Trump’s radical second-term agenda will use executive power like never before

(CNN) — A massive action to stop and Deport undocumented immigrants.

Purge of federal employees of anyone deemed disloyal.

Use the power of federal law against political opponents.

In his bid to return to the Oval Office, former US President Donald Trump and his allies have promised a sweeping overhaul of the federal government that would involve a radical and unprecedented exercise of executive power.

The agenda they’re developing will implement Trump’s hardline views, which he publicly expressed during his last campaign for president, and will certainly face legal and political challenges.

Behind the scenes, pro-Trump outside groups are busy crafting executive orders, studying the Constitution in anticipation of legal challenges, and finding solutions to give Trump the power to implement some of these policies from Day One if he’s re-elected.

These outsiders are familiar with the chaos and disorganization of Trump’s first term. Now, leading several conservative groups in Washington, they are waiting to pounce and help craft a plan that will begin to implement a broader agenda.

Plan 2025, a transformation plan led by Think tank The Conservative Heritage Foundation has brought together many of these groups to “pave the way for an effective Conservative administration”.

Attempts by outside groups to map the legal and political details of a Trump second term have recently met some pushback from the former president’s official campaign apparatus.

“The efforts of many nonprofit groups are certainly appreciated and can be greatly helpful. However, none of these groups or individuals speak on behalf of President Trump or his campaign,” campaign consultants Susie Wiles wrote in a statement. and Chris Lacivita.

However, the general lines of Trump’s agenda have been exposed by the former president during his campaign, as well as in a series of videos and statements released by the campaign.

Trump’s campaign has recently hired policy figures who will help shape his policy message and ultimately vet proposals from various conservative groups. The goal is to keep executive orders on everything from immigration to eliminating government protections for civilian employees — something Trump is poised to sign on the first day of a possible second administration.

Trump will use the judiciary to retaliate

Trump’s plan includes asserting greater White House control over the Department of Justice (DOJ), which the former president has said he uses to retaliate against his critics, including former allies.

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” the former president said after appearing in court in Florida in June. “I’m going to destroy the Deep State completely.”

During a recent interview with Univision, Trump went one step further.

“If I happen to be president and see someone who is doing well and beats me too much, I tell him to go and fire him,” he said.

Despite the long legacy of the DOJ and many smaller government agencies, those in Trump’s orbit have referred to these agencies as the “administrative deep state” and “rogue fourth branch of government” that they believe must answer to the president. As part of the executive branch.

In videos and speeches, he lays out his plans to destabilize the current justice system by firing “radical Marxist prosecutors who are destroying America.”

It’s part of a broader effort to break down legal restrictions and traditional protections against political interference and give the White House more power to establish ideological allies across the federal government.

Legal experts say that if Trump is elected next year and follows his campaign’s plan and cultivates allies now, it could lead to years of legal battles and political clashes with Congress over presidential powers.

“To some extent, we’ll be in uncharted territory,” said Stephen Vladek, a law professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a CNN legal analyst. “Many of the limitations involved were regulations, not rules. Those terms were not imposed by litigation, those terms were imposed politically.”

“The reality of a second Trump administration is that there will be a lot of new lawsuits over these kinds of abuses of historic rules that govern the administration,” he added.

Cleaning up the federal bureaucracy

Part of Trump’s plans would reclassify tens of thousands of civil service workers — typically employed when presidents and their administrations change hands — as at-will employees, making it much easier to fire them.

Trump said in a March video that he would sign an executive order that would allow him to “get rid of the dishonest bureaucracy.” “I will use that power very seriously,” he promised.

“We will clean up all the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus, and there are a lot of them,” Trump said. “Armed departments and agencies will be completely overhauled so that faceless bureaucrats can no longer target and harass conservatives, Christians or left-wing political opponents.”

Personally, Trump has blamed some of these civil servants for the lack of swift implementation of some of his policy proposals during his first term, calling for ideologically similar loyalists to be installed in every part of government.

Part of Project 2025’s goal is to create a database of vetted potential conservative hires, referred to as “a conservative LinkedIn,” that an incoming Republican president could tap into. The database, managed by technology giant Oracle, has received thousands of applications and expects to screen thousands of candidates for future management in anticipation of a possible transition.

While there are currently no FBI-level background checks or loyalty checks for applicants, a source familiar with the program said, applicants’ resumes are flagged with potential “red flags” that allow a new administration to make its own decisions about potential hires.

Strict immigration policies

If Trump is elected in 2024 to continue his previous administration’s tough immigration policies, it also plans a sweeping expansion of curbs on legal and illegal immigration.

“Stopping the invasion of our southern border is an urgent national security need and one of President Trump’s top priorities. So, in his own speeches and in his Agenda 47 platform, he has laid out a comprehensive plan — with a difference for security. At the border, stop illegal immigration, and first deport those not allowed into our country,” the Trump campaign said. The spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

The plans include rounding up undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. and taking them to detention centers awaiting deportation, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to CNN.

The plans would require the construction of large camps to house immigrants awaiting deportation and the intervention of federal and local law enforcement to detain large numbers of undocumented immigrants across the country.

If Congress refuses to fund the measure, Trump could resort to a tactic he used to get more funding for the border wall during his first term: diverting funds from the Pentagon, the source confirmed.

Trump has publicly said he wants to renew many of his immigration policies from his first term to curb legal and illegal immigration, including reinstating and expanding the travel ban to Muslim-majority countries and renewing Title 42, the Covid-era policy. Immigration into the country should be further restricted, although this method will be based on claims that migrants carry other communicable diseases.

Trump also promised to “end all work permits for illegal aliens and for Congress to send me a bill that would ban all welfare payments to any illegal immigrant.”

The former president also warned against caravans crossing the U.S. border from Mexico and vowed to go after groups and charities he says facilitate large-scale illegal immigration.

A broad national agenda

For a second term, Trump plans to dramatically change the lives of Americans when it comes to policies that affect law enforcement, trade and the social safety net.

The former president has said he wants local law enforcement to use the controversial police practice of stop-and-frisk in order to get some funding from the Justice Department. He also suggested deploying the National Guard in crime-ridden cities.

Another policy aimed at combating homelessness calls for the creation of “tent cities” on “cheap land” that will be staffed by health workers, giving people a choice between relocation or facing prison terms.

On the economy, Trump has proposed broad tariffs on all imported goods, signaling an aggressive approach to trade policy, with a special focus on China.

“When companies come and pour their products into the United States, they automatically have to pay, say, a 10% tax,” Trump said during an interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business.