Election 2016: President-elect Trump this week put forward a list of things he planned to do right away upon taking office. While we might have quibbles with one or two items, it's a bold plan that will go a long way toward immediately setting a new tone in the nation's capital.
As we noted in an earlier piece, some things on Donald Trump's bigger agenda might not be so easy to put in place. Anything requiring congressional budget action, for instance, will move at a glacial pace.
That said, we're impressed with the energetic and focused plan he's put together for his first days in office after taking the oath on January 21, 2017.
"Whether it's producing steel, building cars, or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland: America — creating wealth and jobs for American workers," Trump said in a message he released on YouTube Monday evening.
"As part of this plan, I've asked my transition team to develop a list of executive actions we can take on day one to restore our laws and bring back our jobs. It's about time," he added.
Here are the top six items on his to-do list upon becoming president:
  • Trade: Trump vows to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which he says will be a job-killer. Instead, he said, he'll negotiate "fair" trade deals bilaterally with nations that will be more to the U.S.' advantage.
  • Energy: Trump wants to immediately get rid of onerous restrictions on the U.S. energy industry, especially shale ad clean coal. He also will open up U.S. lands to energy exploration.
  • Regulation: The new president plans to put in a new rule: For each new regulation put in place, two regulations must be killed. The dynamic would create a significant reduction in the soaring number of regulations that now strangle businesses, both big and small.
  • Defense/National Security: Trump will create a plan to protect U.S. infrastructure from cyberattacks, a problem he claimed during the 2016 campaign that has been largely ignored by President Obama. He has also promised to significantly bolster the military.
  • Immigration: Trump said he'll of the Labor Department look into abuses of visa programs. This may eventually include greater restrictions on businesses using illegal immigrant labor.
  • Ethics Reform: Trump vowed repeatedly to "drain the swamp" of corruption and cronyism in Washington, D.C. He'll start by imposing a 5-year ban on those in the executive branch working for a lobbying firm. The idea is to end the revolving door between positions of power and business, which Trump believes has led to a sometimes-corrupt relationship between government and big business.
All in all, this would be a very promising start to a new administration. At the very least, it begins the process of reversing President Obama's eight-year trend toward bigger, less accountable government and dramatic slowdown in U.S. long-term economic growth that took place under his watch.
We only hope that Trump will get the political cooperation he deserves to enact his new agenda. Unfortunately, so far, the childish tantrums from the left side of the political spectrum don't bode well for political compromise.