On January 20th, the 47th President of the United States will be sworn in, which marks the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term in office.
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Trump has expressed his intention to promptly implement key aspects of his campaign promises, including mass deportations, imposing tariffs, and reducing the number of bureaucrats in Washington.
ABC7 hosted a discussion with Twyla Blackmond Larnell, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Loyola University, and Wayne Steger, a Political Science Professor from DePaul University, to provide insights on what the future may hold under the new administration.
The President-Elect’s border czar has said Chicago will be “ground zero.”
On January 20th, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
“I think this is the time where we truly are going to see if the rubber meets the road,” Blackmond Larnell said. “Because it’s really going to be a hard task to pull this off. Being a sanctuary city means primarily that local government doesn’t have to cooperate with the federal government in pursuing these goals that they have. And I think that’s going to be a really huge obstacle for Trump and his border czar to really be able to pull this off.”
“There’s enormous symbolic value in Chicago being first and a target, because it’s a sanctuary city so it pits MAGA against the progressive left in a very bold way. But beyond the sanctuary city there’s a great number of practical limitations here,” Steger said. “A great number of the recent immigrants are from Venezuela. Venezuela’s not going to take them back. And they have asylum status which Trump would need to change and even if he does, there are going to be legal challenges so at a very minimum I think you’re going to see a lot of hype, but very little action. It’s going to take a lot of time.”
Trump’s second term could also impact the city of Chicago’s budget.
As for all of the actions that the President-elect has promised to achieve on his first day, Blackmond Larnell doesn’t expect he’ll get them done as easily as suggested.
“The budget’s going to be enormously impacted because the city of Chicago budget went from $12 billion to $18 billion during the pandemic largely funded and fueled by federal money,” said Steger. “That’s gone and Trump has the levers to reduce that further. “
As for all of the actions that the President-elect has promised to achieve on his first day, Blackmond Larnell doesn’t expect he’ll get them done as easily as suggested.
“A lot of those things do still require structural and legislative support. Especially to end a war. Particularly shut down a border as well. There’s a lot of people that need to be moved around in order to get these things done.”
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