President-elect Donald Trump has made a lot of promises on the campaign trail, but which are likely to come to fruition and how would they affect Idaho? We asked Boise State University political scientist Charlie Hunt how he thinks Trump’s second term will look like for our state.
How seriously should we take President-elect Trump’s campaign promises?
“All these sort of promises that he has made over the past couple years when he's been campaigning, one thing I can sort of guarantee is that not all of these things are going to come true. Some of them will, some of them won't, and [it will] depend on the politics of whatever individual situation we're talking about. For those who are, let's say, concerned about [a national abortion ban], that's one legislative area where I think that's not impossible, but unlikely to happen.”
How would trade and tariff policies impact Idaho agriculture?
“[Agriculture] is another area where you see more monoculture farming… that are really changing the agricultural economy and that are having way more effects on Idaho farmers than any one tariff. But if you have these tariffs, coupled with this sort of mass deportation [campaign promise], then you're not going to have the workforce able to meet the new demand for new agricultural industries that Idaho farmers would be looking to get into if they were helped along by tariffs making them more competitive.”
Are you worried that Trump’s rhetoric will change higher education?
“This isn’t one I’m particularly worried about. I think, whatever the terminology is, ‘Marxist, lunatics, and communist,’ that's a tough thing to write into federal code that gets into some thorny issues around free speech and the right of educators to teach their expertise. From my perspective that has not changed anything about the way I teach. I think the most likely outcome for something like this would be something in the vein of what Idaho did, which was a set of laws that didn't necessarily have a ton of teeth that was more symbolic. It's not something that I think is likely to change the way folks in higher ed teach.”
