemy's act of seventy, eighty eight. What is that?

IT gives power to the U. S. Government to hold people who are foreign nationals living in the united states. He is supposed to be designed for a time of war or intense conflict. But I don't think there's any doubt that at least some people in the network of people around on the trumpet of thinking that they could be used to in the moment of what they perceive as an immigration crisis. I'm not sure the courts would degree with that, but I would not be completely surprised if they try and see how far they can IT sounds .

like that's the kind of law that would be invoked if you had someone who doesn't have full status to be here, but they're waiting on a court hearing or they have some reason or permission to remain the united states. For now, this would overwrite that the tiger use the alien act. Well.

I think they they want to use IT for two purposes. One is to override due process, right, to make IT easier to to detain someone and support them. And also so they could justify using the military, which I I think is something that will get a lot of push back from the U. S. ARM.

Forces use the military for what?

For supporting, rounding up and holding people who do not have legal status.

Does that matter if someone who's hear illegal is in a red stata, a bluest state enormously?

yes. I mean, a lot of what the federal government will want to do in the trump administration requires corporation from state authorities. And we've seen this before. We saw strain the last trumpet administration. There were very successful enforcement efforts against people who are here illegally in red states because local forceful was willing to collaborate, IT worked out much less effectively in blue states where local laender cement wouldn't necessarily not collaborate at all, but they would not put the large amount of resources into collaborating on immigration enforcement. And so I think I will depend .

on where people live. I am curious if red states really want to be rid of their workforce, many of whom may be here without authorization. Does I, for example, want to get rid of the workforce in me packing plants? Well.

here's where you get into the the tough part of this politically, which is that all the polls tell us that americans are really concerned about the border, but they're also quite favorable to immigrants that are already integrated in their communities, right? They depend on them as part of the labor force. These are people whose kids go to school with their kids. I think if we see real master deportations, IT is going to generate to push back.

And ROM also promise this, we're going to .

take the department and education close IT. I'm going to close IT.

So this wouldn't mean your local public school is shuttered. It's actually state and local governments that Operate public schools and universities, but the department gives federal assistance for education, and that's everything from college student loans to aid for public school special education for more months. Promise to close the department alcohol.

Stephen skip spoke with john wAllen. He studies in inequalities in schools with the bickering institution of washington basing the U. S.

Constitution doesn't say anything about schools or about education, and IT kicks all of that work to the states. But over time, the federal government has come to place some really important roles, things like protecting students civil rights, providing some compensate funding to students and poverty and students with disabilities who would very likely be underserved if we relied on totally on state in local funding.

So IT is not an agency that is telling schools what to do. They're not defining curriculum. They're not telling schools which teachers they can hire or which books to use. They're really administering these programs that have been established through law over the last several decades.

What is the substantive issue that makes this real for people who dislike the department of education of the saying, I really don't like the way the D O E is enforcing civil rights in my communities. I really don't like the way the doa is making my district t spend money on poor people.

So some of the hot butter issues that come up over time are really about civil rights enforcement. For example, the by administration put in some new regulations around title line that expanded the prohibition of sex space discrimination to also include sexual orientation and gender identity. One of the more likely moves from the trump administration will be getting rid of those regulations in changing the way that civil rites enforcement happens within the department of education.

aside from the social issues. Is the department of education just a vehicle for a lot of money going to certain schools?

That's a big part of what IT does, particularly when we're talking about k twelve education. IT is sending resources to schools that would other wise be severely underfunded. We have a system in place in the us.

Where we fund schools through a combination of local, state and federal sources. And local funding sources tend to be tilted in the direction of schools and higher wealth areas. And so you get that out of inequality that is baked in. So part of what the federal government's role in this is, is to offset some of those advantages and disadvantages would come from a local and .

state system like that. Another way to describe IT is that wealthy, more liberal, blue areas are subsidizing more conservative, more rural, poor rear areas of the country in terms of education. And I right.

So the politics of this are really fascinating. So programs like title one, which again, provides these resources for student to need that most, they go not just to politically blue areas or big cities, they really go to all parts of the country. And in if you look at the states that rely the most untitled one funding as a share of their per pupil education spending, it's actually a bunch of red kind of rural states that get the largest share of funding from title one. And so when you start to talk about shutting down the apartment or scaling back these programs, you run into opposition, not just from democrats who across the board oppose that kind of move, but actually a lot of congressional republicans see the threat that IT opposes to their own constituents.

President elect Donald trump has also committed to boosting .

america's fossil fuel industry and and scraping policies .

and laws that benefit Green technologies. Es, such as the inflation reduction act or ira, are on the list of things to do. Now insight into trump s plans I spoke with duke university professor bryan murray is an expert on energy.

has said that he will reverse ira by the obligating any funds that were unspent and eliminating tax credits for zero carbon energy and electric vehicles and other clean energy activity.

Let's get into the offshore wind down. Trump s also talk about eliminating regulations and even killing projections. How feasible would that be?

Trump has been openly hostile to offshore wind for years and ways that he can camp down on offshore wind. The us. Would be to offer course no new leases and then could eliminate the I ra. Tax credits specifically for offshore wind?

yes. And that's one of his day. One pledges to end offshore wind right away. Could he ended pretty quickly as he he wants to do .

is one thing to take action quickly. It's another thing to slow down the activity quickly. So there are a number of offshore when the now in the construction of the cost of massachusets rode island in new york, new jersey and Virginia, and many of those will continue. However, if the tax credits are eliminated, that would need to go through congress and that wouldn't happen on day one. If they were eliminated, that would put a lot of the private capital at risk right now because the investors is that private capital are planning on tax credit is part of the return that are going to have in their investment.

What about electric vehicles? How much would a trump administration change what already is in mind for electric vehicle production and ownership?

The demand for this has really been spared a lot by the incentive for electric vehicles. One of the greatest st beneficiaries, other tax credits, has been battery of manufactures. So IT may not be all that politically easy for present electrum to go in and say we're just going to stop all of the incentive of associated with electric vehicles if IT then leads to incentive for battery production in these parts of the country.

So let's go the fossil fuel industry. Donald trump p has promised to increase oil and gas production, even though the country has already set new records for oil, gas production under bind administration. So what can the new administration can do to increase IT even more than IT already is? Well.

you write that currently the us is and has been for several years the largest producer of oil and gas in the world. It's done so though with some restrictions on leasing in oil, gas extraction on federal lands. And so one thing that the trump administration could do is to reduce those restrictions. Um they could rapidly increase in oil, natural gas and coal production of federal lands. They can also call a congress to repeal the antiquity APP, which was used to establish national monuments where mineral oil, gas extraction can occur.

Were doing any or all of those things lead lower energy costs for everyone else. So the U. S.

Is a large important producer, but IT is not the only producer in global markets. Increasing global supplies will generally reduce Prices in increased consumption in that would lead to more emissions.

And to wrap up, our week of day one promises our cold. Michelle Martin took a closer look at this campaign promise.

Day one, I will sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to seize the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age and not going to do with anything.

Michelle spoke to jammy Taylor, a professor at the university of toledo, o. She's an extensively about the transgender rights movement and public attitudes about trans.

I just want to start with the clip we just played in. Trumps promised to ban federal support for gender transition any age. What's he talking about here? Is he talking about medicare and medicare? Can he ban certain procedures from being paid for by these programs?

There are several programs that would address health care for trend gender people. These are medicare, medical va. And then there are things like the affordable care where you have non discrimination protect that may include, and people defending on how where the term sex is being interpreted.

So the president and issued executive order to instruct agencies to do this. And one of the things that we know with executive action on trains rises is not sticky. Executive actions can be very impermanent.

Here is the second part of that quote.

I will declared that any hospital or health care provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of a minor year no longer meets federal health and safety standards. They will be terminated from receiving federal funds effective immediately.

Now I think that what he's talking about here is what other people consider gender a firming care for minors? Do people see this differently from gender forming care for adults?

Yeah, I do think we need to make a distinction between health care from miners versus gender from health care for adults. And I think the politics on that is gone to be different, that the state, broadly speaking, has an obligation to protect minors. And so the politics of that is different for adults. I mean, what is the rational basis to deny an adult voluntary procedures to make their life Better?

So last year in a campaign speech, trump made a specific reference to title nine. He said this.

The bill will also make clear that title nine prohibits men from participating in women sports.

So title is the civil rights act, bans discrimination schools and colleges. What is he saying he will do is he's saying that this bill that he is proposing, we will bar transgender athletes from participating in college sports. I mean, can he do that?

This is again something that his flip flopped on, how this is going to be interpreted. The obama administration wanted interpret interline inclusively of trains. People in the trumpet administration reversed course.

The bind administration, again, reversed course, but they warn, is willing to be as inclusive on sport. And so the trump administration is almost certainly going to to take the view that title line does not include protections for trains, people in sport. But again, executive action is important.

And that IT for this up first bone is episode for friday, november fifteen. And I love audit about giving.

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Today's episode of up first was edited by lisa thomson, and IT was produced by kate klein. IT was made in collaboration with the entire morning edition team and with our engineering and studio teams. Try again on monday.

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