Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t be a dictator — “except for Day 1.” According to his own statements, he’s got a lot to do on that first day in the White House. His list includes starting up the mass deportation of migrants, rolling back Biden administration policies on education, reshaping the federal government by firing potentially thousands of federal employees he believes are secretly working against him, and pardoning people who were arrested for their role in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the Associated Press reports. Trump could begin the process of stripping tens of thousands of career employees of their civil service protections, so they could be more easily fired. He wants to do two things: drastically reduce the federal workforce, which he has long said is an unnecessary drain, and to “totally obliterate the deep state” — perceived enemies who, he believes, are hiding in government jobs.
Trump has said that “within two seconds” of taking office that he would fire Jack Smith, the special counsel who is already evaluating how to wind down the 2020 election case and the Mar-a-Lago documents case, because of long-standing Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. As president, Trump can pardon anyone convicted in federal court, District of Columbia Superior Court or in a military court-martial. He can stop the continued prosecution of rioters by telling his attorney general to stand down. Though he cannot pardon himself when it comes to his state conviction in New York in a hush money case, he could seek to leverage his status as president-elect in an effort to set aside or expunge his felony conviction and stave off a potential prison sentence.
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