Trump offered a bountiful batch of campaign promises that come due on Day 1

Trump has walked back some promises since winning election

In the campaign, he vowed repeatedly to “close the border” on Day 1. Post-election, his advisers said he wasn’t speaking literally. He intends to take administrative action to tighten enforcement against illegal entry, not shut borders.

Trump also vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war even before taking office. Now, he’s bending to the reality that he couldn’t solve the conflict on the timetable he’d promised, telling Time magazine in a post-election interview: “I think that the Middle East is an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”

On birthright citizenship, he appeared to concede after the election that ending that may not be so easy, either: “We’ll maybe have to go back to the people,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in December.

Some promises may be posturing or part of negotiations

Trump posted on social media after the election: “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States.” He added that all products from China will be hit with an additional 10% tariff right away.

As definitive as that sounded, Trump later said of the tariffs, “We adjust it somewhat” if they are merely passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, as is usually the case. And he gave the three countries an opening to avoid or minimize the tariffs if they show enough progress in reducing the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.

Should he go ahead with the tariffs as laid out — and draw trade penalties from the targeted countries in turn — the economy would be subject to a seismic shock, given the decades of U.S. dependence on goods from China and of free trade within the integrated North American market.

But he’s serious about wielding the power of the pen

Under his core promise on immigration, Trump would unilaterally declare a national emergency to set the stage for tracking down millions of people in the U.S. illegally and holding them in detention centers until they can be removed from the country.

Domestic police forces and the National Guard in some states could be empowered to help federal agents in an extraordinary effort to track down and deport millions of people. As a disincentive to cross into the U.S. illegally, it’s untested. Illegal crossings surged during the Biden administration before dropping recently and hovering near a four-year low.

Trump also vowed to declare a national energy emergency and approve new energy projects “starting on Day 1.”

A national emergency might give him more authority to act unilaterally. It remains questionable how much can be accomplished on this front without action from Congress. But he can reverse President Joe Biden’s ambitious executive orders on renewable energy, environmental protections and climate change.

On pardons, presidents have a free hand when it comes to federal crimes, and Trump will be closely watched Monday to see how he uses it. Through the campaign, he held up those imprisoned for attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as patriots and vowed, “I will sign their pardons on Day 1.”

Yet he has vacillated on who and how many in that crowd will be pardoned and on what grounds.