The NPR Politics Podcast - How Trump's early days in 2017 might be different from the upcoming term

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith has been looking at what Donald Trump did in early 2017 when he first took office, and what might be different this time around. This normally would be a bonus episode just for NPR Politics Podcast+ listeners. With it being the season of giving, we're sharing this one with everyone! To hear more bonus content like this, regular episodes sponsor-free, and support the work of NPR, sign up for NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, Sarah McCammon here. Welcome everyone to this bonus episode. Normally, this is just for NPR Politics Podcast Plus listeners as a little appreciation of that extra support, but today we're giving everyone a chance to hear it. These bonus episodes come out every two weeks. We might pull back the curtain and talk about what went into covering a big news event or dig into some history with our in-house professor, Ron Elving. Or, like today's episode, share a story or conversation we think you'll find interesting. Consider it a handpicked listen for our super fans. This is just one perk of signing up for NPR+. You also get to hear every episode

of the NPR Politics Podcast without sponsor messages. To learn more, go to plus.npr.org. Okay, so today's story comes from my colleague, Tamara Keith. She recently looked at what happened the first time Donald Trump took office in 2017 for clues about how Trump's second term might start. That story coming up. This message comes from Wyse, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the Wyse app today or visit WISE.com, T's and C's apply.

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Listen to The Indicator, the daily economics podcast from NPR. The first Trump administration came in aiming for shock and awe, and it delivered, starting with President Trump's inaugural address. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. It was a message about delivering on his campaign promises about crime, immigration, and industrial decay. And he got to work right away, announcing executive actions just about every day.

And then, at the end of his seventh day in office, Trump signed Executive Order 13769. It banned travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We don't want them here. It was a Friday night and immediately affected unsuspecting travelers. Lee Gelernt is a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Then we started getting calls saying people are actually being stopped in the airports and it's happening. Chaos erupted. Week one of Donald Trump's presidency has ended with a ban heard around the world. Protests across the country namely at airports this one at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. It all happened so fast. Homeland Security employees at the airports didn't know what they were supposed to do. By Saturday night, Gelernt and other attorneys were in court trying to at least temporarily halt the ban. At one point, someone came running up to me and handed me a piece of paper and said, my client is about to be sent back in about a half hour. They're putting her on the plane.

And so I said, Your Honor, I've just been given this note. I mean, it was sort of TV movie ish and that we need an order immediately. And so it all played out very dramatically. They got that order. And later the travel ban was thrown out by the courts. A scaled back second version didn't take effect until five months later. There was a blur during those first few days. We were fast and furious. Sean Spicer was White House press secretary at the time. He says the desire to affect change fast meant there were some growing pains. He says he thinks this time it will be different, more professionalism, more coordination and four years of planning to get ready.

They've seen the plays before. They know how they're going to react to certain moves. He says it's like a football team playing an opponent in the regular season and then meeting them again in the playoffs. Because so many of the people have a better understanding of the process, how to implement policies, the procedures, it's going to make for a much, much better and stronger kickoff. In an interview on Fox News last month, Stephen Miller used even more colorful language. The first day, the first week, the first 100 days will be a bolt of lightning.

Miller is set to serve as Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy. He's assembled a world-class policy team behind the scenes that's working every day to put together the day one executive actions and executive orders that are going to implement every single one of his campaign promises. Actions on everything from the border and mass deportations to getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Gelernt at the ACLU says they've been preparing for nearly a year to get ready for a second Trump term. We saw that time and again where they had a policy, but maybe hadn't thought through all the legal aspects of it.

I think this time around they will have thought through all of that and it will make our job much more difficult. And so while Trump is preparing to sign executive orders on day one, Gellart says the ACLU is preparing to file lawsuits on day one as well. Again, episodes like this one are just one perk of signing up for NPR+. It's also a great way to support the NPR Politics Podcast and help keep us going. Just go to plus.npr.org for details. I'm Sarah McKemmon.

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