By Steve Corbin
Professor Emeritus of Marketing, University of Northern Iowa
When Donald Trump made his first successful run for president in 2016 he made 663 promises to American voters. By the end of his 2021 term of office he was only able to fulfill approximately 23 percent of his vows. Before we get too excited as to what will happen when Trump 2.0 takes effect on Jan. 20, let’s take a moment to reflect on covenants made by a couple other presidents.
PolitiFact tracks the promises our presidents have made. PolitiFact is a non-partisan fact-checking website created in 2007 by the Florida-based Tampa Bay Times and acquired in 2018 by the Poynter Institute, a non-profit school for journalists. Here’s a report card on three presidents:
• Barack Obama kept 47 percent of his campaign assurances, 23 percent were broken and 27 percent ended up as a compromise.
• During 2017-2021, Donald Trump kept 23 percent of his pre-election pledges, 55 percent were broken and compromise occurred on 22 percent of his promises.
• Joe Biden has been able to keep 33 percent of his commitments, 35 percent were broken, 28 percent ended up in a compromise and 3 percent of his promises are in the works.
Regardless of our past presidents’ political affiliation, evidence abounds voters are gullible, easily persuaded and shouldn’t have paid too much attention to the candidate’s campaign rhetoric. Unfortunately, candidate platitudes are often made to disinform, misinform and hoodwink the voter.
Back to our 45th and soon-to-be 47th president, Mr. Trump.
Ryan Koronowski, director at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, reflected on Trump’s 2016 guarantees and felt “... many of the promises that he broke, he was insincere about them or didn’t care enough about them. They were political and meant to earn votes, they weren’t actual policy goals, or corporate backers and power brokers actually moved to shut them down …” (MTN, Nov. 7).
Ron Filipkowski of the pro-democracy MTN (Meidas Touch Network) documented Trump making 93 campaign promises while vying to be America’s 47th president. Filipkowski summarized “After failing to deliver on his major pledges during the first administration, president-elect Trump resurrected many of the same promises in his 2024 campaign.”
Trump made a multitude of promises in a Sept. 5 economic policy debate as well as during the Sept. 10 presidential debate. On July 8, the Republican National Committee published their 2024 party platform, which included 63 additional promises should Trump get elected (rncplatform.donaldtrump.com).
Mr. Trump repeatedly disavowed Project 2025 — created by the far-right extremist Heritage Foundation — to be implemented in the first 180 days of his second presidency. However, CBS News identified at least 270 of the 700 policy proposals from Project 2025′s 922-page guide matched Trump’s past policies and current campaign promises.
And, since the Nov. 5 election, where Trump received less than 50 percent of the votes — not a “mandate” as he claims — he has backed off his promise to bring down grocery costs, end the Ukraine-Russia war before he takes office and use tariffs to bolster the US economy. Trump’s transition team admits Trump has shifted “from sweeping campaign rhetoric to the nuances and realities of governing” (The Hill, Dec. 29).
Trump made eight promises that would occur on Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration. On Jan. 21, note a `yes’ or `no’ next to each of these promises as to whether they occurred or not. The result may be a bellwether sign of what is yet to come during his 1,461 days as our 47th president:
_____ 1) close the US-Mexico border,
_____ 2) begin “the largest deportation program in American history,”
_____ 3) expedite permits for drilling and fracking,
_____ 4) roll back environmental regulations,
_____ 5) pardon 1,561people convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol insurrection (contradiction to supporting law and order),
_____ 6) cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on the lives of our children,”
_____ 7) roll back President Biden’s electric vehicle policies and
_____ 8) enact tariffs on goods coming in from Mexico, Canada and China.
Should Mr. Trump’s daily rhetoric, actions and flip-flopping on promises get under your skin, three coping methods are offered. First, say to yourself “I can’t help the way I feel right now, but I can help the way I think and act.” Secondly, recall what King Solomon, William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln have said: “This too shall pass.” Third, promise — and fulfill the promise — to do a better job of vetting future presidential candidates (regardless of their and your political party of preference) and heavily discount their promises.
Contact Steve Corbin at Steven.B.Corbin@gmail.com