Donald Trump's 100-Day Plan: Can He Really Fulfill His Promises?

President-elect Donald Trump is set to begin on Thursday a transformation under immense pressure to simultaneously unite a sharply divided country and to deliver on a set of audacious — if not contentious — campaign promises that served as the core of his plan to upend Washington culture and to reverse key elements of President Obama's legacy.

During the long election season, Trump made several attention- and headline-grabbing claims about his potential presidency — that he would repeal Obamacare, build a wall along the Mexican border (and make them pay for it), and ban Muslims from entering the country.

Trump told supporters at a rally in Ohio leading up to Election Day, "Just think about what we could accomplish in the first 100 days."

But the question is: Can a President Trump make good on his campaign promises?

The short answer is that some of his undertakings, such as overturning Obama's executive actions, can be done in his first hours in the Oval Office. Other agenda items require Congressional action. And, yet, some other proposals could run into legal or political roadblocks that may be impossible to navigate.

However, if Trump has any hopes of cooperation across the aisle or even within his own party, he will have to make an attempt at healing the fractures along racial, gender and economic lines that he exploited in the election season — something he was apparently aware of before the election was over.

"I pledge to every citizen of our lands that I will be the president for the American people," Trump said in his Election Day victory speech. "For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, for which there were a few people, I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great country."

Upon arriving at the White House in January, Trump could undo Obama's executive orders, including ones that protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. He could also make good on the promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the email scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state.

“I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception,” Trump said during one of the presidential debates. “There has never been anything like it, and we’re going to have a special prosecutor.”

During the campaign season Trump was often derided for not knowing the proper procedure for many of his proposals. He often said before large audiences that he would single-handedly repeal and replace Obamacare on his first day.

However, repealing the Affordable Care Act would require Congressional action — something that has been attempted more than 60 times. This time, with Republicans holding their majorities in the House and Senate, a Republican White House may make the party's aspiration a reality. Trump has offered no alternative solutions to health care.

Trump's plan to assess some types of tariffs on corporations that move their operations overseas as a measure to protect American jobs would also require an act of Congress — assuming lawmakers would go against corporate donors.

When Trump announced his candidacy, he promised "to build a great, great wall on our southern border" and "have Mexico pay for that wall." But even his supporters are aware of the political, legal and logistical obstacles to carrying that plan out.

"There are some that hear this is going to be 1,200 miles from Brownsville to El Paso, 30-foot high, and listen, I know you can’t do that," former Texas governor Rick Perry said.

Yet, there are also plenty of items in Trump's agenda that could receive bi-partisan support, depending on the specificities of the proposals. In his "Contract with the American Voter," Trump said he would spend the first 100 days of his administration fighting for laws that will simplify the tax code, invest in American energy infrastructure, end illegal immigration and make inner-city communities safer — all endeavors that Democrats and Republicans alike have called for in the past.

Billed as a "100-day action plan" that begins "restoring honesty and accountability," Trump promised his administration will:

• Announce the U.S. intention to renegotiate NAFTA, or withdraw from the trade deal
• Announce the U.S. intention to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
• Nominate a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court
• Cancel funding to "sanctuary cities"
• Remove illegal immigrants and cancel visas to countries that refuse to take them back
• Suspend immigration from "terror-prone" regions of the world
• Propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress
• Propose a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce (except military, public safety and public health)
• Propose a new requirement that for every federal regulation imposed, two existing regulations will be eliminated
• Propose a 5-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists
• Propose a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying foreign governments
• Propose a ban on foreign lobbyists raising money in American elections

Trump wrote that following his "Contract with the American Voter" would "Make America Great Again."

He added: "And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by and for the people."

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons