CUT TAXES
Trump signed a sweeping package of tax cuts for businesses and individuals on Dec. 22, the GOP’s signature legislation of 2017. The law cut corporate taxes to 21 percent from 35 percent. It trimmed the top income tax bracket to 37 percent from 39.6 percent, rewarding the wealthiest taxpayers in America. It also doubled the standard deduction for individuals. Meanwhile, it left the “carried interest’’ tax loophole intact for private equity and hedge fund managers, with the tax on their hefty management fees at 23.8 percent.
TARGETED CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT
►Exit Paris climate accord
Trump on June 1, 2017, announced he was pulling the United States out of the Paris accord. The agreement, however, doesn’t allow the 196 participating countries to officially pull out until November 2020, after the next presidential election.
►Shrink national monuments
Trump on Dec. 4, 2017, slashed the size of two national monuments in Utah by about 2 million acres, the largest reduction of federal land protection in history. The decision shrank Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante, reversing protections created by his Democratic predecessors. President Obama designated Bears Ears a monument in 2016; President Clinton created the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in 1996.
►Cut regulation of greenhouse gas
Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency on Oct. 9, 2017, signed an order to repeal Obama’s signature policy known as the Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. That policy, established in 2015, sought to prod states to phase out coal plants.
►Rescind automobile efficiency standards
Trump’s EPA on April 2 announced that it was rescinding Obama-era fuel economy rules for automobiles. In 2012, the Obama administration announced an effort that sought to double the average fleetwide fuel economy of new cars, SUVs, and light trucks by 2025.
►Expand offshore drilling
Trump administration officials on Jan. 4 announced that they would allow new offshore oil and gas drilling along the near entirety of US coastal waters. The GOP’s December tax overhaul also included a provision to allow drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
►Approve XL pipeline
Trump reversed Obama and authorized construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canadian tar sands fields. The pipeline was bitterly opposed by environmentalists who said the oil it will carry will contribute to global warming. Construction has yet to begin as a result of issues north of the border.
DEREGULATED FINANCIAL INDUSTRY
►Loosen scrutiny on bank risk
Trump signed a major rollback of the Dodd-Frank financial services regulation law in May, allowing many midsized banks to escape a particularly high level of regular scrutiny imposed by the law. Dodd-Frank was the keystone of Obama’s post-2008 recession measures to prevent another meltdown.
►Block fiduciary rule
A Department of Labor rule requiring brokers to act in the best interest of their clients for handling retirement accounts was supposed to take effect last year. It was delayed by the Trump administration and eventually rejected in a federal appeals court ruling. The Securities and Exchange Commission is advancing its own rule to address the issue.
►Weaken Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Trump has dramatically weakened this agency created in the Dodd-Frank law by appointing former Republican congressman Mick Mulvaney, a harsh critic of the bureau, as its temporary director. Mulvaney shifted its focus away from enforcement and toward deregulation.
ERODED AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
►End individual mandate
Trump and Congress failed to repeal the signature health care law signed by President Obama, but they have attempted to weaken it in myriad ways. The December 2017 tax bill eliminated the individual mandate, a core provision requiring that most Americans obtain insurance. This is expected to result in 13 million people losing or dropping insurance coverage.
►Abandon protections for preexisting conditions
The Trump administration said in a court filing in Texas this month that it would no longer defend a provision of the law that requires insurance companies to provide coverage regardless of preexisting conditions, a core tenet of the law.
►Cut subsidies to insurance companies
Trump cut cost-sharing payments to insurers offering coverage through the ACA in October 2017, accelerating concerns that they would pull out of the program. It was among a variety of destabilization tactics Trump employed to weaken the law.
►Slash outreach funding
In August 2017, Trump cut funding for public outreach for ACA from $100 million to $10 million and also reduced support for “navigators’’ who help the eligible people sign up for the insurance.
ADVANCED SOCIAL CONSERVATISM
►Target Planned Parenthood
Trump signed legislation in April 2017 that allows state and local governments to withhold federal funding to clinics that provide non-abortion-related family planning services if the clinic also provides abortion. In May, his administration announced a policy of withholding federal funding to clinics that perform abortions or refer people to clinics that do.
►Ban transgender people from military
In March 2018, Trump signed a memo banning transgender people from serving in the military if they have undergone or want to undergo a gender transition. The thousands of transgender people already enlisted are allowed to remain in the military. This was a modification of a ban he announced in August 2017, which was tied up in courts.
►Revoke transgender bathroom guidance in schools
Trump in February 2017 rescinded Obama-era guidelines asking public schools to allow transgender children to use the restroom of their choice.
►Global “gag rule’’
Trump, in his first month in office, reinstated and expanded past GOP presidents’ prohibitions on international aid going to groups that provide abortion referrals or counseling.
►Deny insurance coverage for birth control
In October 2017, the Trump administration said it will permit employers to deny coverage for birth control based on religious objections.
ERECTED WELFARE BARRIERS
►Work requirements for Medicaid and other federal programs
In January 2018, the Trump administration informed states they could cut off Medicaid benefits to nondisabled people who are not working, in school, or volunteering — a major break from past administrations. The Trump administration has also directed its federal agencies to explore whether they can impose work requirements for other federal benefits such as low-income housing.
FAVORED FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES
►Freeze student debt relief
The Trump administration last summer delayed Obama-era rules designed to protect borrowers who were defrauded by predatory colleges and offer them a pathway to student loan debt forgiveness. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reopened the rule-writing process.
►Weaken oversight
The administration in April temporarily reinstated an accrediting agency that had come under fire for accrediting two scandal-ridden for-profit colleges. It also dismantled a unit of the Department of Education that investigated such for-profit schools.
SHAPED JUDICIARY
►Fill federal courts
An undisputed success story of Trump’s tenure so far is the rapid clip at which he’s sending judicial nominations over to the GOP-controlled Senate. He’s sent 21 appeals court judges to the bench so far — more than his five predecessors at this point in their terms. Eighty-eight percent of those added to the federal bench under Trump are white, and 76 percent of them are male, according to a Bloomberg analysis. (Under Obama, just 38 percent of judicial nominees were white men.)
►Secure conservative Supreme Court justice
Neil Gorsuch was sworn in to the Supreme Court in April 2017, replacing conservative firebrand Antonin Scalia, who died the year before. Conservatives were delighted by Trump’s pick, and Senate Republicans quickly confirmed him by changing the body’s long-standing rules requiring 60 votes to break a filibuster for Supreme Court nominations. At just 50 years old, Gorsuch will likely sit on the court for decades.
CRACKED DOWN ON IMMIGRATION
►Impose travel ban
Trump banned people from eight mostly Muslim countries from traveling to the United States. After court challenges, the order was modified and also pared to seven. Its legality has not yet been decided by the Supreme Court, although the court has allowed it to remain in effect.
►Cancel DACA
Trump moved to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in September 2017, a move that will eventually revoke legal status for nearly 700,000 young immigrants who were brought to the country as children and make them eligible for deportation. The action is tied up in court challenges.
►End legal status for Central Americans
The Trump administration has revoked temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of Hondurans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans who were granted permission to live in the United States after natural disasters years ago. They will soon be required to leave.
►Limit asylum claims
Attorney General Jeff Sessions revamped guidelines this month to generally bar victims of domestic violence or gangs from qualifying for asylum.
►Increase deportations
In fiscal year 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 61,094 people from the interior of the country, a 37 percent increase from the year before. Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office expanding the list of immigrants prioritized for deportation to include most unauthorized immigrants, not just those with criminal records or repeated immigration violations.
►Reduce refugee admissions
The Trump administration reduced the number of refugees the country will accept to 45,000 in 2018, the lowest level since 1980.
►Add citizenship question to census
As part of the US Census, residents will be asked for the first time in 2020 if they are citizens. This could result in undercounting of immigrants in the survey, which helps determine congressional representation.
►Launch “extreme vetting’’
People applying for visas or green cards to visit or live in the United States will have to turn over five years of social media history to authorities, as well as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, as part of the Trump administration’s bid to do “extreme vetting.’’
SHOOK UP FOREIGN POLICY
►Exit Iran nuclear weapons pact
The United States on May 8 withdrew from the agreement that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for the regime stopping its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
►Engage North Korea
Trump on June 12 met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, marking the first time that leaders from the two countries had met. Under preliminary agreements, the two sides would work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and the United States would halt joint military operations with South Korea.
►Restrict Cuba relations
Trump on June 16, 2017, announced new policies that restrict some travel and commercial transactions on the island — part of an effort to roll back Obama’s opening of relations with the communist country.
►Open Jerusalem embassy
On May 14, 2018, Trump officially moved the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognized it as the capital. Previous presidents, despite promises to also move the embassy, had kept it in Tel Aviv as a way to respect Palestinian claims to Jerusalem and create a better atmosphere for a peace deal.
FOUGHT FREE TRADE
►Cancel Trans-Pacific Partnership
Trump on Jan. 23, 2017, officially directed the United States to withdraw from the TPP, a trade deal between the United States and 11 Asian-Pacific countries. Obama had signed the deal in 2016 but it hadn’t yet been ratified by Congress.
►Impose steel and aluminum tariffs
The Trump administration starting on June 1, 2018, imposed a 25 percent tariff on imports of steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum on the European Union, Canada, and Mexico.
►Introduce tariffs on solar panels and washing machines
In January 2018, the Trump administration imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines that are made outside of the United States.
►Initiate China tariffs
The administration has been moving forward on plans to place a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of imports from China.
BOOSTED DEFENSE
►Increase spending
As the result of a February 2018 budget bill, defense spending can go much higher than previous limits. It means about $165 billion in additional spending over 2018 and 2019.
►Expand nuclear weapons
The Pentagon on Feb. 2, 2018, released a nuclear arms policy that included two new types of weapons, including cruise missiles fired from submarines. The policy runs counter to Obama’s efforts to reduce the size and scope of the US nuclear arsenal.
REVERSED TECH PROTECTIONS
►End net neutrality rule
The FCC repealed rules on net neutrality, which required Internet service providers to provide everyone with equal access to online content. The repeal took effect on June 11.
Matt Viser, Liz Goodwin, David Abel, Jon Chesto, and Deirdre Fernandes of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Matt Viser, Liz Goodwin, David Abel, Jon Chesto, and Deirdre Fernandes of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
