With just one day till Donald Trump’s inauguration, we consider some of the President-elect’s key policies as he takes over the White House.
Trump’s 2016 election campaign was full of its controversies, whether it was the call to ban Muslims from the U.S. or suggesting Mexican immigrants were criminals and “rapists”, the Republican candidate was never short of notorious opinions.
About to become the 55th President of the U.S., let’s remember his political stances.
Taxes
Trump has promised “massive cuts” where he hopes to reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to three.
Whilst he pledged to make low and middle-income earners huge savings, one analysis has shown that the top one percent of earners would see their income increase by double-digits, while the bottom quarter gets a boost of only 1.9 percent.
His plans to cut corporate taxes, eliminate the estate tax and increasing the standard deduction for individual filers has been warned against by the Center for a Responsible Budget, who argue this attempt will balloon national debt.
Immigration
Considered his signature issue, and arguably the reason Trump was so popular, the Republican has stood by his call to build a wall along the 2,000-plus-mile US-Mexico border – which Mexico will pay for.
Since critics calling this unrealistic and unaffordable, since being elected into the White House Trump has slightly toned down his statements surrounding immigration, promising “extreme vetting” of those coming into the country instead.
The new President also hopes for reductions in legal immigration, ending President Obama’s actions deferring deportation proceedings for undocumented migrants.
Climate Change
Whilst saying he supports clean water and air, the election of Trump into the White House has been concerning to environmentalists.
Famously referring to climate change as a “hoax” invented by the Chinese, Trump hopes to slash funding to the Environmental Protection Agency as well as cancel the Paris Agreement.
“I do not believe that we should imperil the companies within our country,” he told CNN on the issue. “It costs so much and nobody knows exactly if it’s going to work.”
Abortion
Trump said in March that abortions should be illegal and he supported “some form of punishment” for women who had them. Since then, he has moderated his view on the matter saying he believed the legality of the procedure should be left up to individual states.
His stance since is a support of an abortion ban with the exception of “rape, incest and the life of the mother”.