The Senate narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI. File photo
| Photo Credit: AP

The Senate on Thursday narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI, moving to place him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns he will do Donald Trump’s bidding and go after the Republican president’s adversaries.

“I cannot imagine a worse choice,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the lone Republican holdouts.

A Trump loyalist who has fiercely criticized the agency, Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint at headquarters in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering and national security work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades. But he also echoed Trump’s desire for retribution. Patel raised alarm among Democrats for saying before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the federal government and the media.

Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the Democratic Biden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job.

“Mr. Patel wants to make the FBI accountable once again -– get back the reputation that the FBI has had historically for law enforcement,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said before Patel was confirmed. “He wants to hold the FBI accountable to Congress, to the president and, most importantly, to the people they serve — the American taxpayer.”

Democrats complained about Patel’s lack of management experience compared with previous FBI directors and they highlighted incendiary past statements that they said called his judgment into question.

“I am absolutely sure of this one thing: this vote will haunt anyone who votes for him. They will rue the day they did it,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat.

He added: “To my Republican colleagues, think about what you will tell your constituents” and family “about why you became voted for this person who will so completely and utterly disgrace this office and do such grave damage to our nation’s justice system.”

About a half-dozen Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee gathered outside FBI headquarters earlier Thursday in a last-ditch plea to derail his confirmation.

“This is someone we cannot trust,” said Sen. Adam Schiff of California. “This is someone who lacks the character to do this job, someone who lacks the integrity to do this job. We know that, our Republican colleagues know that.”

Patel’s eyebrow-raising remarks on hundreds of podcasts and in other interviews over the past four years include referring to law enforcement officials who investigated Trump as “criminal gangsters,” saying some Jan. 6 rioters were “political prisoners” and proposing to shut down the FBI headquarters and turning it into a museum for the so-called deep state.

At his Senate hearing in January, Patel said Democrats were taking some of his comments out of context or misunderstanding the broader point that he was trying to make. Patel has also denied the idea that a list in book he authored of government officials who he said were part of a “deep state” amounted to an “enemies list,” calling that a “total mischaracterization.”

FBI directors are given 10-year terms as a way to insulate them from political influence and keep them from becoming beholden to a particular president or administration. Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and served for more than seven years but who repeatedly angered the president and was seen by him as insufficiently loyal. He resigned before Trump took office.

Since Wray’s resignation, the FBI has been led by interim leaders, who have clashed with the Justice Department over its demands for details about the agents who investigated the Capitol riot — a move seen as a possible prelude to broader firings. Patel denied having any knowledge of discussions about potential firings, but a letter from Durbin last week that cited information that he said had come from insiders suggested that Patel may have been covertly involved in that process.

Trump has said that he expects some of those agents will be fired.

Patel is a former federal defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor. He attracted Trump’s attention during the president’s first term when, as a staffer on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, Patel helped write a memo with pointed criticism of the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Patel later joined Trump’s administration, both as a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the defense secretary.

File picture of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
| Photo Credit: Reuters

 Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday (November 11, 2024) announced that 2025 would be the year when Israel will annex the occupied West Bank. The declaration came on a day when Saudi capital Riyadh under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman hosted the leaders of various Arab and Muslim countries who condemned the Israeli actions in Lebanon and Gaza Strip.

Mr. Smotrich’s announcement is not yet supported by a resolution of the Israeli government but gives a hint of the thinking in the coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where Mr. Smotrich plays a supervisory role for the controversial expansion of settlements in occupied Palestinian areas.

On Monday, in a parliamentary meeting of his Religious Zionist Party which is a partner of PM Netanyahu’s government, Mr. Smotrich asked the Israeli government “to begin the professional and comprehensive staff work to prepare the necessary infrastructure,” to annex the West Bank which Israelis call as Judea and Samaria.

The remarks added to the backdrop in which Saudi Arabia held the extraordinary summit of the Arab and Islamic leaders in Riyadh. Addressing the meeting Prince Mohammed Bin Salman demanded an “immediate ceasefire” in the war in Gaza and called for an end to “massacres committed against the Palestinians and the Lebanese people.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for suspension of Israel from the UN and said Israel is committing “mass genocide”.

Palestinian Presidential spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the remarks made by Bezalel Smotrich, about imposing Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank confirm the Israeli government’s “intention” to go ahead with taking control of the West Bank by 2025.

The summit was attended by Egypt’s President El Sisi, Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif among others. Iran which is in a military rivalry with Israel did not send President Pezeshkian who cited “executive matters” while skipping the summit in Riyadh. The United Arab Emirates was represented at the summit by Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE who led a delegation to Riyadh.

The UAE which has diplomatic ties with Israel is in a unique position as it was the third Arab country — after Egypt and Jordan — to establish diplomatic relations with Israel during the first tenure of President Donald Trump in 2020. The relation has been considerably downplayed since Israel launched the war in Gaza but despite that the Emirates is one of the few places in the region where Israeli media including its pro-war channels are freely allowed to be aired providing the viewers with a window to the plans that the Israeli government is making for the West Bank, Gaza and the Lebanese territories. 

It is understood that any action on West Bank will have further regional implications as the region, which is the base of the Palestinian Authority, includes embassies and representations from many countries – including India – that recognise the statehood of Palestine forcing a new political and diplomatic reality. But the remarks of Mr. Smotrich have contributed to the regional discussion as the transition in Washington D.C. is being keenly watched here.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, said that annexation of West Bank was discussed last time during the first Presidency of President Trump. “The last time we discussed this issue was in the first term of President Trump,” he said. “And so let’s say that if it will be relevant, it will be discussed again also with our friends in Washington,” he was quoted by Reuters.

The rupee may depreciate 8-10% against the U.S.. dollar during the Trump 2.0 regime, said a SBI research report, even as the local currency hit its all-time low on Monday (November 11, 2024).

The report, titled U.S. Presidential Election 2024: How Trump 2.0 Impacts India’s and Global Economy, emphasised that the rupee can have a brief spell of depreciation against the U.S. dollar, followed by appreciation.

Also read | What’s at stake for global markets in a Trump presidency

Donald J Trump’s historical comeback as the 47th President of the United States adds a morphine shot to the markets and select asset classes even as the focus is now shifting to wider economic ramifications and supply chain realignments, the report said.

“Trump’s victory introduces a mix of challenges and opportunities for India. While the potential for increased tariffs, H-1B restrictions, and a strong dollar could bring short-term volatility…But it also presents India with long-term incentives to expand its manufacturing, diversify export markets, and enhance economic self-reliance,” it added.

It further said the 10-year yield shows no obvious trends, and the effect will be context-sensitive, going ahead.

“USD/INR has shown range bound movement, and the rupee can have a brief spell of depreciation followed by appreciation…Volatility in Indian equity markets showing signs of reduction,” the SBI’s study said.

Declining for the fourth straight session, the rupee dropped 2 paise to hit a new lifetime low of 84.39 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, weighed down by persistent foreign fund outflows and a muted trend in domestic equities.

Forex traders said the rupee is likely to remain under pressure unless there is a softening in the dollar index or a slowdown in foreign fund outflows.

The report emphasised that “the fear” that the rupee will depreciate sharply is unfounded.

During the Trump 1.0, it said, the rupee depreciated by 11 per cent, less than it depreciated during the Joe Biden term.

While a stronger dollar might result in short-term capital outflows for short-term as investors flock to dollar-based assets, on a positive note, a lower rupee might provide an export advantage, potentially boosting revenues in sectors like textiles, manufacturing, and agriculture, the research report said.

“Still, we expect a depreciation of 8-10 per cent during Trump 2.0,” the SBI research report said.

It also noted that the depreciation of the rupee may increase the import cost of oil and other commodities.

“As per our estimate, a 5 per cent decline in rupee will increase inflation by 25-30 bps. So, the impact will be very less on inflation,” it said.

According to the report, India may see shifts in foreign direct investments (FDIs) during Trump 2.0. The Trump 1.0 administration saw significant regulatory changes aimed at attracting investments back to the US, and this was reflected in data also.

“However, India is no longer dependent on the traditional sources of FDI inflows… unlike the recent past, FDI is now coming in many new sectors like non-conventional energy, sea transport, medical and surgical appliances, etc,” it said.

This trend could continue, thus offsetting the possibility of a decline in FDI flows in traditional sectors in Trump 2.0, if any.

The SBI report further said if the Trump administration opts to limit work visas, particularly the H-1B visa programme, Indian IT and ITeS sectors may see increased costs.

H-1B visa restrictions can lead to decreased labour mobility, affecting the hiring capabilities of Indian IT companies operating in the US.

This, the report said, may result in Indian firms to allocate resources towards hiring locally in the US at a higher cost, which could strain margins for companies.

During Trump 1.0 the non-immigrant visas issued by the U.S. largely stagnated around 10 lakh per year. However, in 2023, about 14 lakh Indians received non-immigrant visas, the report said.

A Texas delegate holds a sign during the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 17, 2024. Donald Trump has pledged to launch — on day one of his presidency — the largest deportation operation of undocumented immigrants in U.S. history.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The story so far: On October 22, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) flew a “large-frame charter removal flight” to repatriate Indian nationals “who did not establish legal basis to remain in the United States.” Royce Murray, assistant secretary for Border and Immigration Policy at the DHS, said the U.S. had repatriated over 1,100 Indian nationals in the previous fiscal year.

Why were the Indians repatriated?

The U.S. officials maintain that they want to deter “irregular migration” to the U.S. from India among other countries, and that the charter flight was in addition to the regular removals that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department carries out through commercial flights. The flight was aimed at showcasing the strong will of the then poll-bound Joseph Biden administration to enforce immigration laws and deliver “tough consequences for those who enter unlawfully.”

What are the ways in which irregular Indian immigrants try to enter the U.S.?

Indians who try to enter the U.S. unlawfully generally try to use the southern U.S. border with Mexico and the Canada-U.S. border in the north. The pressure is more on the Mexico-U.S. border as several Latin American or central American countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are known to provide visa-free entry to U.S.-visa holding Indians for a period of time. Using this facility, some people try to stay for extended periods of time in these countries that are known for their porous borders and easy travel to the Texas border by using dangerous human trafficking agents and organisations. India has a large number of agreements for visas with these countries that allow for extended stays for Indian citizens. For example, Peru is among those that waives visa requirement for Indian nationals for business and tourism purposes for one or more stays totalling up to 180 days per year, provided that they hold permanent residence or a visa valid for a minimum of six months for Australia, Canada, U.K., the U.S., or any Schengen country.

From which States is there a high rate of irregular immigration?

The latest flight from the U.S. that carried the Indian nationals landed in Punjab, an U.S. official told the media, indicating that most of the people on board that special flight hailed from Punjab. The Hindu had reported in November 2023 that from November 2022 to September 2023, a record number of Indians — 96,917 — were arrested while crossing illegally into the U.S., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (UCBP) data. The number of Indians trying to enter the U.S. has witnessed a five-fold rise since 2019. Available data indicates that Gujarat has been supplying half of the total illegal immigrants trying to enter the U.S. There have also been several instances of deaths of people while trying to cross the border. In a well-documented case, a family of four — Jagadish Patel, Vaishaliben Patel and their two children, Vihangi and Dharmik, froze to death as they tried to cross from Canada into the U.S.

What is meant by lawful immigration to U.S.?

There are various legally accepted processes through which Indian citizens immigrate to the U.S. Every U.S. fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) around 1,40,000 employment-based immigrant visas are made available to qualified persons under the provisions of U.S. immigration law. Employment-based immigrant visas fall into five “preference categories”. In certain cases, spouses and children are allowed to join the applicant. The professionals who fall in the first three categories are persons with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics, outstanding professors and researchers with adequate experience, multinational managers and executives. Professionals holding advanced degrees and persons of exceptional abilities can also apply for immigrating lawfully to the U.S. Skilled workers, professionals and unskilled workers who can fill positions after two years of training also fall in this range. The fourth category is ‘Certain Special Immigrants’ that includes professionals who work with broadcast media in the U.S., certain employees or former employees of the U.S. government as well as people from conflict zones like Iraq and Afghanistan (translators/interpreters). The fifth category includes investors who can launch foreign commercial enterprises in the U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump, who is known to have used expressions like “poisoning the blood” on the issue of immigration, has not targeted Indians. In fact, during the closing part of his campaign, he even spoke for protection of the Hindu minority community in Bangladesh which appealed to Indian-origin voters in the U.S. That apart, Vice-President-elect J.D. Vance’s wife Usha Chilukuri Vance is of Indian origin. The greater part of his focus on immigration has been turned towards the cross-border flow from Latin American countries. However, anti-immigration measures under him will be uniformly implemented and is likely to hit Indian immigrants too.

What was Trump’s policy on immigration during his first term?

During his first stint (2017-2021), President Trump had increased the rate of denial of H1B visas to Indian professionals. Mr. Trump had issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order on April 18, 2017. Subsequently, the Foreign Affairs Manual included a directive to consular officials to keep the executive order in view while deciding on granting of a visa. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under President Trump, denial of H1B visa for initial services grew rapidly from 13% in 2017 to 21% in 2019. There were also allegations that U.S. consular officials were making it extremely difficult for Indian companies to transfer employees from India to the U.S. under the L1 visa category.

Editorial | Desperation in distress: On migration attempts by Indians to the developed world 

During his first term, Mr. Trump had given the slogan of ‘Build the Wall’ in the southern border of the U.S. with Mexico. In the just-concluded presidential election, he focused on stopping illegal immigration and deporting foreigners who are staying in the U.S. illegally — the number being touted to be in the region of 11 million. Mr. Trump has delivered a series of speeches on how he plans to deal with this problem which is presumed to affect the job market in the U.S. He has declared that the National Guard will be deployed to deport illegal overstayers and that he might even invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. However, there is little clarity about how Mr. Trump would address immigration-related concerns that his supporters have displayed during the campaign.

In addition, his anti-immigrant stance will clash with the economic policy of his tech czars who want to access the Indian market. It will be ironical if the Trump presidency opposes the entry of people from markets favoured by Trump-friendly business tycoons.

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election – and his threat to impose tariffs on all imports to the United States – highlights an important problem for the global economy.

The US is a technological powerhouse, spending more than any other country on research and development and winning more Nobel prizes in the last five years than every other country combined. Its inventions and economic successes are the envy of the globe. But the rest of the world needs to do everything in its power to avoid being too dependent on it.

And this situation would not have been much different had Harris won.

The “America first” approach of Donald Trump has actually been a bipartisan policy. At least since previous president Barack Obama’s policy of energy independence, the US has been on a mostly inward-looking quest of maintaining technological supremacy while ending the offshoring of industrial jobs.

One of the major choices Trump made in his first term was to accept higher prices for US consumers in order to protect national producers by slapping high tariffs on almost every trading partner.

For instance, Trump’s 2018 tariffs on washing machines from all over the world mean US consumers have been paying 12% more for these products.

President Joe Biden – in certainly a more polite way – then increased some of the Trump tariffs: up to 100% on electric vehicles, 50% on solar cells and 25% on batteries from China.

At a time of climate emergency, this was a clear choice to slow down the energy transition in order to protect US manufacturing.

While Biden signed a truce with Europe on tariffs, it started a perhaps even more damaging battle by launching a subsidy race.

The US Inflation Reduction Act for instance contains US$369 billion (£286 billion) of subsidies in areas such as electric vehicles or renewable energy. And the Chips Act committed US$52 billion to subsidise the production of semiconductors and computer chips.

China, Europe and the rest of the world

This US industrial policy might have been inward-looking, but it has clear consequences for the rest of the world. China, after decades of mostly export-based growth, must now deal with massive problems of industrial overcapacity.

The country is now trying to encourage more domestic consumption and to diversify its trading partners.

Europe, despite a very tight budget constraint, spends a lot of money in the subsidy race. Germany, a country facing sluggish growth and big doubts on its industrial model, is committed to matching US subsidies, offering for instance €900 million (£750 million) to Swedish battery makers Northvolt to continue producing in the country.

All those subsidies are hurting the world economy and could have easily financed urgent needs such as the electrification of the entire African continent with solar panels and batteries. Meanwhile, China has replaced the US and Europe as the largest investor in Africa, following its own interest for natural resources.

The incoming Trump mandate might be a chance to fix ideas.

One might, for instance, argue that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the thousands of deaths and the energy crisis that followed, could have been avoided had the Biden administration been clearer to Russian president Vladimir Putin about the consequences of an invasion, and provided modern weapons to Kyiv before the war.

But the blame is mostly on Europe. Credit where it’s due, the strategic problem of becoming too dependent on Russian gas is something Trump had clearly warned Germany about during his first mandate.

There is a clear path forward: Europe could help China fix its overcapacity problems by negotiating an end to its own tariff war on Chinese technology such as solar panels and electric cars.

In exchange, Europe would regain some sovereignty by producing more of its own clean energy instead of importing record amounts of liquid gas from the US. It could also learn a few things from producing with Chinese companies, and China could use its immense leverage on Russia to end the invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union could also work harder on what it does best: signing trade deals, and using them as a way to reduce carbon emissions around the world.

This is not only about Europe and China. After decades of continuous improvement on all major dimensions of human life, the world is moving backwards.

The number of people facing hunger is increasing, taking us back to the levels of 2008-9. War is raging in Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Syria, and now Lebanon. The world had not seen as many civilian casualties since 2010.

For better or worse, it is unlikely that a Trump administration will reverse the path of lower US interventionism. It is also unlikely to lead any major initiative on peace, climate change or on the liberalisation of trade.

The world is alone, and America will not come to save it.

We do not know what will happen to the US. Maybe the return of Trump will mostly be a continuation of the last ten years. Maybe prohibitive tariffs or destroying the institutions that made the US such an economic powerhouse will make the US economy less relevant. But this is something Americans have chosen, and something the rest of the world simply has to live with.

In the meantime, the only thing the world can do is learn how to better work together, without becoming too dependent on each other.

(Author: Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University)

(Disclosure Statement: Renaud Foucart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

President-elect Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to ever hold the influential role.
| Photo Credit: AFP

President-elect Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles, the manager of his victorious campaign, as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to ever hold the influential role.

Wiles is widely credited within and outside Trump’s inner circle for running what was, by far, his most disciplined and well-executed campaign, and was seen as the leading contender for the position. She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday morning.

She was able to do what few others have been able to: help control Trump’s worst impulses — not by chiding him or lecturing, but by earning his respect and showing him that he was better off when he followed her advice than flouted it.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a statement. “It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”

Trump went through four chiefs of staff — including one who served in an acting capacity for a year — during his first administration, part of record-setting personnel churn in his administration.

Successful chiefs of staff serves as the president’s confidant, help execute a president’s agenda and balance competing political and policy priorities. They also tend to serve as a gatekeeper, helping determine whom the president spends their time and whom they speak to — an effort Trump chafed under inside the White House.

The chief of staff is “absolutely critical to an effective White House,” said Chris Whipple, whose book “The Gatekeepers” details how the White House chief of staff role shaped and defines a presidency. “At the end of the day the most important thing is telling the president what he doesn’t want to hear.”

Wiles is a longtime Florida-based Republican strategist who ran Trump’s campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020. Before that, she ran Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as the manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign.

Chris LaCivita, who along with Wiles served as a co-manager of the campaign, posted on X, “So Happy and proud of one of the fiercest and most loyal warriors i’ve ever had the pleasure of working with !!!”

Washington:

Mass expulsions? Political revenge? World peace? A new golden age? As Donald Trump vies for another term in the White House, America is abuzz with speculation over how life might look with the ex-president back at the helm.

In a series of interviews and campaign rallies, the Republican has offered some clues.

Here are Trump’s plans for the United States and the world, as set out by the candidate himself.

Mass deportations

President Joe Biden’s rival in November’s election has pledged to launch the biggest deportation operation of illegal migrants in US history on his first day in office.

“We’re going to get them out as fast as we can,” he has said, accusing undocumented migrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.”

The 78-year-old, known for his unfinished border wall project, has said he would be happy to “use the military” as part of the effort and would open detention camps to process targets for expulsion.

“On day one of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic US citizenship,” he said in a campaign video.

He has confirmed he also plans to reinstate his ban on entries from several Muslim-majority countries, as a means of “keeping terrorists the hell out of our country.”

Ukraine, NATO

Trump has been saying for months he could end the war in Ukraine in “24 hours,” without explaining how.

Critics suggest his plan would involve pressuring Kyiv to cede territory illegally occupied by Russia in both 2014 and 2022.

“I will have that settled prior to taking the White House,” he told a rally in the midwestern city of Detroit recently. “As president-elect, I will have that settled.”

The ex-president is highly critical of Washington’s shipments of weapons worth billions of dollars to Kyiv, and of the funding requests from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“It never stops”, he told the Michigan crowd.

Asked in a town hall with Fox News whether he would remain committed to NATO during a second term, he replied: “Depends if they treat us properly.”

Tariffs v. tax cuts

Trump envisages tariffs of “more than 10 percent” on all imports.

US companies — and eventually their customers — pay for import tariffs, not the companies exporting the goods.

Trump insists that the revenue collected will finance a “middle class, upper class, lower class, business class big tax cut.”

Having waged a fierce trade war with China during his first term, he also plans to revoke the Asian giant’s “most favored nation” status, granted to promote trade.

Trump claims he will “stop inflation by stopping the invasion,” arguing that his immigration crackdown will reduce housing costs and other expenses.

Abortion ambiguity

Trump never misses an opportunity to point out that it is partly thanks to him — and his three conservative Supreme Court appointments — that abortion rights have been considerably weakened in the United States.

But he is more ambiguous about the future of access to reproductive health care.

Insisting it should be an issue for the individual states, the Republican has balked at pushing a nationwide abortion ban, a commitment that would win him support from the religious right.

“You must follow your heart on this issue but remember, you must also win elections,” he said in April.

‘Drill, baby, drill!’

Trump slammed the door on the 2015 Paris climate accords during his first term.

If reelected, he said at a rally earlier this month, he “will stop Biden’s wasteful spending and rapidly terminate the green new scam” — a reference to the funding committed by his successor to mitigating climate change.

“I will repeal crooked Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate and we will ‘drill, baby, drill,'” Trump told supporters in Wisconsin, using an old Republican slogan.

“Energy costs will come down very quickly,” he vowed. “In many cases we’ll be cutting your energy costs in half.”

Going after Biden

Trump, who was convicted in May of felony business fraud and faces three further indictments, has baselessly and repeatedly claimed his various prosecutions are a political witch hunt by Democrats.

The Republican has pledged to “appoint a real special ‘prosecutor’ to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the USA, Joe Biden.”

No investigation has produced evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden.

He also said he was “absolutely” ready to pardon all the Trump supporters convicted of storming the US Capitol in Washington to prevent Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 presidential election defeat to Biden.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)