Former President Donald Trump is sketching out a second-term agenda on the campaign trail that includes reversing President Biden’s policies, finishing business from his first term and pursuing some outside-the-box ventures such as establishing “freedom cities” across the U.S.
Mr. Trump promises to have the Midas touch to bolster the economy, end foreign conflicts and win the culture wars. But Job No. 1 if he returns to the White House will be undoing the Biden agenda that he blames for scarring nearly every aspect of American life and plunging the world into chaos.
“Three years ago you went from the strongest president this country has had to the weakest president you have ever had, but soon you will go from the weakest president you ever had back to the strongest president you ever had,” Mr. Trump, who is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination, said last week at a “Club 47 USA” event in Palm Beach County, Florida.
“We had no problems and now we have a lot of problems,” he said.
As for the “freedom cities,” Mr. Trump envisions a national contest to charter up to 10 new cities on federal land and award the charters to the best ideas and proposals for development.
“We’ll actually build new cities in our country again,” Mr. Trump said in a campaign video. “These freedom cities will reopen the frontier, reignite American imagination and give hundreds of thousands of young people and other people — all hardworking families — a new shot at home ownership and in fact the America dream.”
The Trump 2.0 platform is being tested in a far different political environment than the 2020 race. A big difference is Mr. Biden is the one weathering the criticism that comes with calling the shots at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., as well as serious questions about Mr. Biden’s advanced age and ability to serve another four-year term.
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Mr. Biden, 80, is the perfect foil for Mr. Trump, 77.
“Hillary was the near perfect nemesis in 2016, and Joe Biden is the near perfect person this time around because of the stumbles — stumbles on the world stage, stumbles on the airport stairs, stumbles on the economy,” he said. “Donald Trump is a stronger candidate at this point in 2024 than he was in 2016 precisely because Joe Biden has failed America.”
“Trump today is much more experienced and he feels like he has unfinished business and this time around compared to last he knows how to pull the levers in Washington, D.C., to bring America back domestically and on the world stage,” he said.
Mr. Trump also faces a tsunami of criminal charges that will continue to pull him off the campaign trail and threaten to land him behind bars.
Mr. Trump casts the criminal charges as the latest “deep state” attempt to stop him from shaking things up. He also promises to hit back by overhauling the Justice Department and the FBI, and going after the “Marxist prosecutors” who target conservatives and turn a blind eye to crimes on the left.
He plans to launch a probe into “every radical” district attorney and attorney general in America.
If elected, Mr. Trump said he would pick up where he left off with immigration after watching a surge of illegal overrunning the border on Mr. Biden’s watch.
“Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in US history,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign stop in Iowa. “Now we have the worst border probably in the history of the world.”
Mr. Trump has driven the party’s message on immigration after adopting a series of get-touch measures as president, including constructing more border walls, establishing the “Remain in Mexico” program and other policies that reduced illegal immigration.
Looking to build on that success, Mr. Trump says he will carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” and reimpose the ban he enacted as president on travelers from predominantly Muslim countries as a way to stop “terrorists” from entering the country.
Mr. Trump is seeking to deliver on his unfilled promise to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. He will push Congress to enact the death penalty for drug dealers and human traffickers.
Another major goal for Mr. Trump would be to unwind Mr. Biden’s climate agenda, canceling regulations that restrict energy development and embracing a pro-fossil fuel posture that he said will spur broad economic benefits for Americans.
Mr. Biden’s push for a dramatic uptick in the electric vehicle market also is out the window in a new Trump administration. That includes proposed federal vehicle emissions standards that would effectively force car companies to ramp up the production of electric vehicles.
On the national security front, Mr. Trump wants more military spending and to build a missile defense system akin to Israel’s Iron Dome.
In the wake of the bloodshed in Israel, Mr. Trump is reminding voters his administration moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and brokered the Abraham Accords peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Casting Mr. Biden as weak on crime, Mr. Trump says law enforcement agencies that receive federal funds must return to tough-on-crime policies such as stop-and-frisk if they want Washington to keep sending money.
He wants to curtail China’s ownership of American land and infrastructure.
He plans to push a “Reciprocal Trade Act” that would give him the green light to slap retaliatory tariffs on imports from foreign countries that impose tariffs on American-made goods.
Biological men will no longer be able to compete in women’s sports, and schools that push critical race theory and “gender insanity” will face Mr. Trump’s ire.
“This is crazy,” Mr. Trump said at the event in Florida. “It is so demeaning to women.”
To deal with homelessness, he plans to erect tent cities to get people off the streets and relocate them to a site that serves as a one-stop-shop for services.
He also is promising to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary with a Great American State Fair at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, spark a flying car revolution, and dole out “baby bonuses” federal payments for new families.
Outlining his vision at campaign stops across the country, Mr. Trump promises to build on what he calls the best presidency in modern history.
According to Mr. Trump, there would have been no conflict between Ukraine and Russia and there would have been no attack on Israel if he was still in the White House. And there would have been no inflation surge, interest rate hikes, or migrant crisis on the southern border.
Mr. Trump rolled that idea into a broader apocalyptic warning that the U.S. is on the road toward World War III and that he is the only person who can stop it.
“If we don’t win this election, our country, I think, is finished. I really do,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.