It's down to a matter of hours, now, before our long national embarrassment ends, before befuddled old Joe Biden wanders out of the White House for the last time, before Kamala Harris goes back to... whatever she has to go back to, and before Donald Trump and JD Vance settle in for four years of transformative political work.
The president-elect has a lot of plans, and he's spent a lot of time talking about those plans. Names have been mentioned, names like Greenland, Canada, Panama, and more. We can wonder just how serious the soon-to-be 47th President of the United States is about all this, but if we know nothing else about Donald Trump, it's that he generally says what he means, and plenty of people (like the aforementioned Kamala Harris) have come to grief by underestimating Trump.
So, about that transformative work: What might President Trump's key first 100 days look like? Well, unsurprisingly, not long after he won the election last November, CNN's Zachary B. Wolf laid out some predictions on precisely that.
On the border:
So expect something related to immigration to get everyone’s attention.
In the first week of his first administration in 2017, for instance, Trump used executive authority to act on his campaign promise to ban all Muslims from traveling to the US by imposing a ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries and also put a hold on all refugees entering the US for four months.
Those moves, which made a statement, sparked protests at airports and a standoff between Trump and lawyers at the Department of Justice.
Trump has talked previously about mobilizing the military to do more at the border and about effectively shutting the border with Mexico.
These things may again - nay, will again spark protests and probably legal challenges. But Donald Trump has picked up a trick or two since his first go-round, and his primary asset this time is the new Border Czar, Tom "The Hammer" Homan, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the federal laws around border control and immigration and a fierce determination to get the job done. The border has to be closed, and potentially dangerous people in the country illegally must be deported. This is a matter, not only of economics but of national security. Expect fast and dramatic action here.
On Canada:
Trump recently made a joke about annexing Canada during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Presumably he was riffing on that joke here rather than offering a serious idea.
After a recent phone call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Trump said they had agreed to “effectively” close the border, although she later disputed that claim.
Trump, yes, made a joke about annexing Canada. That's a scheme that wouldn't work, and conservative/libertarian voters shouldn't want it in any case; we have one California already and don't need another. But the president-elect is also talking about Greenland, and that's a different kettle of fish. There are already talks about Greenland's status - as well as our trade dealings with Canada - and the president-elect may well be adopting the old haggling strategy of "ask for twice what you want and you might get most of what you need."
Donald Trump intends to do a lot of things: Rebuilding our military, which will be the primary task set before (presumably) the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth - but that's a task for years, not 100 days. He's handed the keys to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, but that likewise won't be done in 100 days. Although, there is going to be some urgency; President Trump, Vice President Vance, and their administration can count, for sure, on two years with a mostly-friendly Congress. That must be their horizon.
The incoming president isn't wasting any time. He has, reportedly, at least 100 executive orders drafted to sign on Day One.
President-elect Donald Trump is preparing more than 100 executive orders starting Day One of the new White House, in what amounts to a shock-and-awe campaign on border security, deportations and a rush of other policy priorities.
Trump told Republican senators about the onslaught ahead during a private meeting on Capitol Hill. Many of the actions are expected to launch on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, when he takes office. Trump top adviser Stephen Miller outlined for the GOP senators the border security and immigration enforcement measures that are likely to launch soonest. Axios first reported on Trump and his team’s presentation.
“There will be a substantial number,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
See Related: Survey: Trump's 2024 Transition More Popular Than 2016's
President-Elect Trump To Hold Huge DC Rally Before Inauguration: Let's Hope Security Is Dialed in
Clearly President-elect Trump, in 80-some hours, intends to hit the ground running.
That's all for the good. Donald Trump clearly intends to be a transformational president in his second term, on the level of - or maybe even surpassing - Ronald Reagan. He never was a man to walk or talk small, and now he is talking bigger than ever before.
There are limits to what he can do. The presidency is, like all of the federal government - supposedly - hemmed into constitutional boundaries. For much of his agenda, he needs the support of Congress, and the GOP majorities are narrow - and there is a mid-term election in 2026. There is a lot to be done and not much time.
Even so - it's time for some changes. We've had enough of the old model of machine politics, career politicians, and business as usual in Washington. Trump may be the proverbial bull in the china shop, but a little chaos may be good for us right now. And, to quote a well-known action movie from a few years ago, you know the thing about chaos? It's fair.
