Trump has made a lot of Day One promises. Which will he keep?
Let’s see if we have this right: President-elect Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland, take control of the Panama Canal and maybe even make Canada our 51st state — if he somehow could get away with it.
The good news for Panama, Greenland and Canada is he won’t get to any of that until at least his second day in office. His first day is booked solid.
On Day One, Trump wants to review the cases of people he calls “patriots” and “political prisoners” who were arrested during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — “and I will sign their pardons on Day One.”
On Day One, he will “drill, drill, drill” and terminate what he calls the Biden administration’s “insane electric vehicle mandate, and we will end the green new scam once and for all. The green new scam will end.” On his first day in office, he says he’ll sign an executive order that would end offshore wind projects.
Trump says he’ll fire Special Prosecutor Jack Smith “within two seconds” of taking office. Smith says he’ll resign before Trump is sworn in.
Tariffs? They're also on Trump’s first day in office to-do list. And “with the stroke of my pen, on Day One, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said.
But way up on his list of Day One priorities is his promise to begin rounding up and deporting immigrants who snuck into this country — and those who committed serious crimes would be the first to go, he has said: “On Day One, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.”
No surprise, but Democrats in sanctuary cities say they won’t cooperate.
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “Our city’s police department is not going to [double] as ICE agents — we’re just not going to do that.”
And it’s not only progressive sanctuary cities — whole states like California, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and New Mexico have signed on. The message? If ICE wants to deport someone, they’re not getting help from local cops — or from Democratic governors.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy promised to “fight like hell” if “our values are unfairly attacked, if communities are unfairly attacked.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “I’m going to have the back of those folks every goddamn second of the day.” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would be “very reluctant” to commit state law enforcement officers to a mass deportation effort.
Sanctuary cities and states were cruising under the radar for a while, but then Trump happened. The mess on our southern border helped get him elected, and now he’s threatening to pull federal funding from cities and states that refuse to cooperate with ICE, which, naturally, has led to enough cable news segments to last a lifetime.
To Democrats, it’s all about morality — protecting families, building trust with immigrant communities and keeping cities safe. And if they get to stick it to Trump in the process, well, that’s just icing on the cake.
But Republicans and other critics aren’t buying the liberal narrative. They say that sanctuary cities undermine the rule of law and become havens for criminals. You’ve heard the stories: Someone with a rap sheet gets released instead of deported, and next thing you know, they’re back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Yes, most undocumented immigrants are just trying to build better lives. But “most” isn’t all. When someone with a criminal record slips through the cracks, the same officials who championed these policies are nowhere to be found. Nobody wants to explain why the guy wasn’t deported when they had the chance.
Mayors and governors in sanctuary cities and states may make a moral argument to defend their policies, but moral clarity gets a little fuzzy when public safety is at risk.
And while history may not repeat itself, as the Mark Twain observation goes, it rhymes. So why was it wrong for segregationist states to defy federal law in the 1960s, but noble for liberals to defy federal law now? Both claimed the moral high ground. Both thought they were in the right.
Let’s acknowledge one obvious difference. Segregationists fought to deny civil rights and keep people in their place. Officials in sanctuary cities and states claim they’re doing the opposite — protecting vulnerable communities from what they see as unjust federal policies.
That may sound nice, but selectively enforcing federal law is a slippery slope. If blue cities and states can ignore immigration laws, what’s stopping red states from ignoring gun laws? Or environmental regulations? You can’t have it both ways.
No, good intentions don’t always lead to good outcomes. Sanctuary policies may protect families, but they also shield people who shouldn’t be protected.
As for the media, don’t be surprised if liberal journalists portray the roundup of illegal immigrants as an insensitive Trump behaving like a dictator — not to mention as a racist who has no use for people of color. Journalists don’t need an excuse to bash the man they love to hate.
So fasten your seatbelts. Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025 — and it’s going to be a bumpy Day One … not to mention the four years that follow.
Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him @BernardGoldberg.