Trump’s master plan for a radical reformation of the US government

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump has promised to completely remake the US government and wield new power as president.

The ambitious promises, if enacted, would transform society. Some of his most-repeated promises on the campaign trail include:

• Mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants
• Closing the southern border and ending birthright citizenship
• Unprecedented tariffs on foreign goods from all countries, but especially China
• Expansive tax cuts to benefit corporations, tipped workers, seniors on Social Security, property owners in the Northeast and many others
• Trillions in cuts in government spending with help from Elon Musk
• Reforming the country’s health and food systems with help from vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• Reversing regulations aimed at addressing climate change
• Building a new missile defense shield with help from former NFL player Herschel Walker
• And so much more

Now Americans will find out what was hyperbole and what was real – what is achievable and what he will be able to push through by himself, with help from Congress and without interference by the courts.

His pledge to end Russia’s war on Ukraine “in 24 hours,” for example, seems overwrought, to say the last.

His pledge for a mass deportation effort, on the other hand, is very serious. It seems to be backed up by some clear planning but there’s a lack of public details.

Is there a master plan?

During the campaign, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, the controversial and detailed blueprint for a newly reimagined federal government published by conservatives at the Heritage Foundation in anticipation of a second Trump term.

While Trump may not want to associate with that plan, it was formulated by his allies – at least 140 people associated with Project 2025 worked in Trump’s administration, according to a review by CNN’s Steve Contorno. Certainly there is some overlap between much of what the 900-page Project 2025 proposes and what Trump has said he will do in a series of very simple “Agenda47” videos on his website laying out his plans for a second term.

In one Agenda47 video, for instance, Trump promises to have an executive order prepared to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. The 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, so expect court fights if this happens.

One of the policy maestros of Protect 2025, Russell Vought – who served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term – was captured on hidden camera by undercover journalists over the summer talking about an aggressive agenda he was writing to get Trump’s new administration off to an active start in its first 180 days.

On mass deportations

Trump’s most aggressive promise is the rounding up and deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Expect Trump to come into office with a series of executive orders already written to reinstate border policies unwound by the Biden administration.

Such is the yo-yoing of US immigration policy given that Congress has been unable to pass meaningful reform for decades. What’s not clear is how exactly Trump will go about closing the US border and whether it will include the US military, the National Guard or local law enforcement agencies.

Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller said on Fox News to expect deportations to begin the moment Trump is again president on January 20, 2025.

“They begin on Inauguration Day, as soon as he takes the oath of office,” he said.

But it’s still not clear exactly how deportations will work. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican, told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Thursday that he expects every undocumented immigrant will continue to get a hearing before he or she is deported, something that will require the hiring of a large number of additional government workers if deportations are amplified to a massive scale. The current process is lengthy.

“I agree; it’s going to be a very, very big task,” Gimenez said. “And my hope is, and I expect, that we’ll just simply follow the law.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez reported there have already been discussions among Trump allies and some in the private sector to detain and deport migrants at a large scale – though any operation would come with a big price tag.

She noted that Tom Homan, who was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, has said a deportation effort would start with anyone accused of a crime. It’s not clear what would happen to so-called Dreamers, people brought to the US as children who have lived most of their lives here. Some of them are protected by an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that Trump tried unsuccessfully to end during his first term.

Plans to ‘aggressively’ fire government workers and move agencies out of DC

At the end of his first term, Trump planned to reclassify a large portion of the federal civilian workforce to make it easier to fire federal workers. Commonly referred to as “Schedule F,” Trump’s plan was to undo long-standing protections for nonpartisan civil servants.

The Biden administration has put some roadblocks in place to ward against such reclassification, but Trump promises in an Agenda47 video to immediately begin working to reinstate it so that he can “remove rogue bureaucrats.” He says he will also “clean out all of the corrupt actors” in the national security and intelligence apparatus and “immediately” move federal agencies out of the nation’s capital.

John McEntee, who was director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office during Trump’s first administration, worked on Project 2025, building a list of Trump loyalists suitable for administration roles. He remains close to Trump, according to CNN’s report on Trump’s transition.

McEntee said recently he wasn’t involved with the policy recommendations in Project 2025, even though he said, “I agree with probably most of it.” Instead, he’s interested in “staffing the president with good people … I think he deserves that.”

What about Trump’s Cabinet?

Trump likes to associate himself and his programs with boldface names. Musk will have a role in government efficiency but probably not a Cabinet position. Kennedy says he wants to give individuals more agency to reject vaccines for their children, but perhaps that does not mean he will have a Cabinet position. Does Trump’s promise at a rally in Georgia to put Walker in charge of a missile defense program mean an official government job for the failed Senate candidate?

There are 26 people in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet. Some, like CIA director or US ambassador to the United Nations, can be added or subtracted depending on the administration. Only two of the 26 potential positions in a Trump Cabinet are in place. Look for Trump to continue naming top officials in the coming days.

In addition to Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump’s first key personnel news came Thursday night when he announced Susie Wiles, his campaign manager, would become his chief of staff. She’ll be the first woman to hold the position. Trump went through four such top aides during his previous administration. The longest-serving of those, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, had warned against Trump’s election.

Trump can simply hire a chief of staff, but most Cabinet positions, like secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, will require Senate confirmation. Trump will have a Republican majority in the Senate, which should ease the confirmation of key positions, but each of the ultimate Cabinet appointees will have a confirmation hearing before they get a vote.

Frustrated by the difficulty of getting Cabinet officials confirmed during his first administration, Trump frequently appointed people as “acting” secretaries, although those appointments can only be made on a temporary basis.

Trump’s oldest son, Donald Jr., said on Fox News that Trump will prize loyalty and look for “people who don’t think that they know better than the duly elected president of the United States.”

Taking power away from Congress

Trump won’t have the 60 votes he’ll need to shoot sweeping legislation quickly through Congress without bipartisan support in the Senate. It’s not yet clear if Republicans will hold control of the House, but any majority will be slim.

One of his big plans to challenge current governing norms that’s gotten less attention is his pledge to seize some power over government spending from Congress. In one Agenda47 video, Trump says he would try to reassert the principle of “impoundment,” by which a president can reject spending instructions from Congress and use taxpayer money in other ways.

Congress reined in presidents with a law after the Nixon administration, but Trump says he will challenge it and take more power for the president.

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