Economist Peter St Onge believes Donald Trump will be more aggressive in his second term and predicts which executive orders will most likely be issued first.
(LifeSiteNews) — Heritage Foundation economist Dr. Peter St Onge is predicting President Donald Trump’s first batch of executive orders will deliver on key policy promises, including mass deportations of illegal immigrants and abolishing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) government policy.
While Trump only issued one executive order on the first day of his first term in office, St Onge believes that “Trump 2.0 will be different, because he now realizes this is war,” as he shared in a video posted to X on Monday.
The economist predicted that one of Trump’s first executive orders (EO) will pardon January 6 protestors as well as Ross Ulbricht, who is serving life imprisonment for having created and operated the darknet market website Silk Road. Trump clarified last year that he will pardon January 6 prisoners on a “case-by-case basis” instead of acquitting the more than 800 prisoners en masse, as he previously suggested he might.
St Onge speculated that Trump may also issue an executive order to formally establish the extra-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk, and “possibly executive orders to cut federal waste, promote regulatory reform, promote transparency in accounting, and – dare we dream – federal layoffs that could start with Schedule F, which subjects tens of thousands of policy-related government workers to being fired if they’re not doing their job, which very few are.”
He then surmised that Trump would sign a few executive orders to help curb illegal immigration, as has been so frequently promised.
“On immigration, top EOs include mass deportations, probably starting with criminals; rebuilding the wall; and the so-called Remain in Mexico program where migrants have to wait in Mexico while their asylum is being processed,” St Onge predicted.
Commentators have questioned whether Trump is softening his commitment to deporting all illegal aliens after Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said his administration plans on “deporting criminals who are in this country illegally,” suggesting that deportation will now be confined to criminals alone, who make up a small fraction of the millions of total illegal immigrants in the U.S.
St Onge noted that, on the subject of energy reform, Trump has promised to roll back restrictions on gasoline vehicles and power plants and has also pledged to re-exit the Paris Climate change accords.
To bring about some measure of military reform, Trump has “demanded the resignation of all generals involved in DEI and the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, along with the reinstatement of any member forced out over the COVID jabs,” St Onge said.
Regarding social policy, Trump has “promised to ban biological men from women’s sports and to abolish DEI across the federal government,” as well as to investigate George Soros-backed district attorneys “who have been turning American cities into hellscapes,” such as in New York City.
It is unclear whether Trump will follow through with these pledges, which many consider to be the bare minimum – or even much less – in enacting government policy reform after Joe Biden’s radical-left term.
