Platform is permeated with proposals that would punish adversaries, at home and abroad
There's been abundant international attention this summer to Donald Trump's copious criminal quandaries; not so much to his presidential bid.
It may be time to start paying attention.
Trump is not just the overwhelming favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination; early polling for next year's general election suggests he could win that, too.
In fact, he's running neck-and-neck against U.S. President Joe Biden and his polling is better than at any point in the 2020 cycle, where he lost by a hair in several swing states.
So his plans for the presidency are no longer hypothetical — despite Jan. 6, despite his 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions, and despite the chance he could become the first general-election candidate in over a century to run from a prison cell.
He also wants a truth-and-reconciliation commission to expose what he says are misdeeds against him and others by the U.S. national-security apparatus. He wants reforms to surveillance rules and says: "I will shatter the deep state."
Trump's promise for Day 1 of his next presidency: A special counsel tp investigate Joe Biden's family, including his son Hunter, seen here. That's just one of numerous criminal and non-criminal investigations Trump promises.
He appeared to suggest at a campaign rally that, since he's been prosecuted unfairly, in his opinion, he could do the same to his opponents.
"That means that if I win and somebody wants to run against me, I call my attorney general and I say, 'Listen, indict him!' " Trump said in a speech last Friday in South Dakota.
"[If the attorney general says], 'Well, he hasn't done anything wrong,' [I'll say], 'I don't know, indict him on income-tax evasion. You'll figure it out.' "
For his own allies, he promises clemency, saying he wants to pardon a large portion of the rioters from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Firing civil servants: Trump allies want to overhaul the federal bureaucracy. They're already working to replace civil servants with more like-minded ones.
Trump wants to fire civil servants under a plan he started in 2020 when he signed an executive order to reclassify up to 50,000 bureaucrats as political staff in order to strip them of job protections. The order was cancelled by Biden, but Trump aims to bring it back.
Critics say it amounts to a declaration of war on the civil service.
Laura Blessing, an expert on the presidency and Congress at Georgetown University, predicted a court fight.
"He would be sued over it," she said, noting the plan could also have a potential chilling effect on civil servants, with bureaucrats scared to execute orders they might consider unlawful.
Transgender care: Trump wants to curtail gender-affirming care for minors. He wants hospitals and doctors cut off from federal health funding if they participate in transitioning treatment for minors.
He also wants the Department of Justice to investigate pharmaceutical companies and hospital networks that may be promoting the treatment, encourage lawsuits against doctors who provide it and penalize teachers and schools that encourage it.
Death penalty: Trump used to muse to aides in private that drug dealers should get the death penalty. Now, it's part of his platform.
He wants drug dealers and human traffickers executed as part of a punishment-heavy justice platform, a sign of the changing politics since he signed a more lenient justice-reform bill in 2018.
He appeared to suggest at a campaign rally that, since he's been prosecuted unfairly, in his opinion, he could do the same to his opponents.
"That means that if I win and somebody wants to run against me, I call my attorney general and I say, 'Listen, indict him!' " Trump said in a speech last Friday in South Dakota.
"[If the attorney general says], 'Well, he hasn't done anything wrong,' [I'll say], 'I don't know, indict him on income-tax evasion. You'll figure it out.' "
For his own allies, he promises clemency, saying he wants to pardon a large portion of the rioters from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Firing civil servants: Trump allies want to overhaul the federal bureaucracy. They're already working to replace civil servants with more like-minded ones.
Trump wants to fire civil servants under a plan he started in 2020 when he signed an executive order to reclassify up to 50,000 bureaucrats as political staff in order to strip them of job protections. The order was cancelled by Biden, but Trump aims to bring it back.
Critics say it amounts to a declaration of war on the civil service.
Laura Blessing, an expert on the presidency and Congress at Georgetown University, predicted a court fight.
"He would be sued over it," she said, noting the plan could also have a potential chilling effect on civil servants, with bureaucrats scared to execute orders they might consider unlawful.
Transgender care: Trump wants to curtail gender-affirming care for minors. He wants hospitals and doctors cut off from federal health funding if they participate in transitioning treatment for minors.
He also wants the Department of Justice to investigate pharmaceutical companies and hospital networks that may be promoting the treatment, encourage lawsuits against doctors who provide it and penalize teachers and schools that encourage it.
Death penalty: Trump used to muse to aides in private that drug dealers should get the death penalty. Now, it's part of his platform.
He wants drug dealers and human traffickers executed as part of a punishment-heavy justice platform, a sign of the changing politics since he signed a more lenient justice-reform bill in 2018.
Expanding the federal death penalty to new crimes would require an act of Congress. The last such expansion happened in 1994 and there's no certainty any future Congress would help Trump introduce this.
"The president's not just an executioner with a big scythe," Rottinghaus said. "You would have to have authorization and work through due process on this to make it true policy."
War on drugs – literally: When he was president, Trump inquired about the possibility of firing missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs, according to his former defence secretary. Bombing Mexico is now becoming an increasingly popular idea among Republican candidates.
Trump's platform isn't quite that explicit. He does propose military strikes against cartels, using special forces. Experts say a president could almost certainly authorize a cross-border strike without congressional approval.
"He has a relatively free hand to do a lot of this," Blessing said, while noting it would have huge diplomatic and trade repercussions.
On U.S. soil, Trump proposes deploying the National Guard against drug gangs, which experts are more doubtful is achievable.
End birthright citizenship: Trump would end citizenship rights for children born on U.S. soil to undocumented parents – a radical change in interpreting the Constitution's birthright citizenship clause.
Trump promises to sign an executive order that would block federal agencies from issuing these children passports and other national documents, like Social Security cards.
"My policy will choke off a major incentive for continued illegal immigration [and] deter more migrants from coming," Trump says.
Expanding the federal death penalty to new crimes would require an act of Congress. The last such expansion happened in 1994 and there's no certainty any future Congress would help Trump introduce this.
"The president's not just an executioner with a big scythe," Rottinghaus said. "You would have to have authorization and work through due process on this to make it true policy."
War on drugs – literally: When he was president, Trump inquired about the possibility of firing missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs, according to his former defence secretary. Bombing Mexico is now becoming an increasingly popular idea among Republican candidates.
Trump's platform isn't quite that explicit. He does propose military strikes against cartels, using special forces. Experts say a president could almost certainly authorize a cross-border strike without congressional approval.
"He has a relatively free hand to do a lot of this," Blessing said, while noting it would have huge diplomatic and trade repercussions.
On U.S. soil, Trump proposes deploying the National Guard against drug gangs, which experts are more doubtful is achievable.
End birthright citizenship: Trump would end citizenship rights for children born on U.S. soil to undocumented parents – a radical change in interpreting the Constitution's birthright citizenship clause.
Trump promises to sign an executive order that would block federal agencies from issuing these children passports and other national documents, like Social Security cards.
"My policy will choke off a major incentive for continued illegal immigration [and] deter more migrants from coming," Trump says.
The courts would almost certainly stop Trump, Blessing and Rottinghaus predicted, saying the legal precedent for birthright citizenship is strong.
"You would have an immediate injunction," Rottinghaus said. "And then there would be a lengthy court battle."
Also on migration, he promises to use an old law to bar "Marxists" from entering the U.S., which some observers say could primarily affect card-carrying members of China's Communist Party elite.
Homelessness crackdown: Trump says he would force homeless people off city streets. He would ban urban camping and offer violators two options: receive treatment and rehabilitation in newly constructed encampments, or face arrest.
He says he would also bring back mental asylums, with the goal of treating and releasing people.
Washington could offer cities and states funding for programs like this, according to Blessing, but she said there's no role for federal officials scouring U.S. cities to get people off the streets.
Punishing tech: Trump is angry over how he and members of his campaign were treated on tech and social platforms during the 2020 election. Now, he wants to see them punished.
He wouldn't simply cut off funding for fighting so-called misinformation; he would identify and fire bureaucrats engaged in what he calls censorship.
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