Here's What to Expect if Donald Trump Becomes President
After racking up seven wins on Super Tuesday and dominating the Republican primary polls for months, it is clear that Donald Trump could very well become president.
When Trump first launched his campaign last June, he infamously called Mexican immigrants drug traffickers and rapists. However, the brash billionaire has passed the test of time, maintaining a strong lead as the GOP front-runner and establishing a viable pathway to the Republican nomination.
This has left many to wonder what would happen if Trump makes it to the general election and then manages to beat either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in November. Although it may be hard to imagine the former reality television star as our nation's commander-in-chief, it is a very real possibility.
Here's an idea of what to expect from a Trump presidency, based on his outlandish campaign promises, vague policy ideas, and the likelihood that they would actually go into effect under his administration.
Immigration
Throughout his campaign, the New York real estate giant has taken a hardline stance on immigration reform, calling for a freeze on green cards and a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
At the center of his campaign is his vow to build a multibillion dollar wall on the U.S.-Mexico border funded by the Mexican government. According to him, he will force Mexico to pay for the wall by threatening to either increase fees or cancel all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats. He also threatens to increase fees on all border crossing cards, NAFTA worker visas from Mexico and ports of entry to the U.S. from Mexico, according to his website.
However, there's a good possibility that this would never happen, even if Trump wins the White House. In order to move forward with this far-fetched idea, Trump would first need congressional approval, and Washington lawmakers have displayed no urgency to embrace such a plan.
Mexican officials have also been adamant in voicing opposition to this plan. In August, a spokesman for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto denounced the idea of paying for a wall and said the billionaire's assurances reflect "enormous ignorance."
Finance Minister Luis Videgaray also rejected the idea in a televised interview late on Wednesday.
"Under no circumstance will Mexico pay for the wall that Mr. Trump is proposing," he said. "Building a wall between Mexico and the United States is a terrible idea. It is an idea based on ignorance and has no foundation in the reality of North American integration."
Another part of Trump's plan to crack down on illegal immigration is to deport the nearly 11 million undocumented residents currently in the U.S. However, the businessman has failed to provide details on how he would execute this massive deportation. It is also unlikely that this would get approved by Congress since legislators would face tremendous pressure from Latino and immigration advocates and groups.
Trump has also proposed to reverse the 14th Amendment and deny American-born children their birthright to citizenship. However, he's in for a rude awakening if he thinks it would be easy to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.
Stopping ISIS
In November, Trump threatened to "bomb the sh*t out of ISIS" and take over the terror group's oil wells in order to deprive the organization of income.
Meanwhile, Trump said he would leave the job of fighting ISIS to the Syrian government and expressed support for Russia to help the Syrian regime. Instead of accepting Syrian refugees, he proposed to help fund a safe zone for civilians inside Syria.
But again, to many, these proposals don't seem to be well thought out.
"I don't think he's drawing on a deep reservoir of knowledge on these issues," said former American diplomat Christopher Hill, according to CNN. "He comes across as someone with a lot of instincts and not a lot of reserve about acting on those instincts."
Climate Change
Trump has declared that climate change is a hoax. Back in 2012, he tweeted that Chinese officials are responsible for creating the concept of climate change in order to suppress the U.S. economy, reports PBS.
It's safe to assume that he plans to take absolutely no action to reverse the effects of climate change or stop carbon emissions and greenhouses gases from polluting the ozone layer. Instead, he said he would cut the Environmental Protection Agency and give states the rights to regulate pollution.
Big vs. Small Government
Unlike other Republican leaders and conservatives, Trump has not taken a hard stance against big government. When questioned about federal spending in a recent debate, he recited the slogan of eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse." Then he named only two specifics programs he would cut: the Common Core education standard, which is not a federal spending program, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Rather than shrinking the U.S. government, he said he will not cut big spending programs like Social Security or Medicare.
What Others Think of a Trump Presidency
During an interview Friday on CBS, Marco Rubio was asked to imagine Trump in the Oval Office.
"It would be chaos," the Republican candidate said. "[Trump] refuses to answer questions on any specific public policy."
Rubio added, "[He] has no ideas of any substance on the important issues."
Carlos Mercader, the executive director of Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and a Rubio supporter, predicts that Trump would be “an anti-trade, anti-immigrant president.”
Mercader added that his anti-immigrant proposals would have dire consequences on Latino communities.
“If he goes through with his plan of massive deportation, he would separate thousands of families throughout the nation,” Mercader told Latin Post in an email. “In the process he would create great social upheaval within the Hispanic community. Undocumented immigrants are relatives, friends and neighbors of most people in the community.”
Watch a video clip of Donald Trump promising to bomb ISIS last November.
UPDATED March 4 at 9:56 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include commentary from Carlos Mercader.
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