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Trump’s electoral promise in a fact check: what he kept as president and what he didn’t
Wall, trade deal, fewer foreigners: When it comes to implementing electoral promises, the presidential record is mixed.
Trump and the wall. Image: keystone
Donald Trump promised nothing in the 2016 election campaign. During his four years in the White House, he implemented many of his unorthodox ideas, even if they were met with fierce opposition. Five electoral promises that he kept (more or less) and five promises that he broke.
Held
1. Lower taxes
The promise: In the 2016 election campaign, candidate Trump announced that he would massively lower income taxes.
Reality: President Trump kept his promise, even if the tax reform that took effect shortly before Christmas 2017 was less radical than planned in practice. As expected, revenue from the tax authorities fell and the hole in the treasury grew even bigger. Now it is more than $ 3 billion.
2. Reconstruction of the judiciary
The promise: Candidate Trump announced that he would appoint so many federal judges that sooner or later the courts would withdraw the liberal abortion law.
Reality: Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices and more than 215 federal justices. These will shape the work of the courts for decades to come. The right to abortion still exists.
3. Trade agreement
The promise: As a candidate, Trump announced that he would reform trade policy because the United States was being overtaken by its main trading partners.
Reality: It is true that the president renegotiated the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. NAFTA, the pact of the 1990s, is now called the T-MEC. Only after the crown crisis will it be seen if this will stop the migration of jobs to Mexico. The same is true of the pact with China that Trump negotiated. Beijing does not currently adhere to the terms of this agreement. Bottom Line: Trump certainly caused an atmospheric shift in trade policy; In calendar year 2019, however, a gap of more than $ 300 billion still existed in the U.S. trade balance with China.
4. Fewer foreigners
The promise: As a candidate, Trump announced that he would close the borders to immigrants.
Reality: In the White House, Trump did everything he could to keep foreigners out of the United States. Not only did it ban the entry of people from countries like Yemen or Syria, where there was a particularly high risk of terrorism. His government reduced the number of “green cards” or work permits and delayed the processing of naturalization applications. The number of recognized refugees fell from 85,000 under Obama to 6,674.
5. Climate agreement
The promise: Trump promised the United States that he would end the climate agreement negotiated in Paris in 2015.
Reality: On June 1, 2017, Trump announced that his country would withdraw from the “very unfair” agreement. His government also did everything possible to soften the environmental standards that industries such as energy had suffered.
Broken
1. The wall
The promise: Trump announced that he would secure the US border with Mexico with a wall and send the bill for this protective wall to Mexico.
Reality: Under Trump, nearly 18 miles have been secured with a new wall on the 3,145-kilometer-long border between the United States and Mexico. The government also replaced the existing border fortifications in a length of 560 kilometers with a wall, says the responsible authority. The American taxpayer paid the bill for these fortifications, an estimated $ 10 billion.
2. Booming economy
The promise: As a candidate, Trump said that gross domestic product would rise more than 4 percent annually.
Reality: In 2017, the United States economy grew 2.3 percent. In 2018, growth was 3.0 percent, thanks in part to the tax reform. And in 2019 the economy grew 2.2 percent. At least Trump managed to push the unemployment rate (before the crown crisis) to a record low of 3.5 percent. Of the more than 25 million people who lost their jobs in the crown crisis, half are still looking for work.
3. Abolish Obamacare
The promise: Candidate Trump announced that he would replace Obamacare health care reform with something better and cheaper.
Reality: Obamacare resisted all attempts by Republicans to abolish health care reform, even if President Trump never missed an opportunity to undermine the historic transformation of America’s health care system. And although Trump had four years to find an alternative to Obamacare, voters are still waiting for the Republicans’ plan.
4. Drain the “swamp”
The promise: Trump announced that he would root out corruption in Washington.
Reality: Under an unconventional president, lobbyists find it even easier to satisfy their clients, also because Trump approves a controversial project via Twitter if necessary. The presidential family also benefits from this swamp: Trump regularly stays at his hotels or visits his golf clubs. The taxpayer pays the bill.
5. Improve reputation
The promise: Candidate Trump accused his predecessor of making a joke of the United States and that no one respects the superpower.
Reality: It is true that during his tenure, President Trump tried to limit the reach of “world police America”; reason why it withdrew troops from Afghanistan or Germany. And with the North Korean dictator he made a pseudo-peace: Trump was satisfied that the threat of war posed by Kim Jong Un had been averted while the dictator continued to arm himself. But: Trump’s “America First” policy met with widespread backlash around the world. And in the interior too, the country is deeply divided.
