Legal expert discusses promises, expectations during Trump's second term
OAKLAND, Calif. - As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his second term, expectations are high for an aggressive and swift series of executive actions.
Experts are closely watching how Trump will shape his administration and whether he'll follow through on big campaign promises.
President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday he’s prepared to roll out a series of executive orders and other actions in the first days of his new administration.
What to expect
Why you should care:
UC College of Law professor David Levine expects a bold start.
"Pardoning insurrectionists from January 6, 2021. If he wants to pardon some or all of them, those are valid like that. Nothing anybody can do about those because the pardon power is so clearly all-powerful with respect to federal crimes. And it is totally within the purview of the president. That’s at one end," he said. "At the other end, let’s say he issues an executive order purporting to take away birthright citizenship, meaning if you are born in the United States, you are automatically a citizen of the United States. That goes back to the 14th Amendment. That goes back to reversing the Dred Scott decision with respect to African-American slaves. And so the idea that he could change that with an executive order, I think is extremely unlikely."
Tightening border security and adjusting asylum rules are also expected to be priorities.
Trump’s second-term administration is also likely to look different.
"Eight years ago when he came in, he picked a lot of people who were conventionally qualified for these very senior positions," said Levine. "Mr. Trump is picking people for utter loyalty to him. And competence, experience, knowledge of the field is much, much less important to him."
Levine also notes that Trump will inherit a strong economy from President Joe Biden.
"The idea that Mr. Trump is going to somehow snap his fingers and bring down the price of eggs is the one everybody’s talked about that’s artificially high now because of bird flu. So he’s going to have to do something about that. But if he has somebody who doesn’t believe in vaccines and doesn’t believe in a lot of conventional science at HHS, how is he going to attack bird flu and bring that down or not make that worse?" Levine said.
During his campaign, Trump promised that tariffs would boost U.S. manufacturing.
"He loves saying I’m going to issue tariffs and that somehow that’s going to be paid by the other countries. No, it’s a tax on people who buy those products here," he explained. "So if he really does implement big tariffs, what’s going to happen is we all are going to be paying significant taxes on those imported products. So, again, prices are going to go up. They’re not going to go down."
Many Trump supporters believe his policies will benefit the economy. Levine said it will be difficult for Trump to bring prices down for everyday Americans.
"You’ve got billionaires who are sitting there with him. They are going to get their tax cuts. They’re going to be very happy," said Levine, speaking of high-profile guests expected at the inauguration. "But the wide number of people, 70-plus million people who voted for Mr. Trump thinking that what they were going to get would be a smoother ride at the grocery store and wouldn’t see prices spike, which was artificial because of COVID, because of supply issues, that they’re not going to see that… Not going to happen."
For questions or concerns about the changing asylum rules and how that can affect you, California residents can get more information about immigrant resources available here.
The Source: Interviews with KTVU