President-elect Donald Trump addressed the nation for the first time since Election Day—not counting his tweets, like his insults towards the cast of Broadway’s Hamilton or Saturday Night Live.
The president-elect delivered a message Monday about his "policy plans" for his first 100 days in office—a list of executive actions that he claimed he would take on the first day of his administration. Trump explained that his guiding principle was “putting America first.”
"Whether it's producing steel, building cars, or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here on our great homeland, America, creating wealth and jobs for American workers," he explained. Trump neglected to mention how he would increase manufacturing's share of the economy, which currently accounts for just 12% of GDP. He did not at all mention the service sector, which accounts for 80% of U.S. jobs.
The first policy idea Trump announced was withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which he called a “potential disaster” for the country. In its place, he wants to negotiate a series of bilateral trade deals.
The president-elect has big plans for the energy sector as well. "I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy, including shale energy and clean coal, creating many millions of high-paying jobs," he announced. Though he didn't use the word, what Trump means by "shale energy" is the the controversial practice of fracking, which has been linked to groundwater contamination. Considering that the entire U.S. energy sector employs only 3.64 million people, the goal of adding "millions" more may be unrealistic.
As part of his goal to "seek vast cuts in regulations across the banking, health care and energy industries," Trump laid out a blanket principle about regulations. For every new regulation instituted, he said, two old ones must be eliminated.
In terms of national security, Trump says he seeks to protect the U.S. infrastructure from cyber-attacks. In a nod to the strong anti-immigration stances he took during his campaign, he also announced plans on that front.
"I will direct the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker," Trump explained.
He also talked instituting a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists—an idea that actual lobbyists are openly scoffing at.
