Consider This from NPR - Can Trump turn promises into policy?

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States in just over a month.Throughout his campaign, Trump laid out a list. Things he plans to accomplish in a second term — some on day one. They include: closing the border...imposing tariffs... and ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.Trump also campaigned on bringing down food prices...in fact, he told NBC's Kristen Welker, it's the reason he won.President-elect Trump has a long to-do list for his first days in office. How much of it can he actually get done? A lot says senior Trump advisor Jason Miller.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Starting on day one, we'll implement a rapid series of bold reforms to restore our nation to full prosperity. We're going to go full prosperity and to build the greatest economy the world has ever seen just as we have. This morning in Florida, President-elect Donald Trump gave his first press conference since winning the election that promise to restore, quote, full prosperity. It comes alongside several other promises he made on the campaign trail for what he'll do on day one.

There's what he says he'll do about immigration. On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of our country. What he says he'll do on energy. On day one, we're going to drill baby drill. Education. We're going to take the Department of Education, close it. I'm gonna close it.

Gender-affirming care. On day one, I will sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to cease the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age. They're not gonna do it anymore. The war in Ukraine. They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians.

I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done in 24 hours. And the pardons for the January 6th rioters. First day. First day. Yeah, I'm looking first day. To issue these pardons. These people have been there, how long is it? Three or four years.

Presidential pardon powers are near absolute, but the rest of his promises might not be so easy to implement. Consider this. President-elect Donald Trump has laid out a massive mandate for his first day in office. How much of it can he actually get done? Coming up, a conversation with a senior Trump advisor. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Every weekday, Up First gives you the news you need to start your day.

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Your news made personal. Every Sunday on the Up First podcast from NPR. ["The New York Times"] It's Consider This from NPR. Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States in just over a month. All through his campaign, Trump laid out a list, things he plans to accomplish in a second term, some of them on day one. They include closing the border, imposing tariffs, ending the war between Russia and

Ukraine. Trump also campaigned on bringing down food prices. In fact, he told NBC's Kristen Welker that's the reason he won. I won on the border and I won on groceries. It's a very simple word, groceries. Like almost, you know, who uses the word? I started using the word the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple

the price over a short period of time. And I won an election based on that. SONIA DARAGOS Here to talk through the incoming president's long to-do list is one of the people working with him to get it done, senior advisor Jason Miller. He worked on all three of the president-elect's campaigns, and he's here in the studio with me now. Welcome.

Thank you. Let's dive in with the border. Will Trump close the US southern border on day one? Well, we're going to put the Trump policies back in place. So if you liked what we had during the first four years of the Trump administration, you're going to like what he's going to do. So we talk about remaining in Mexico, we talk about catch and release will be abolished,

for example, Title 42, I would expect to be back, and there'll probably be some other measures. So literally on day one, these are things where there'll be EOs in place, executive orders. So that's something that the president can sign, it doesn't have to go through Congress. So his policies are- And again, just on that basic question, close the border, not close the border, day one,

what's the timeline? Well, we're going to make it so if you're illegal, you're not coming in through a port of entry, or even if you're trying to come into a port of entry illegally, you're not going to be allowed in. Now, when you say close the border, the impression is that nobody's allowed to go back and forth. What the border will be closed to is for people trying to enter the United States illegally. So there's a distinction there. I want to make sure people don't think that all of a sudden, like all trade between the countries or traditional commerce is going to be shut down. And as you know, the president of Mexico has not fully signed off on

these policies, nor have some of the countries that Donald Trump would like to send these people back to. What happens if, say, Venezuela says, no, we're not taking them back? They'll take them back. And realizing, of course, that some leaders have to talk a little bit tough. They don't want to seem as though they're being steamrolled. But the fact of the matter is that they're

going to have to take them back. They're not staying in the United States because they're their people. And they're entering the United States illegally. And they're going to be sent back. So day one, the president can put his policies back in place to secure the border. And let's talk about the team that's working on that for a moment. We have Stephen Miller, who led that effort largely from inside the White House during the first

administration. Tom Homan, who's the former ICE director, he'll be leading, but he'll be doing that from a borders are position inside of the West Wing inside of the White House. We'll also have Kristi Noem, who will be the head of DHS, Department of Homeland Security. We have to get her confirmed first. Stephener I was going to say some of these are subject to Senate confirmation. Jason Kuznicki Right. And so Stephen and Tom do not need to be confirmed.

They're already putting all of this together. So literally on day one, the president will start signing executive orders for the things that he can do unilaterally by himself. I want to play you something. This is from President Biden's former Chief of Staff for ICE, Jason Hauser. He was speaking on this American life. He was commenting on what he thinks the first weeks under Trump are going to look like, and he said they are, quote, going to be hell.

You're going to see kids not in your schools. You're going to look like and he said they are quote going to be hell you're gonna see kids not in Your schools you're gonna know where they're at because they're waiting in the detention cell and they have cell phones You're gonna see it in social media You're gonna see businesses not be able to open up because their workers didn't show up You're gonna see businesses being raided Jason. Where is he wrong? And I chuckle not because I'm taking the issue lightly because it is such a bat, you know what, insane comment for this gentleman to make.

Here's the reality. Like I said, on day one, President Trump will close the border, put his policies back in place. We immediately will start moving to deport the criminal illegals who are here and already cleared and authorized and ready to go. They'll immediately start to work on getting other criminal illegals who are here and already cleared and authorized and ready to go. They'll immediately start to work on getting other criminal illegals who are detained, making sure that they're processed and we can get them because there are certain legal actions that you have to go through on a case-by-case basis to get folks return to their countries.

And then working with local sheriffs, local police departments, we're going to focus on the criminal illegals. Think about the transnational gang members, TDA, MS-13. That is going to be the priority focus. Are you expecting to get sued over some of these policies? I'm remembering some of the chaos that ensued last time around the first Trump administration. There was a ban on travel from Muslim majority countries. All kinds of confusion followed.

Well, obviously you can never determine exactly what people who oppose your policies will do, but I think that the experience level and the skill and the preparation coming into this administration, having done it once before, will have all of these executive orders be airtight as well as the actions that DHS then goes and puts in place once Kristi Noem is in there and they start moving ahead. Let me shift you to grocery prices. We heard the president-elect a moment ago saying he believes he won on that issue. He also just told Time Magazine that it is, quote, hard to bring things down once they're

up, meaning prices. Hard to bring them down once they're up. Is he backtracking? No. I mean, two things can be true at the same time here. So let's talk about why inflation happened. I'll give you kind of the Reader's Digest version. Well, if I could actually direct you, I would love to hear the how.

How is he going to bring grocery prices down when he's saying it's hard? It's important to also connect them. Here's why it happened and here's why, because I want people to have the confidence to know that this is something that he can do. When Biden came in, the first thing he did was start cutting off a lot of the energy exploration and repealing permits and things of that nature for where people were able to drill in the US. That caused energy to become more expensive.

So think about it. How do you get apples to your local grocery store? How do you get the bakery deliveries? Everything drives on fuel. The other part too, keep in mind under Biden and Herrscher, there's two massive spending bills, which even the Biden and Herrscher supporters would admit caused an additional massive spike with regard to inflation. Those two things getting the sound monetary policy back, as well as getting the energy exploration and the deregulation, that will have an immediate

impact for what we do to start reversing that in particular regard to groceries. You're making the wider point that this is a complex issue, how we get the prices of eggs down. How do we get the prices of food down? Michael O'Brien I'd push back a little bit on that. What I would say is that if you make energy cheaper, everything becomes cheaper. When you don't go and spend trojans of dollars that we don't have and you get some fiscal sanity restored, then you can

curb what future inflation will look like. I think this one-two punch will make a real difference in people's lives. Look, I think what the president said to Kristen Welker was spot on. Groceries was the reason. I live in a household where I will admit, especially because I'm on the road so much, I don't do the majority of shopping. I went in to go get cereal. And I love my cereal when I'm home.

And I went in and my big, massive jumbo size box of, I like crunch berries, I know they're not super healthy. It was like almost nine bucks for this big box of cereal. It's like, what the hell is going on? I mean, this hits people. It matters to people. It matters. People vote with their checkbooks and they care about it.

Just to ask about the interplay of the two things we've talked about so far, immigration, how expensive your cereal box is. Would a crack down on immigration not drive prices up rather than down? Tight labor market, things like agriculture, things like meat processing, those jobs are largely reliant on immigrant labor. those jobs are largely reliant on immigrant labor. How would a massive deportation program not end up driving up the prices of your cereal? My eggs. Great question. So I wanna make sure that people understand

what we're talking about is cutting down and completely stopping illegal immigration for people who are not legally authorized to enter our country, to come into our country and start working. We're not talking about lowering the levels of legal immigration. So there are things called the H2A visa where seasonal agriculture workers are allowed to come in.

Could there even be a conversation about that being expanded? Possibly, but you have to enter the country legally. Bottom line, you don't think it's mutually exclusive to crack down on immigration and bring back Trump policies that you believe were successful the first time around and yet bring down prices for Americans? You can do both. I'm asking, I'm citing a Wall Street Journal poll. This was with economists taking the month right before the election.

Only 12% of those economists thought that Trump was the better candidate on taming inflation I mean that come on the all we have to do is look back at President Trump's first term where we had four years and He had 1.4 percent inflation. That's almost that's almost no inflation I mean usually anything below 2% people view as being pretty good 1.4 percent for his four years and that's even with some of the tariffs that were put in place with the tax cuts for his four years, and that's even with some of the tariffs that were put in place, with the tax cuts. That was such a phenomenal record. And I mentioned you were around in 2016, 2017. What is different this time? What did you learn from the first time around that will inform how you attack things this time? Yeah, another great question. It's fascinating to watch, having kind of had a front row seat

with all this with President Trump. In 2016, he knew what he wanted to do from kind of a macro vision, prove the economy, secure the border. Now he knows exactly how he wants to do it. So the fact that he had his entire cabinet named by Thanksgiving, he had a chief of staff, Suzy Wiles named before Thanksgiving, his kind of his senior White House team, he knows exactly what it is. So a lot of times when you have incoming presidents, they're trying to figure out, it sounds a little bit crass, but you know, where's the bathroom? You know, what are the logistics? How does

this place work? Not only does President Trump know how the West Wing and how the White House works, he knows how to do it with other foreign leaders as well. And not even just foreign leaders. I was with him, for example, when Justin Trudeau called him a few weeks ago. And he needed Canada and he immediately... Of Canada, Justin Trudeau of Canada. Yes, of Canada. And he immediately started talking about the Canadian trade advisor who's a tough negotiator in her own right. And, I mean, he knows the people going down to the finance ministers in these various

countries. Those personal relationships are there to where he can just pick up the phone and make things happen. And I think Americans, whether you voted for President Trump or you didn't, have to respect the fact that he knows what to do and how to do it. And we're going to have strong leadership in the White House. And I think that will impress people as we start pushing forward to some of these agenda items. That is senior Trump advisor Jason Miller. Thanks for stopping by. Okay, thank you.

This episode was produced by Mark Rivers and Connor Donovan. It was edited by Courtney Dornig, our executive producer, Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. You care about what's happening in the world. Let State of the World from NPR keep you informed. Each day we transport you to a different point on the globe and introduce you to the people living world events. We don't just tell you world news, we take you there.

And you can make this journey while you're doing the dishes or driving your car. State of the World podcast from NPR, vital international stories every day. You care about what's happening in the world. Let State of the World from NPR keep you informed. Each day we transport you to a different point on the globe and introduce you to the people living world events.

We don't just tell you world news, we take you there, and you can make this journey while you're doing the dishes or driving your car. State of the World Podcast from NPR, vital international stories every day.