what are his top five priorities?

From his Mar-a-Lago estate, between rounds of golf and lavish banquets, Donald Trump has been firing off announcement after announcement to fill the top jobs in his second administration.

Behind the scenes, top aides and future White House officials are charting out their first policy moves to make good on his campaign pledges to bring sweeping change to the US. Within his camp there is a fierce determination to deliver the president-elect’s vision more rapidly and effectively than during his first term.

Top Trump allies — including Elon Musk, the tech billionaire — have held talks with key lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the president-elect’s array of policy tsars and envoys are plunging into discussions with key counterparts around the world. These are expected to be Trump’s top priorities:

On taxes and the budget

We’re going to be paying down debt. We’re going to be reducing taxes . . . Nobody else is gonna be able to do it. China doesn’t have what we have. Nobody has what we have.

As soon as he sets foot in the Oval Office, Trump will have to launch negotiations on a multitrillion-dollar fiscal policy package to extend the sweeping tax cuts he enacted in 2017, which are due to expire next year.

With Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, Trump will be in a good position to get what he wants, but the discussions could be fraught.

As well as extending individual tax cuts, Trump has called for the elimination of income tax on tips, overtime, and government pension benefits — and for an additional reduction in corporate taxes for companies manufacturing in the US.

He has also vowed to scrap clean energy tax credits enacted by President Joe Biden — a move that some Republicans are warning against.

Questions swirl around whether Trump will pair his tax relief with the government spending cuts suggested by Musk and his agency, the ‘department of government efficiency’, which would minimise the impact on the deficit but also slash many big federal programmes.

On trade

This tariff will remain in effect until such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country.

Trump has fired the opening salvos of the trade wars that are likely to dominate 2025, pointing to a very aggressive use of tariffs against US allies and adversaries that could rattle the global economy.

Citing lax border enforcement policies, he has threatened neighbours Canada and Mexico with 25 per cent levies on their imports, and warned of an extra 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods.

Although Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hurriedly spoke to Trump in an effort to defuse the looming crisis, it is unclear whether he will back down.

Meanwhile, Trump has also threatened Brics countries with 100 per cent tariffs if they move away from the dollar — another big threat that he might act on early next year.

Trump and his aides have not said whether and how quickly they would implement his planned across-the-board levies of up to 20 per cent on all imports, but they believe they could apply them by executive action or through legislation — possibly as a way to raise revenue and offset the fiscal impact of tax cuts.

On border and immigration

It was going bad and it was going bad fast. We’re gonna have to seal up those borders.

The centrepiece of Trump’s 2024 White House campaign was his pledge to unleash a wide-ranging crackdown on undocumented immigrants through mass deportations, the establishment of detention facilities, and possibly the use of the military.

According to the Center of Migration Studies, 11.7mn undocumented immigrants were in the US in 2023, and undertaking such a massive operation would create widespread disruption to many communities and hit the US labour force.

Top Trump aides and officials, including vice-president elect JD Vance, have indicated they do not intend to round up every undocumented immigrant immediately but would initially begin by removing 1mn people, prioritising the deportation of violent criminals.

Tom Homan, Trump’s pick for border tsar, is asking state and local law enforcement officials to allow federal immigration officers into prisons to take people into custody ahead of deportation and has warned Democratic city officials they could be prosecuted if they resist.

While Trump and his allies have said they will prioritise the deportation of undocumented criminals, they have not ruled out broader round-ups early in the new administration.

On retribution and the deep state

Russ [Vought] knows exactly how to dismantle the deep state and end weaponised government and he will help us return self-governance to the people.

Trump has promised vengeance against his political opponents as well as a clampdown on employees in the federal civil service, that he broadly labels as the “deep state”, who do not subscribe to his policies.

Several controversial appointments such as Russell Vought as budget director, Kash Patel for the FBI and Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence are fully on board with those goals — a signal Trump is serious about pursuing the pledge. But how quickly it will be implemented will depend on whether — or how quickly — the nominees are confirmed by the Senate.

Musk will also be pushing Trump to follow through on what the president-elect’s inner circle sees as a cleansing of the federal bureaucracy. Once in office he will have to weigh how aggressively to root out civil servants, while Pam Bondi, his nominee for attorney-general, will have to decide whether she wants to press ahead with prosecutions of former Biden officials who clashed with Trump in recent years.

On foreign policy

If the hostages are not released prior to January 20 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as President of the United States, there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East.

Trump campaigned as a peacemaker who could solve the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East that dogged much of Biden’s presidency — and he will be under pressure from voters to quickly deliver on that pledge.

Trump has given his blessing to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon, and dispatched Steve Witkoff, the real estate investor who is his envoy to the region, to try to clinch an elusive ceasefire deal in Gaza.

He has also tried to turn the screws on the militant group Hamas, warning there would be “all hell to pay” if it did not release the remaining Israeli hostages that were taken during their October 7 2023 attack by Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Trump has also appointed Keith Kellogg, a retired general and former official in his last administration, to try to broker a settlement between Russia and Ukraine — which he pledged on the campaign trail to do within 24 hours of taking office.