Monday, November 21, 2016

Donald Trump outlines policy plan for first 100 days


Donald Trump
outlines policy plan
for first 100 days

By Tom LoBianco, CNN
Updated 7:35 PM ET, Mon November 21, 2016


Washington (CNN)President-elect Donald Trump unveiled plans Monday for his first 100 days in office, including proposals related to immigration, trade deals and defense policy, using a video published online to briefly outline his proposals.

Trump promised to withdraw from negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, cancel environmental restrictions put in place by President Barack Obama, ask his national security team to buttress against infrastructure attacks, have the Labor Department investigate federal worker visas and impose broad new bans on lobbying by government employees.

The six items Trump detailed Monday are all somewhat easy lifts inside Washington -- because they can be done with a simple signature by Trump and do not require congressional approval.

But Trump also left out his biggest campaign promises -- including promises to build a wall along the Mexican border, establish a "deportation force," place new restrictions on immigration from some majority Muslim countries, repeal Obamacare and spend $1 trillion on infrastructure.

Unlike his items unveiled Monday, those measures would require the approval of Congress and are likely to take significantly more work.

Time and speed are very likely to be key factors as the new president looks for bigger, more durable wins in his first year. Republicans control the House and Senate, as well as the White House -- but Democrats struggled to pass key items, like Obamacare, when they were in a similar position eight years ago.

Republicans hold a firm majority in the House, but could struggle in the Senate, where Democrats will hold 48 seats next year, enough to blockade Trump measures.

Trump cast his measures as completely focused on American workers.

"Whether it's producing steel, building cars, or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland: America -- creating wealth and jobs for American workers," Trump said in the two-and-a-half-minute video statement. "As part of this plan, I've asked my transition team to develop a list of executive actions we can take on day one to restore our laws and bring back our jobs."

Among his first actions, the Republican said he would "issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Transpacific Partnership" and replace it with negotiating "fair bilateral trade deals." Trump campaigned on a promise to halt the progress of the TPP trade deal, an agreement President Barack Obama had hoped would be a part of his administration's trade legacy.

On immigration, Trump promised to "investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker," but did not mention his signature campaign promise of building a wall along the US border with Mexico.

The items are all measures he broadly campaigned on, though Trump has begun moderating some of the toughest stances he took on the campaign trail. In an interview with "60 Minutes," he said that he would likely keep key portions of Obamacare. And not long after his election win, his campaign took down the web page with his earlier promise to ban all Muslims from entering the country -- he has since moderated that view greatly, but left major questions on how precisely he would limit immigration.


Source: CNN
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Two things are missing
from Trump's preview of his first 100 days
in the White House



Bryan Logan
Nov 22nd 2016 6:36AM


Trump appeared in a YouTube video on Monday outlining a number of policies he says his administration will seek to enact after he is inaugurated in January.
The message closely resembled the pitch from his days on the campaign trail, highlighting his goal to preserve American jobs and bolster US military defenses.

·       US trade — issue a notice of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
·       US energy — cancel what Trump described as "job-killing" restrictions on American energy production.
·       Regulations — the incoming president says he will seek to formulate a simple rule: for every one new regulation, two old regulations would be eliminated.
·       National security — Trump says he will ask the Department of Defense to develop policies that protect US infrastructure from cyber attacks and "all other forms of attacks."
·       Immigration — ask the Department of Labor to investigate abuses of visa programs that "undercut the American worker."
·       Ethics reform — a 5- year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists after they leave the administration and a lifetime ban on the same officials lobbying on behalf of foreign governments.

Two things were missing from Trump's message — a mention of a border wall that he vowed to build between the US and Mexico, and details on his proposed alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

The border wall was one of Trump's signature campaign promises and an extension of an immigration platform that sought to deport millions of people who are in the US illegally.

On the Affordable Care Act — better-known as Obamacare — then-candidate Trump promised to "repeal and replace" the law as soon as he took office.

It is unclear when those initiatives might be taken up. After Trump's first meeting with President Barack Obama days after the election, Trump signaled that he may keep some Obamacare provisions in place.

Additionally, Trump's promise on Monday to push for ethics reform comes on the same day that his labyrinthine foreign business connections were called into question. Last week, amid a flurry of meetings with domestic and international dignitaries, the billionaire mogul also sat down with three Indian business partners who are building a Trump-branded apartment complex near Mumbai.

According to The New York Times, a Trump Organization spokeswoman described the meeting as a "courtesy call."

Trump, who has grown increasingly hostile toward news organizations since he was elected, appeared to address that issue in a tweet late Monday night. The message claimed that it was "well known" that he has business dealings around the world. "Only the crooked media makes this a big deal," the tweet read.


Source: Business Insider