Donald Trump on 5 key policies: Can he really enact them?

Donald Trump is the President-elect of the United States once again, having been swept back to the White House with a commanding majority.

Eyes will now turn to key policy issues espoused by Trump on the campaign trail, the most prominent among them his positions on immigration and the US economy. 

Immigration and border security

Central to Trump's incendiary rhetoric during the election was his focus on illegal immigration. The topic has been a mainstay of his political career.

His "Agenda47" platform — so named because Trump will be the US' 47th President — describes undocumented migration as an "invasion" and its first two promises are to close the nation's borders and deport undocumented migrants, estimated to number around 11 million.

The nonpartisan American Immigration Council estimates that deporting this many people, as well as the most recent arrivals, in a "one-time mass deportation operation" would cost at least $315 billion, with the amount spread across arrests, detention, legal processing, removal from the US and the impact on the economy due to their removal. It also estimates an $88 million bill for just one year of such an operation. Vice President-elect JD Vance claimed that 1 million undocumented migrants could be deported within the first year of the Trump presidency.

Trump has also suggested use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport migrants although the use of this law requires America to be actively engaged in conflict with a person's country of origin to enact deportations. And the Brennan Center for Justice says courts could strike down peacetime use of this law should it be challenged in court.

While a central Trump promise, mass deportations have been cited as a costly exercise that, in tandem with other proposals, could increase inflation.

Tariffs, taxes, lowering inflation

Trump's platform also proposes imposing border tariffs on imported goods as well as lowering taxes.

However economists have said this formula, combined with measures like mass deportation could potentially drop US national income, or real GDP, by up to 9.7% by the end of his four-year term in 2028.

Nonpartisan group Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Trump's policies could increase national debt by up to $15.5 trillion over 10 years, primarily through proposed tax cuts. 

The feasibility of Trump pushing his entire economic agenda through will be determined by control of the House of Representatives, which is still up in the air as votes are being counted in several races.

Climate and environment 

It will be very straightforward for Trump to repeal American involvement in the Paris Climate Agreement again. The agreement, while not legally binding, commits signatory nations to reducing their carbon emissions such that the world's average temperature increase is kept to 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, and preferably lower. Trump withdrew the US from the agreement when he was last in power, in 2020. One of President Joe Biden's first actions in 2021 was to rejoin it. 

Trump's desire to ramp up oil production is counter to current scientific advice on actions governments should take to prevent global average temperatures exceeding Paris targets. Independent climate analysis group Carbon Brief estimates Trump's promised policy windbacks could add 4 billion tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere by 2030.

It may be harder for Trump to fully unravel Biden-era legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, which ties climate investments to measures encouraging job creation and infrastructure. In fact, some Republican states may not want to see incentives like this, that benefit their citizens, disappear.

NATO, Ukraine, Israel

Trump is known to oppose American involvement in international conflicts. The Ukraine-Russia war and Israel's conflicts in the Middle East are in his sights.

Before being elected, Trump repeatedly said he would end the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours. Russian president Vladimir Putin is reportedly ready to engage with the new US president on the subject and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had an "excellent call" with Trump.

However Trump has previously described Zelenskyy as the "world's greatest salesman" for the amount of financial support he has had from the US and many observers expect that support to be cut under a Republican White House. The Biden administration is reportedly considering how to send  more financial support to Ukraine before the formal transition of power.

Trump has been an ardent supporter of Israel. He bucked decades of US foreign policy to declare Jerusalem Israel's capital in 2017. The city is disputed and Palestinian Arabs claim East Jerusalem as the capital of any future Palestinain state. Trump has close ties with Israel's leader Benyamin Netanyahu and met with him prior to the election. 

Middle East experts believe Trump will pursue the Abraham Accords agenda he drove in his first term, which seeks to normalize relations between Israel and other Arab nations, most significantly Saudi Arabia.

Abortion access

Abortion was central to the Democrat campaign – the Democrats are pro-choice — but Trump's stance has been less clear. 

Trump rebuffed his Vice-President-elect, JD Vance, for suggesting he would veto a national abortion ban in September although he has separately said he wouldn't sign such a law.

Even if the Republicans don't pass a national ban, they could still restrict access to abortion medication like mifepristone.

What is clear is that Trump's platform supports the decision by the Supreme Court to repeal Roe v. Wade and to leave individual US states to decide the issue for themselves.

This has left a patchwork of varied rights and rules for women across the US.

States that voted Democrat in 2024 tend to have either protected or expanded abortion rights, or still provide access. Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana and Nevada all passed laws protecting abortion rights on November 5.