Donald Trump pledged to restore the USA ‘to ­greatness’ – but just how will he achieve this ambitious goal? TOM LEONARD looks at what he could prioritise

Donald Trump appears to have changed as a man after his two brushes with death this year at the hands of would-be assassins.

‘Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and return our country to greatness,’ he solemnly intoned yesterday.

But how will you achieve this ambitious goal?

The president-elect has made more than 40 different promises about what he would do on just the first day of his new administration, on issues ranging from cutting government spending to transgender issues, and from education to energy and immigration.

So what will the notoriously unpredictable Trump prioritize?

Mass deportations of immigrants

Trump pledged to close the US-Mexico border on the first day of his presidency, before carrying out a roundup and deportation of immigrants who entered the country illegally.

He has said he could use the military to do this and has separately promised that any migrant who kills American citizens will face the death penalty.

Critics say he has not made clear whether he intends to include all 13 million suspected illegal immigrants or simply criminals, and warn that deporting the former would be legally and logistically impossible, even if polls show many Americans support him.

The American Immigration Council, an immigrant advocacy group, says that — at an estimated cost of $968 billion — it would also be prohibitively expensive.

America first in foreign policy

His mantra that American interests should always determine American policy is not good news for other countries, including Britain. Trump has complained for years that his allies take advantage of American military spending and has threatened to pull his country out of NATO, which would be disastrous.

In line with his determination to end US involvement in conflicts abroad, Trump – who rarely misses an opportunity to praise Vladimir Putin – has claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine in just one day, allegedly forcing President Zelensky to accept terms favorable to Russia. .

Experts fear that abandoning Ukraine and imposing crippling tariffs on China could lead Beijing to invade Taiwan, a US ally.

Conspiracy health czar

Trump’s debated choices to help him achieve his Oval Office ambitions are no stranger than his promise to reward Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for ending his own independent bid for the presidency last month by installing him in a key post. in the field of health.

‘Bobby will pretty much do whatever he wants. I want him to do something important for our country. It makes people healthier,” Trump said this week.

Bobby, nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and a former heroin addict, wants to eliminate fluoride from drinking water, calling it an “industrial waste” linked to cancer, arthritis, thyroid disease and IQ loss. . He also believes in other health-related conspiracy theories, particularly that childhood vaccines cause diseases such as autism. He has described vaccines as a “holocaust.”

Stay out of jail

There is a very personal reason why Trump wants to be president: He is a convicted felon who is desperate to avoid going to prison. His best chance of doing so was to win another term in the White House just before being sentenced later this month on 34 felony convictions related to falsifying business records for paying money to keep Stormy Daniels silent shortly before the 2016 elections. He also faces three other criminal trials, in which he denies any wrongdoing.

He could now try to pardon himself, a process that legal experts say is technically possible, especially since six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Republican nominees. Trump’s election victory, a former New York prosecutor said, is his “get out of jail free card.”

$2 trillion budget cut

Economists agree that the United States needs to address its massive $35 trillion national debt, and Trump is expected to put the job in the hands of two billionaires: Tesla founder and X/Twitter owner Elon Musk and CEO Wall Street hedge fund John Paulson, who is poised to become his Treasury Secretary.

Trump has pledged to make Musk, who spent more than $132 million on his election campaign, head of a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”

Musk has claimed he could cut at least $2 trillion from annual government spending (which was more than $6 trillion in 2023), but did not provide details on how.

Financial analysts have claimed that the scope of Musk’s planned cuts is insane, with one describing them as “crazy, crazy proposals.”

Civil service cut

Trump has pledged to cut a total of two million US public officials, who he says are “destroying this country” and are “corrupt” and “dishonest.” Presidents typically leave career officials alone, but Trump plans to reintroduce an executive order called ‘Schedule F’ that would allow him to fire 50,000 and replace them with loyal conservatives.

Opponents say crucial areas such as food and workplace safety, and clean air and water, would be jeopardized if unqualified people took on oversight roles.

Trump is also determined to interfere heavily in education. He has vowed to cut federal funding for schools that teach subjects he doesn’t like, such as sex education, which he sees as fueling “transgender madness.”

Trade tariff war

In what critics say would be a disastrous policy for the United States, because it would raise prices and increase inflation, Trump has said he wants to impose a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods and even a 20 percent tariff on products from China. all other countries: in total, about $3 trillion of annual imports to the United States.

Trump, who has boasted that “trade wars are good,” claims this will protect American jobs, but this confrontational approach is likely to backfire.

Other countries would respond with their own tariffs and the resulting trade war is expected to reduce UK growth by 0.7 per cent and 0.5 per cent in the first two years.