Donald Trump is back. He will be President of the United States in January.

He has claimed he will be a "dictator on day one"¹. Here are seven of his threatened policies.

1. Send them back. The moment he enters office, Trump has promised to launch the largest deportation operation in American history. He will also order the completion of the MexicoA country in the southern part of North America. It shares a long border with the USA. Most people in Mexico speak Spanish. border wall he began in 2016.

2. Drill baby drill. Trump wants to scrap support for green energy and instead ramp up fossil fuelFossil fuels, including coal, crude oil and natural gas, are made from decomposing plants and other organisms. The non-renewable fuels are burned for energy, emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. production. It is thought he will once again pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change too.

3. Tariffs for all. Trump blames cheap labour elsewhere on the loss of American manufacturing jobs. So he wants to slam tariffsA form of tax on imports. Each product will have a different tariff - for some EU dairy products, such as French cheese, tariffs in the UK will be more than 30%. on all imports to the US, especially those from China.²

4. Great replacement. Trump advisors have suggested firing 50,000 government employees. Billionaire Howard Lutnick claims that jobs should only go to those who pledge loyalty to Trump.³

5. Snip snip. Elon Musk will be asked to make $2tn cuts in government spending. Everything must be slashed, including the agencies that protect the public from unsafe food and vehicles.

6. Abandon ship. The US has provided over $64.1bn in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia's invasion in 2022.⁴ Trump has vowed to stop this, regardless of the cost to Ukraine.

7. Sweet revenge. Trump has spent years threatening those who have opposed him. Now he has the power to strike back against them - although it is impossible to predict exactly how.

Some think that these threats might just be hot air. His policies are often broad. Plans might have to be scrapped because of unpopular side effects. Many experts think his tariff plans will cause severe inflation for ordinary Americans.⁵

Yet Trump and his team have had four years to prepare their revenge. It has managed a huge comeback against the odds.

Are they hot air?

Yes: Trump promised to unite the country in his victory speech. And in his first term, he was persuaded to back down on some of his wildest instincts by advisors. This could happen again.

No: It is folly not to take him at his word. The effects of his chaotic first term are still felt today. There is no reason to believe that a better-prepared Trump will not deliver on his promises.

Or... As so often with politics, Trump's campaign probably contains kernels of truths amid exaggeration and mistruths. He will undoubtedly follow through on some of his threats, in spirit if not to the letter.