MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Whoever wins the White House in next week's election will have a chance to make a splash on that first day in office. But what presidential candidates promise to do on Day 1 and what they can actually accomplish on that day can be very different. We've invited Georgetown Law professor Stephen Vladeck here to talk more about this. His expertise includes the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law and military justice. Professor Vladeck, thank you so much for joining us.
STEPHEN VLADECK: Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: OK. So it stands to reason that a new president from an opposing party would have a bigger list of changes on their mind, so let's start with Donald Trump. He's talked a lot about what he would do on his first day. Here is one clip from Wisconsin this past spring.
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DONALD TRUMP: On Day 1 of the Trump presidency, I'm restoring the travel ban, suspending refugee admissions...
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TRUMP: ...And keeping terrorists the hell out of our country, like I had it before.
MARTIN: How much of this could he do right away, as soon as he takes the oath of office, which is what he's promising here?
VLADECK: Yeah, I mean, as soon as the president takes the oath of office, you know, he or she can sign pieces of paper promising to do lots of things. I think the real question with a lot of what former President Trump is proposing is how much of that would actually require exercises of legal authority that would then be challenged in court. I mean, that was what happened with his first travel ban back in 2017 - hard to imagine that wouldn't happen again, if that's where we are come January of next year.
MARTIN: OK, let's turn to Kamala Harris. This is her in an August interview with CNN.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Day 1 - it's going to be about, one, implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy. I've already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we're going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're going to do to invest in America's small businesses, what we're going to do to invest in families.
MARTIN: So she went on to reference extending the Child Tax Credit and investing in affordable housing. Now, the vice president has not addressed her Day 1 vision as often as Trump has. So I want to ask you, of course, how much of that can she do, and why do you think she hasn't talked about it as much as he has?
VLADECK: I think the second question is a bit easier than the first. I mean, it's been almost 36 years since we've had a presidential transition within the same party - back in 1989, when President George H. W. Bush took over from President Reagan. And so, you know, I think it's not surprising that, when a transition is within the same party, especially when it's someone who was in the prior administration, you're not going to see quite as many visible efforts to symbolize - to symbolically break from the predecessor.
But I think it's also interesting that Vice President Harris' proposals are really more - at least, as she's articulated them so far - about spending money and setting new priorities for how the federal government is going to use its existing resources, in somewhat sharp distinction to former President Trump, who's talking about changing interpretations of legal authorities and using those changed interpretations to take actions. I think for Vice President Harris, the agenda here is much more about restructuring what the federal government already has - to shift, however subtly, some of the White House's priorities, some of the Cabinet departments' priorities, and using the money that's already in the bank, so to speak, to try to carry those objectives into force.
MARTIN: Recognizing everything you've told us so far, is there something that you could sort of drill down on to say that this is something that a president specifically can accomplish on that first day that tracks with some of the promises being made here? Is there something that you could sort of say, look, this is...
VLADECK: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...The difference between the day before and the day after?
VLADECK: Sure. I mean, I think the two most obvious things a president can do on Day 1 - the first is they can repeal things that their predecessors have done. So, you know, one of the things that President Trump did is he repealed President Obama's promise to close Guantanamo. But even that promise, as we know, was somewhat illusory. And the second thing is that presidents can take actions that are internal to the executive branch. They can create new offices in the White House. They can restructure personnel. They can reallocate financial resources.
And so I think it really is, once the president crosses the line from housekeeping and/or, you know, revoking prior presidents' directives to try to make new policy that's going to affect people on the street - that's where you see the line between what's easy to accomplish on Day 1 and what could very often end up in court, as we saw with a lot of former President Trump's Day 1 initiatives.
MARTIN: This is helpful. Thank you. That's Georgetown Law professor Stephen Vladeck. Professor Vladeck, thank you.
VLADECK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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