aving defeated Kamala Harris, Donald Trump has become only the second US president in history to return to the White House after losing a re-election bid. His victory in the battleground states and the Republican gains in both houses of the Congress have solidified his position in his party, in the country and across the globe. President Biden has promised a smooth transfer of power, something he was denied in 2020.

Trump is currently busy consulting his closest advisers about selecting a team to carry out his unorthodox, if not radical, agenda.

During his election campaign, Trump had made a strict regulation of immigration his number one priority. Nearly 13 million people, most of them of South American and Indian origins, are believed to have illegally entered the United States. Many of these illegal and undocumented immigrants have married and have children born in the United States. Under the 14th Amendment, these children have a birthright to US citizenship. However, Donald Trump has argued that these immigrants and their US-born children can be deported to their countries of origin. He has suggested that an executive order can deny citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants. The United States has a history of using yes-but-if tools to deny constitutional rights, including the right to vote, to racial minorities in the Nineteenth Century. A return to the practice could send shock waves throughout the United States and across the globe. To carryout “the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants” from the United States, Trump has picked South Dakota’s Governor Kristi Noem as the secretary for homeland security and Tom Holman as ‘border czar’or head of Immigration and Custom Enforcement Agency.

Once confirmed by the Senate, Neom will oversee everything from border protection and immigration to disaster response and the US Secret Service. Tom Holman will be the in charge of Trump’s masterplan of mass deportation of illegal immigrants. They will be assisted by Stephen Miller, a senior policy advisor during Trump’s first term and an immigration hardliner, as the deputy chief of staff for policy.

Donald Trump has said he will create a Department of Government Efficiency and has asked billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the new department. He has picked Lee Zeldin as the head of Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin is expected to de-regulate American manufacturing businesses. This is understood to mean a willingness to lower environmental standards, including by resuming domestic fossil fuel production to reduce energy prices. Some environmental protection experts say Trump could renege on US commitments on greenhouse gas emissions and that this could unleash global warming.

He also picked Republican Representative Matt Gaetz to be his nominee for attorney general. “Matt will end weaponised government, protect our borders, dismantle criminal organisations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered faith and confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump said in a statement announcing the selection.

Trump’s pick for US ambassadorin Israel, Mike Huckabee, has previously said that “there is really no such thing a Palestinian. It is a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” After having been nominated for this role, he has called for “a complete re-set of American international relations.” Trump has picked Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be the US ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik is a known frontline critic of the United Nations for its criticism of human rights violations by Israel during its Gaza war. She had asked the Biden administration to consider a “complete re-assessment” of US funding of the UN.

The nomination of Stephen Witkoff, a long-time Trump friend, as special envoy to Middle East suggest that Trump wishes to personalise his conflict resolution approach in the region.

Pete Hegseth, currently a Fox News host, has been picked for secretary of defence. Hegseth has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. However, he lacks senior military or national security experience.

It is feared that Trump’s return to the White House will initiate a fresh trade war with China. His choicefor national security advisor, Congressman Mike Waltz, is known for taking strong positions on US relations with China, supporting US assistance to Ukraine and reducing US dependence on foreign energy sources. It appears that the new administration will focus on energy independence as a critical reflection of its foreign policy approach vis-à-vis China.

The most important nomination Donald Trump has announced is of Senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state. Senator Rubio is a known hawk, advocating a confrontational approach to China. Both Rubio and Waltz have advocated for a strong US policy towards Beijing, supporting a diplomatic and security shift toward Asia to counter the rising influence of the Chinese Communist Party. As China leads battery revolution in energy transition, and as the United States revokes its global environmental commitments, the reset of international relations means triggering deep-rooted strategic faultlines in Asia and a possible Sino-US bipolar world.

A hostile policy posture towards Beijing will meangreater reliance on India, Japan and Australia. An Iran-Israel war could ignite the big re-set being promised by some Trump loyalists in Washington and Jerusalem. Trump might press for an unequivocal commitment from India in its anti-Beijing approach. This will make it increasingly difficult for New Delhi to maintain good relations with China as well as Washington.

Trump has been critical of Indian diaspora influx in the United States and banned some Indian commercial ventures in the United States during his first presidency. He could do this again. Since Pakistan does not appear to have a big role in this new re-set, Islamabad may not face much pressure from Washington except for its poor record on human rights, religious freedoms and political victimization, possibly for revival of Imran Khan’s role in mainstream politics.

The nominations to the federal government need to be confirmed by the US Senate. Given that the Republican Party has secured a majority in the upper chamber of Congress, the confirmation process is expected to be smooth. However, the president-elect could replace some of the new appointees quite soon if he is dissatisfied with their performance and the pace of transformation he aims to bring to the United States. Since this is going to be his last term in office and given that the party occupying the White House typically loses mid-term elections, he has only two years to rush his agenda of changing the system beyond recognition. If the Democratic Party wins the 2026 mid-term elections, at least the House of Representatives, the president’s power will be eclipsed.

The writer is a professor of government at Houston Community College, USA. He recently published his book The Rise of the Semi-Core: China, India and Pakistan in the World-System. He can be approached at suklashari@gmail.com