Dem
47
GOP
53
This weekend, Donald Trump gave his first interview since winning the election. To say he is all bark and no bite would be an exaggeration, but Trump the president-elect is nonetheless a very different person than Trump the candidate. A fair amount of what he told Kristen Welker on Meet the Press tones down what he campaigned on.
Trump said he would "seek" to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants, since no other country has it (in fact, 34 other countries have it). The key word here is "seek." The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that everyone born on U.S. soil is an American. To end that would require repealing the Fourteenth Amendment. Good luck with that. Is he going to seek repealing the Fourteenth Amendment? We suspect this is the last time we hear about this idea.
Trump also said Ukraine would probably get less aid with him as president. That's not the same thing candidate Trump said, when he told Vladimir Putin that the world is his buffet and he should help himself to whatever he wants. Maybe Trump is now aware that many Republicans don't like Russia and godless communism, and cutting off aid to Ukraine altogether would put him at odds with many Republicans in Congress. He even backed down about leaving NATO. He said if they treat us fairly, he would stay in. That probably means that if all the other countries would spend 2% of their GDP on defense, he would stay in. Most, if not all, of them have already gotten that message and are ramping up defense spending.
Trump said that he couldn't guarantee that his tariffs would not raise prices. It sounds like he is serious about tariffs, which, of course, will raise prices. But maybe under the radar there will be exemptions for every company that donated to his campaign so he can claim victory without actually changing much.
Trump also scuttled his earlier plans to fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, which he can't actually do. However, he did say he would fire FBI Director Christopher Wray because "he invaded my home" and wasn't sure at first whether Trump's ear was struck by a bullet or shrapnel. A competent FBI director would know that instantly from the sounds the agents made when reporting it to him. "Bang bang" would mean a direct bullet hit, of course.
The President-elect also stuck with his threat that he would lock up his "enemies," like Liz Cheney. This is not likely to go smoothly. If he just ordered the DoJ to arrest Cheney and lock her up, she could certainly get a court to do its habeas corpus thingie and release her. In America, even Trump's America, the president can't just lock people up because he doesn't like them. He could ask the AG, probably Pam Bondi, to investigate Cheney, but to lock her up, Bondi would first have to convince a grand jury that the former representative committed a crime. Finding a grand jury in very heavily Democratic D.C. to do that would be a challenge, especially given the tiny little technicality that Cheney hasn't committed any crimes. Then there would have to be a trial. Good luck with that, too. Trump could make Cheney spend a lot of money on her defense, but since Democrats sorta, kinda like her now, she could probably start a GoFundMe campaign to pay her legal bills. When asked if he would prosecute Jack Smith, Trump said he would leave that to Bondi. She would never do that. She may be Trumpy, but if she did, she could never get a conviction and then Smith would have formal recognition that he did not commit a crime and she and Trump would have enough egg on their faces to provide the entire cabinet with omelets for breakfast for a week.
Trump said he would not tamper with Social Security or raise the age of eligibility. He would merely make it more efficient. What does that mean? Replace the agency's aging x86 computers with spiffy new Apple M4 computers?
When asked about banning abortion pills, Trump said he probably wouldn't. If Congress were to pass a bill banning mifepristone, would he veto it? He wasn't specific, but Senate Democrats would filibuster any such bill, so it would never arrive on his desk.
On the subject of health care, he doesn't really have a concept of a plan. If he works hard, something he hates to do, maybe he might be able to work up to a glimmer of an idea about a concept of a plan. In practice, he will leave it to Congress, which is badly divided on the topic and is incapable of doing anything.
Trump even made nice to supporters of Kamala Harris, and said to them: "I'm going to treat you every bit as well as I have treated the greatest MAGA supporters." Does he mean it? We will reserve judgment on that one.
The President-elect did say that on Day 1, he would sign a raft of XOs on the economy, energy and the border. That he can do, but XO's are merely orders to the bureaucracy to take certain positions and interpret laws in a certain way. They are not laws.
In short, the campaign is over and Trump has to govern. And he hates governing. Governing is hard, and getting anything through a very closely divided House where every Republican will have a veto over everything for the first 3 months will be tough. And what gets through will be filibustered in the Senate.
In reality, he can and will issue lots of XO's and can have future OMB Director Russell Vought change the federal budget proposal to Congress to remove things he doesn't like and add things he does. The budget can pass using the reconciliation process—at least, if Trump can get it through the House, which is not a given since the Freedom Caucus may demand even bigger cuts than he wants. In short, he is trying to water down his campaign promises already because many of them were always totally unrealistic and he is worried that trying to do things and failing will make him look weak. And in MAGAworld, the weak are eaten for lunch. (V)