Trump-olicies: The 47th president takes office with a range of proposals and policies that East students are passionate about

As President Donald Trump entered the office on Jan. 20, he was prepared to enact a wide variety of policies from ending the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine to high tariffs on nearby countries during his term. While his policy ideas vary in scope and variety, he has a few major talking points he’s been prioritizing.

Facing pressure from the public to curb inflation and lower grocery prices, Trump has proposed tariffs on countries such as China, Canada and Mexico. AP Government and Politics teacher Jacob Penner explains that tariffs place the charge on the country that imports.

“A tariff is a tax placed on foreign imports into our country,” Penner said. “The government gets that money; they’re raising money on that product.”

Trump and his supporters believe that these tariffs will allow the U.S. to be more self-sufficient and rely less on foreign producers. Some economists are concerned that the infrastructure — the factories and transportation required to respond to newfound demand — necessary to sustain American-made products will drive prices upward at first, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Junior John Gagen, who researched these tariffs on his own, believes that they will be detrimental to the country.

“I don’t think the whole idea of the tariffs are going to last,” Gagen said. “Walmart imports most of their products from China. If you place a 60% tariff on China, many products at Walmart are going to be 60% more expensive. It’s an inherently inflationary thing.”

Outside of country borders, Trump has also made claims to buy Greenland and the Panama Canal for both trade and foreign security reasons. Penner believes that the purchase of the Panama Canal is to gain more control over the trade between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, while Greenland would be taken for surveillance towards Russia.

“He’s wanting Greenland as a chokepoint to stop Russian incursion into the Atlantic,” Penner said. “We do a lot of trade [in the Panama Canal] and Panama can put a tax on us going through it. It would be like using a toll road… there’s an economic motivation for trying to gain that piece of land.” 

Another pillar of Trump’s campaign for his second term is his stance against illegal immigration, specifically from the Southern border. Penner states that Trump has proposed to deport illegal immigrants throughout the country, starting with Chicago, in the coming weeks.

Freshman George Reardon shared his opinion on the deportations.

“The fact is that if you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country,” Reardon said. “I’m not saying we don’t need immigration, because we do need immigration for a country to operate, just not illegal immigration.”

Immediately after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants in America. Already, 18 states have sued Trump for violating the 14th Amendment, which states that anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen, meaning that the executive order will likely not pass.

On his first day in office for his second term, Trump signed an executive order to end the recognition of any gender other than male or female. Despite talking little about inclusion policies along the campaign trail, Trump stated in his inaugural address that “there are only two genders, male and female.” East Junior Eli Moon is frustrated that Trump is focusing policies on limiting LGBTQ conversations. 

“[Transgender people] are such a small portion of the population, but they’re such a large contention point in politics,” Moon said.

As Trump oversees the country’s federal spending, he also plans to cut purchases across the board, taking a “deregulation” stance throughout industries. 

Trump also declared an “energy crisis” in his inaugural address in order to slash spending on climate-related policies and decrease the amount of regulations on varying industries.

“It’s the idea that there should be fewer regulations on the market so the market can grow and we can have a free market economy,” Penner said.

Trump’s initial policies and proposals only scratch the surface of his plans for this term, which range in scope and scale, just as much as East students’ opinions on them do.