Trump has big plans for a second administration. This is what he proposed

Education

The federal Department of Education would be eliminated in a second Trump administration. That doesn’t mean Trump wants Washington out of the classrooms. He still proposes, among other maneuvers, to use federal funding as leverage to pressure K-12 school systems to abolish tenure and implement merit pay for teachers, and to expand diversity programs abolish all levels of education. He calls for the withdrawal of federal funding “for any school or program that pushes critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”

In higher education, Trump is proposing to take over the accreditation processes for colleges, a move he describes as his “secret weapon” against the “Marxist maniacs and lunatics” he says control higher education. Trump is targeting higher education endowments, saying he will collect “billions and billions of dollars” from schools by “taxing, fining and charging excessively large private university endowments” at schools that don’t comply with his edicts. That would almost certainly end in protracted legal battles.

As in other policy areas, Trump is not actually proposing to limit federal power in higher education, but rather to strengthen it. He calls for the confiscated donation money to be redirected to an online “American Academy” that offers all Americans college data without tuition. “It will be strictly apolitical, and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed – none of that will be allowed,” Trump said on November 1, 2023.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Trump insists he would protect Social Security and Medicare, popular programs aimed at older Americans and which are among the largest pieces of the federal spending pie each year. There are questions about how his proposal to not tax tips and overtime wages could affect Social Security and Medicare. If such plans ultimately included only income taxes, entitlement programs would not be affected. But exempting these wages from payroll taxes would reduce the flow of funding for Social Security and Medicare spending. Trump has spoken little about Medicaid, but his first administration generally failed to approve state requests for exemptions from various federal rules and broadly endorsed work requirements for recipients at the state level.

Affordable Care Act and health care

As he has done since 2015, Trump is calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and subsidized health insurance marketplaces. But he has still not proposed a replacement: in a debate in September he insisted he had “the concepts of a plan”. In the final stages of the campaign, Trump played up his alliance with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines and of pesticides used in American agriculture. Trump repeatedly told the crowd that he would put Kennedy in charge of “making America whole again.”

Climate and energy

Trump, who falsely claims climate change is a “hoax,” denounces Biden-era spending on cleaner energy aimed at reducing America’s dependence on fossil fuels. He proposes energy policies – and spending on transportation infrastructure – anchored in fossil fuels: roads, bridges and vehicles with combustion engines. “Drill, baby, drill!” was a regular chant at Trump rallies. Trump says he is not against electric vehicles, but promises to end all Biden incentives to boost EV market development. Trump also promises to roll back Biden-era fuel efficiency standards.

Employee rights

Trump and newly elected Vice President JD Vance presented their ticket as benefiting American workers. But Trump could make it harder for workers to unionize. When discussing auto workers, Trump focused almost exclusively on Biden’s push for electric vehicles. When he mentioned unions, it was often meant to lump “the union bosses and CEOs” as accomplices in “this disastrous electric car plan.” In a statement on October 23, 2023, Trump said of United Auto Workers: “I’m telling you not to pay those dues.”

National defense and America’s role in the world

Trump’s rhetoric and policy approach to world affairs are more diplomatic, militarily non-interventionist, and economically protectionist than the US has been since World War II. But the details are more complicated. He promises to expand the military, pledges to protect Pentagon spending from cuts and proposes a new missile shield — an old Reagan-era idea during the Cold War. Trump insists he can end Russia’s war in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas, without explaining how. Trump sums up his approach with another Reagan phrase: “peace through strength.” But he remains critical of NATO and the top brass of the US military. “I don’t consider them leaders,” Trump said of Pentagon officials who Americans “see on television.” He repeatedly praised authoritarians such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.