Donald Trump: What should immigrants, abortion, climate activists expect?

Donald Trump seems to be cruising towards a historic victory in the 2024 US Presidential Elections. He claimed the crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. According to the Guardian, Trump has already polled 51 per cent of the popular votes (69,661,328 votes) and is also leading in electoral votes, with only three short of hitting the majority mark.
Trump, a former US president and Republican leader, vividly focused on the US economy, illegal immigration, abortion issues, gun policy and climate change during his election campaign in the past few months. His policies and controversial ideas left many across the nation divided. Here’s a look at Donald Trump’s views on key issues:
Donald Trump has put forward several tariff proposals. The first would impose a universal levy of 10 per cent on all goods imported to the US. The second would slap an additional fee of 60 per cent on Chinese imports.
He also recently suggested imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all goods from Mexico as punishment if the country doesn’t help curb the flow of immigration into the US, with the threat of further increasing that levy to as much as 100 per cent, reports claimed. He had previously pledged that if elected again as president, he would set a 100 per cent duty on imported cars and trucks with the goal of aiding the domestic auto industry.
According to CNN, Trump also wants to extend all the individual income and estate tax cuts that the 2017 law provided. This includes, among other things, an increase to the standard deduction, lower marginal income tax rates for most income brackets and an increase to the estate tax exemption. He called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent for certain companies.
For the middle class: He unveiled several measures aimed at helping Americans afford the cost of living. He said he would temporarily cap credit card interest rates at around 10 per cent, which is less than half the current rate. Trump promised to make the interest paid on car loans fully tax deductible. He also plans to push for a tax credit for family caregivers to assist ageing seniors. He has further promised to tackel inflation.
Throughout the campaign, Trump had shifting views on abortion. Trump had on many occasions commended the US Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade. He was the one who appointed three justices to the US Supreme Court who were part of the 6-3 majority vote that did away with constitutional protection for abortion. He likely would continue to appoint federal judges who would uphold abortion limits.
But at the same time, he has said a federal abortion ban is unnecessary and that the issue should be resolved at the state level. He has argued a six-week ban favoured by some Republicans is overly harsh and that any legislation should include exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.
 
During his first and last debate with Kamala Harris in September, Trump repeated that he is “not in favour of an abortion ban, but it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states.” “I’m not signing a ban,” he said, adding that “there is no reason to sign the ban” because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which once granted a federal right to abortion.
Trump has vowed to reinstate his first-term policies targeting illegal border crossings, roll back Biden’s immigration measures and forge ahead with sweeping new restrictions. During the election debate, Trump claimed a rise in crimes in the country and doubled down on the false claim that migrants from Haiti are stealing and eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.
He pledged to limit access to asylum at the US-Mexico border and embark on the biggest deportation effort in American history, which would likely trigger legal challenges and opposition from Democrats in Congress.
He has said he will employ the National Guard and, if necessary, federal troops, to achieve his objective, and he has not ruled out setting up internment camps to process people for deportation. Trump has said he would seek to end automatic citizenship for children born to immigrants, a move that would run against the long-running interpretation of the US Constitution.
He says he will reinstitute a so-called travel ban that restricts entry into the United States of people from a list of largely Muslim-dominant countries.
Trump does not believe in the threat of climate change. He has rather vowed to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accords, a framework for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, and would support increased nuclear energy production.
He would also roll back Democratic President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandates and other policies aimed at reducing auto emissions. Trump also backs the need to be able to boost energy production to be competitive in developing artificial intelligence systems, which consume large amounts of power.
Trump has supported Israel in its fight against Hamas and recently held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump said the conflict should end quickly but has offered no proposals for doing that or said whether he would differ from the Biden administration’s domestically controversial policy of arming Israel.
He has also been critical of US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and has said he could end the war in 24 hours if elected, although he has not said how he would do that. He said that under his presidency, the US would fundamentally rethink NATO’s purpose and mission.
Despite mass shooting cases raising concerns in the US, Donald Trump is expected to safeguard gun rights by appointing federal judges who oppose new firearm limits if he is elected in November, despite narrowly surviving an assassination attempt, a senior adviser to his presidential campaign said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Trump has pledged to require colleges and universities to “defend American tradition and Western civilisation” and purge them of diversity programmes. He said he would direct the Justice Department to pursue civil rights cases against schools that engage in racial discrimination. On the K-12 level, Trump would support programmes allowing parents to use public funds for private or religious instruction.
(With inputs from agencies)