Kamala Harris is defeated and Donald Trump is set to become the President of the United States for a second term. The septuagenarian Republican Trump, who has called the US media members of the enemy camp, is likely to implement a series of “changes” that may upset liberal Americans. A crackdown on the free press is the least of the worries for many Americans, who threw their weight behind Democrat candidate Harris to keep Trump out of the White House.
ALSO READ | ‘History’s greatest comeback!’: Modi, Netanyahu, Macron… how world leaders reacted to Trump’s win in US Elections 2024
After a close Presidential election, it is confirmed that Donald Trump will return to the office of the most powerful man on the planet. Among the many issues that bother those who voted against him, here are five areas that Donald Trump’s second term is almost certain to have far-reaching consequences.
1. Climate Change:
During his first term in the White House, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accords — an international treaty that aims to limit global warming. Trump had famously declared climate change “a hoax” and called people batting for reduced carbon footprint “poor fools.” Donald Trump’s administration is likely to enact “Project 2025” a policy where non-conventional energy sources including wind and solar power are gonna take the sidetracked in favour of gas and coal.
2. Abortions:
Abortion rights were among the salient campaign topics of the polls. Federal restrictions on abortion are likely to be imposed by “Trump 2.0”. According to media reports, a ban on shipping abortion pills is likely under the new government as these are the means of two-thirds of total abortions in the United States (to be used in the first trimester of pregnancy).
ALSO READ | ‘Most fabulous Diwali gift for Hindus, Bharat’: Shalabh Kumar, Trump’s close aide, to THE WEEK
There is a federal law that protects emergency abortion access in the country known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act or the ‘Emtala’. The wakening of the Emtala may result in a ban on medical equipment that clinics need to carry out abortions to doctors fearing to treat miscarriages in fear of the law.
3. Gay rights:
State-sponsored homophobia is likely to make a comeback in the United States under Trump, who had famously banned trans people from joining the most powerful military in the world. If elected once again, Donald Trump vowed an aggressive crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights, to ensure the “formation of stable, married, nuclear families” and “heterosexual, intact marriage”.
According to a report by The Guardian, “Project 2025” aims to replace the Democrat administration’s pro-LGBTQ+ policies with more conservative ideas. Adoption agencies, healthcare workers and businesses should be able to reject LGBTQ+ people, Trump believes. Queer and trans youth are likely to be placed in supportive homes under the Trump regime, which are against citizens who don’t fit “biblically based” definitions of marriage, The Guardian report said.
4. Federalism
The concept of mass deportation may get an entirely new meaning if Donald Trump is serious about using federal immigration agents to send back people from the US. If city administrations are unable to maintain law and order, the National Guard will be deployed to do it for them, he said. This means, that in case the citizens of the United States take to the streets to protest against the policies of the US government, Trump may use brute force to suppress them. Both concepts of mass deportation of illegal migrants and the use of the National Guard against protestors could open a war front between the US government and Democrat-ruled cities across the country, US media worry.
5. Gun laws:
The Joe Biden administration passed the first major federal US gun safety law in almost three decades, The Guardian said. The new Republican is likely to reverse it and close the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention — a department overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris. According to the White House website, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years.
ALSO READ | Trump in party mode as Elon Musk, Ivanka and Caitlyn Jenner join Mar-a-Lago ballroom bash
This legislation is already saving lives by keeping guns out of the hands of individuals under 21 who are prohibited from purchasing firearms, empowering the Justice Department with new authorities to prosecute firearms traffickers, improving access to mental health services in our schools to help young people deal with the trauma and grief resulting from gun violence, and investing in community violence interventions. This may all become history under the new POTUS.
Since 2015, 25 Republican states have enacted laws allowing residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit, US media said. Both Trump and his running-partner JD Vance have openly played down gun violence and have proposed increasing the number of school resource officers to avoid mass shootings at schools.
