At the end of October, Trump released his plan of action for his first 100 days in office, should he be elected.  I had previously only given it a cursory glance, never expecting his campaign to bear fruit.  However, today I thought it might actually bear a closer look.  What follows are some of his key points and my own analysis of their viability or foolishness. I shall start with the five things he claims to be prepared to do on his very first full day in office, as these are the ones that have the most immediate consequences:

• Cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama. First, he is not the sole judge of what is constitutional or not, especially given that he has never read the full document, and does not have an education in Constitutional law. Second, this seems like more of a vindictive move based on a dislike of President Obama rather than a sound policy move.  Many of these could lead to significant problems, not to mention mass confusion.  Trump needs to re-think this from an adult perspective, now that he has left the playground of the campaign trail.

• Begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. I will address this at greater length in a future post. Certainly an issue for concern.

• Cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities. A sanctuary city is one that adopts local policies designed to not prosecute people solely for being an undocumented individual. This is where my concern ratchets up a few notches, as this has the potential of creating life-threatening problems for thousands of refugees and immigrants.

• Begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back. Same response as above.  Not all immigrants are criminals, and 99.9% of these people are displaced with nowhere else to go, and possess little beyond the clothes on their backs! This is one of the parts of his previous rhetoric that I take very personally and seriously, as I have many friends and neighbors who stand to be adversely affected, and because he is playing Russian roulette with human lives.  Not acceptable to Filosofa! Endangering lives of refugees and immigrants cannot be a cornerstone of immigration policy.

• Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting. Again, same response as above.

Next are some of his additional plans for the first 100 days:

• Propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress. Now, isn’t this rather like asking a person to shoot himself in the foot? One point that Senator (idiot) Mitch McConnell makes is that there are term limits on Congress:  they are called ‘elections’.  Well, that is a valid point, however, not always reliable, else why would the 22^nd Amendment to the Constitution call for a limit of two four-year terms for the president? Personally, I am torn on this one, but more about that in a later post.

• A requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated. A bit of a broad and reckless statement.  I am sure there are many regulations that are outdated and need to be sent to file #13, however … I would urge caution, rather than a willy-nilly housecleaning, only to discover that the baby has been thrown out along with the bathwater!

• I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205. This one concerns me greatly. Given the complexities, I will be writing a separate post on this topic in a few days, however for the moment, suffice it to say that this would be a brash and foolish action without considering all the potential consequences.  The net result would almost certainly hurt our own economy and the citizens of the U.S. are the ones who would pay a hefty price.

• I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Same answer as previous point.

• I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator. Another topic too complex for discussion here, and better left to economics guru Erik Hare, but in short, well over half of the IMF’s (International Money Fund) 189 members engage in some form of currency intervention with the goal of influencing their exchange rate. To single out China seems a dangerous move, and one that I think Trump needs to take under advisement by his economic and foreign policy experts.

• I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.  This is problematic and dangerous, though I am sure some in the coal-dependent communities will applaud it.  Unfortunately, Trump is not a believer in climate change, calling it a ‘hoax’, and has vowed to reverse all efforts of previous administrations to make strides toward a better environment.  His proposal would not only increase dangerous CO2 emmissions, but would be in violation of the Paris climate accord which Trump does not have the power to cancel or rescind. However, he can legally choose to ignore the plan.  This has the potential for global devastation.  Not something to take lightly.

• Lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward. When we sacrifice the environment strictly for financial gain, we err.  Enough said.

• Cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure. See previous two points.

It is not my intent to seem an alarmist, or a drama queen, however several of the above stated intentions could easily set off a series of global events leading to, at the very least, added tensions between the U.S. and other nations, and at the worst, a war.

I only included the bullet points that I felt were of immediate consequence and potentially controversial or dangerous.  There are others, many of which are worded so vaguely that one cannot respond.  Some of the other points of his plan would either take years to implement or are not likely to receive the support of Congress. The entire list can be found here.

As noted, I will be discussing some of these topics at greater length in future posts, and I am trying to keep an open mind and view his proposals from all angles. Some, including those regarding lobbyists, I can actually agree with if done with intelligence and the advise of experts in the field.  My overall concern is that Trump tends to operate as Trump wishes and to disregard any advice that does not agree with his own ideas.  Time will tell, but we all need to understand his plan and the ultimate consequences.