President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to move aggressively on a conservative agenda in filling the Supreme Court vacancies, cracking down on the illegal immigration and cutting taxes and sought to reassure worried Americans that they have nothing to fear from his presidency.
“I just don’t think they know me,” the billionaire real estate mogul said, of the thousands of protesters who have massed in the streets below his Trump Tower headquarters with signs that had read “Not our president.” On that many Americans are scared of his presidency, Trump said that “Don’t be afraid. We are going to bring our country back.”
Trump made it clear that he intends to aggressively push a right-wing agenda, pledging to name the justices to the Supreme Court who are anti-abortion and pro-gun rights. “The judges will be pro-life,” Trump said. “In terms of the whole gun situation,” he added, “they’re going to be very pro-Second Amendment.”
On immigration, Trump has reaffirmed his signature campaign pledge. “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers,” he said.
“We have a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” he said.
“After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that you’re talking about who are terrific people,” he said.
He said that he would not seek to overturn the legalization of the same-sex marriage in the United States. “It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done,” Trump said when asked if he supports marriage equality. “And I’m — I’m fine with that,” he added.
“I’m not going to take the salary. I’m not taking it,” he said. “I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year,” he added.
“I don’t want to be just a little nice monotone character,” he said. “This is a city which if you don’t shove it as hard as you can while you have momentum, it will just surround you. I mean, the swamp doesn’t want to be drained. And the swamp will just suck you in if you let it,” he said.
By Premji
