Presumably a good President fulfills many of their campaign promises. Donald Trump claims great success but he has a mixed record, at best, of keeping campaign promises. Of course, this will not stop him from claiming he accomplished everything he said he would do.
Promises mostly kept
The major campaign promises that he has kept or partially kept include the following:
- Cancel the Paris climate agreement-DONE
- Reduce regulations-DONE
- Reduce taxes on corporations and families-DONE- arguably his most significant accomplish
- Invest in the military-DONE but at lesser amounts that he promised
- Crack down on immigration-DONE but not all his methods have been allowed
He pulled out of the Paris Accord and has cut regulations such as those that limit pollution levels. His tax cut is likely to be remembered as his biggest accomplishment as he cut taxes significantly. He had raised military spending but has not been able to expand the military to the levels he promised. He has cracked down on immigration and his focus on this topic has turned into a campaign policy issues.
Promises not kept, including some he never intended to keep
However, there a numerous major promises that he had not kept, including some that he has complete control over.
- Build a 30 foot wall on the southern broader and make Mexico pay for it. More bluster than accomplishment–Most of what has been done on the wall has involved replacing sections of the existing wall, Some sections of new wall have been started but are not complete. ABCnews
- End Obama care and replace it with a better plan (TBD)- Didn’t happen.
- Renegotiate the nuclear deal with Iran- Pulled out of the deal we had but have no new deal.
- Beat ISIS– They no longer hold land but they are flush in money and still exist; time will tell.
- Drain the swamp- didn’t happen. He has not drained Washington of lobbyists and special interests as he said. They are all well and staying at the Trump hotel. He has been draining the civil service of long time careerist and experts.
- Protect Medicare from cuts-didn’t happen.
- Protect Medicaid form cuts-didn’t happen.
- Release his tax files-didn’t happen.
- Kick China’s butt on trade-not going to happen.
What people really care about: the economy
Trump likes to tout the strong economy as his accomplishment. To claim this as his accomplishment is an overstatement as he inherited a good economy. However, the tax cut and the Fed’s easy money policies have pumped the economy up (it is sort of on steroids). I think Trump’s accomplishment on this front is keeping the boom going but he has done it at the price of dramatically increasing the budget deficit.
More bluster than substance
Trump will continue to claim that he has done great things, cut terrific deals, and “made us all rich?” His claims are so fantastical that they are not based in reality. His bluster continues to blind many of his supporters. But, take a hard look at his record. He has, at best, had mediocre success and in some areas he has outright failed. His first term can be summed up by his two “historic” meetings with Kim Jong Un. Billed as “historic and ground breaking”, the meetings were primary photo ops. Nothing concert has come from these meetings and Kim Jong Un is still shooting off missiles and has his nuclear program intact. Oh, the one accomplishment that has come from the North Korean charade is Trump has fired half of the CIA because he did not like what they were telling him.