The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Trump promised his supporters ‘everything.’ He didn’t deliver on much of it.

Analysis by
Staff writer
January 20, 2021 at 8:34 a.m. EST
President Trump speaks in support of Republican senators in Georgia this month. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump’s term in office expired at noon Wednesday. And although he was never a broadly popular president, those who stuck by him have almost always cited a few things. Among them: that, whatever warts exist, he tells it like it is, and that he delivered on what he promised.

The former is undermined by his well more than 30,000 falsehoods as president. The latter is undermined by his record.

Back when Trump won the presidency, The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson offered an indispensable look at just how much he had promised he would do as president — 282 items, to be exact. It was, to put it lightly, a lot. Perhaps in large part because of his lack of political expertise, and perhaps in larger part because of his showman persona and his willingness to just say, well, anything, his mouth wrote a lot of checks that his actions couldn’t cash (so to speak).

Now that Trump’s presidency has come to an end, I decided to look back at Johnson’s list to see where Trump’s promises landed. Many of them are tough to pin down because of a lack of specificity, but most are easier to evaluate. And the number of broken promises far outnumbers the 31 by our count that he kept.

Below, a review, with the promises from Johnson’s original list in bold.

Promises kept

Call the executives at the parent company of Carrier, an air-conditioning manufacturer that is closing a plant in Indiana and moving to Mexico, and threaten to impose a 35 percent tariff on air conditioners imported into the United States. Trump predicts the company will say: “Sir, we’ve decided to stay in the United States.” (A deal was struck before Trump took office, preserving 800 jobs in Indiana and leading Trump to hail the announcement as a sign of things to come, although since then, many businesses have moved production out of Indiana and overseas.)

Leave the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, which is already too high. (Trump also promised to raise the minimum wage at another point, which is contained below.)

Renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205. (The deal was renegotiated as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.)

On the first day in office, pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President Obama’s signature trade deal linking countries around the Pacific Rim. (Trump did this in his first week, but not on the first day — probably close enough.)

Immediately institute a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the workforce through attrition. There would be exceptions for those in the military, public safety and public health. (Trump did so, but it was rescinded April 2017.)

Order agency and department heads to identify all “needless job-killing regulations” and then remove them. (Trump ordered such a review in 2017.)

Eliminate [the Affordable Care Act’s] individual mandate, as “no person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to.” (The individual mandate in the legislation was repealed, although the broader law was not.)

Preserve Medicare and Medicaid but encourage states to root out fraud, waste and abuse. Provide states with block grants of Medicaid funds to provide more freedom in designing programs to assist low-income citizens. (Trump sought to allow states to receive Medicaid block grants via executive action. Tennessee recently became the first state to take advantage of that.)

Push the Food and Drug Administration to more quickly approve the thousands of drugs it is reviewing. Trump also wants to “advance research and development in health care.” (For better or worse, he applied pressure on the FDA on coronavirus treatments and vaccines.)

End “catch-and-release.” Anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed from the country. (This was still happening as of 2018, although the administration announced its official end in 2019, including implementing policies that led among other things to separating families.)

Reduce the number of legal immigrants because it is “simply too large to perform adequate screening,” and these immigrants could be taking jobs away from American workers. (The number was sharply reduced, although Trump also promised to increase them at other points — as detailed below.)

As soon as he takes office, ask Congress to repeal the defense sequester that limited the military’s budget. (The process Trump was targeting — known as sequestration — remains on the books, but since 2018, it has essentially been displaced by new spending bills, and the limitations are due to end after 2021.)

Strengthen the military so that it’s “so big and so strong and so great” that “nobody’s going to mess with us.” (Trump has expanded military funding, and nobody has messed with us during his four years — although that was also the case in previous presidencies.)

Keep the military prison at Guantánamo Bay open. (It’s still open.)

Get along with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I hope that we get along great with Putin because it would be great to have Russia with a good relationship.” Trump would also look into lifting the sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea. (Trump got along great with Putin — often to the consternation of U.S. officials. But he did not lift Crimea-related sanctions.)

Communicate with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un about his nuclear program, which would mark a major shift in U.S. policy toward the isolated nation. “I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him.” (Trump also did this, to the occasional consternation of said officials.)

“Stand with the oppressed people of Venezuela yearning to be free.” (This was a priority for Trump’s administration, including recognizing interim president Juan Guaidó.)

Be a “true friend to Israel.” Trump says the United States will “be working with Israel very closely, very, very closely.” (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump was the greatest friend Israel had.)

Immediately ask the generals to present a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy the Islamic State. (Trump did this upon assuming the presidency. The caliphate has been essentially eliminated, although that builds upon progress from the prior administration.)

Frequently use the term “radical Islamic terrorism.” (This was a mainstay of Trump’s public comments, although others in his administration eschewed it.)

Temporarily suspend “immigration from some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism.” Order the Department of State, Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to develop a list of regions and countries to include. The list will likely include Syria and Libya. (Trump effectively did this with his travel ban from several countries, including Syria and Libya. He also at times proposed a Muslim ban — which will be cited later.)

Rescind all environmental executive actions signed by President Barack Obama. (Trump rescinded dozens of them.)

Oppose a carbon tax on fossil fuels use that could be used to reverse damage to the environment caused by the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (No carbon tax passed under Trump. One also failed under Obama.)

Revoke restrictions on new drilling technologies and support “safe hydraulic fracturing” to create “millions of jobs.” Lease more federal land for drilling, including “vast areas of our offshore energy resources.” (Trump routinely expanded drilling and fracking.)

Pull out of the Paris agreement, which was signed by 196 countries pledging to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Restore and protect the Florida Everglades, even though it’s a “rough-looking sight down there.” (The most recent budget signed by Trump last month included a record amount for the Everglades.)

Create “jobs and opportunities for African Americans and Hispanic Americans.” (Both unemployment rates hit record lows under Trump, as the overall unemployment rate also sank to a historic lows, although all have risen amid the coronavirus pandemic. What’s more, the trends for each largely continued their trajectory from before the pandemic.)

Rescind Obama’s executive actions related to gun control. (Trump did so.)

“I refuse to be politically correct.”

Pass on the president’s annual salary of $400,000.

“I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you.” (Trump criticized then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who was injured while riding a bicycle amid the Iran negotiations.) (Trump lived up to this, by all accounts.)

Promises broken

Create at least 25 million jobs and “be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” (About 6.5 million jobs were created in Trump’s first three years, before the coronavirus pandemic set in. Even ignoring the losses since then, that wouldn’t have been on pace for 25 million jobs even if Trump had served eight years.)

“We will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world.” Grow the nation’s economy by at least 4 percent per year, although Trump has also suggested he will boost growth to at least 6 percent per year — if not much higher. (Excluding 2020, growth in Trump’s initial three years in office was 2.5 percent. That was narrowly above that of Obama.)

Eliminate the $19 trillion national debt within eight years by “vigorously eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, ending redundant government programs and growing the economy to increase tax revenues.” (The debt grew to more than $26 trillion and was growing even before the pandemic.)

Cut the budget by 20 percent by simply negotiating better prices or renegotiating existing deals. (See above.)

Implement the “Penny Plan,” which each year would reduce net spending by 1 percent of the previous year’s total. Over 10 years, Trump says, this would reduce spending by almost $1 trillion. Defense and public safety spending would be exempt. (See above.)

“Completely repeal” the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something “terrific” that is “so much better, so much better, so much better.” Americans will have “great health care at a fraction of the cost.” (The ACA, also known as Obamacare, wasn’t repealed.)

Accomplish more immigration reforms in a few months than politicians have accomplished in the past 50 years. With these reforms, Trump promised: “Crime will go down, border crossings will plummet, gangs will disappear and welfare use will decrease.” (Trump accomplished no significant immigration reform, beyond executive orders. Gangs still exist, and violent crime is about the same level as when Trump took over.)

Make illegal immigration a “memory of the past.” (It hasn’t been eliminated as Trump suggested. There was also a huge surge on his watch.)

“Get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.” (Apple in 2019 moved Mac Pro production out of the United States to China.)

Raise the federal minimum wage to $10 per hour, as $7.25 is too low and “the minimum wage has to go up.”

Institute a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government. (Trump signed an executive order to this effect in 2017 but revoked it overnight.)

“I’m going to be so presidential, you’re going to be so bored.” He might also quit tweeting. (He did not make anyone bored, and he stopped tweeting only this month, because he was banned from the platform.)

Twitter on Jan. 8 banned President Trump from its site, a punishment for his role in inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol. (Video: The Washington Post)

“I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off.” Trump said he will make time for golf but promised to “always play with leaders of countries and people that can help us.” (Trump played golf more often than Obama, whom he often regularly criticized for playing too much, and he rarely did so with people of such stature. He also spent lots of time at his properties away from the White House.)

“If I draw a line in the sand, I will enforce it.” (He threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” if it continued to threaten the United States, but despite cordial relations with Kim, the threats remained.)

Fully focus on the presidency and put his three oldest children — Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — in charge of running his company. (Ivanka Trump joined the White House, and there were signs that Trump hadn’t completely distanced himself from his businesses.)

Lower the corporate tax rate to 15 percent and get rid of most corporate tax loopholes or incentives. Allow corporations a one-time window to transfer money being held overseas, charging a much-reduced 10 percent tax. (The corporate tax rate remains at 21 percent — although that’s down from 35 percent.)

We are going to have the biggest tax cuts since Ronald Reagan.” (The Trump tax cut was nearly 0.9 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 2.89 percent of GDP for President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Data show it’s only the eighth-largest on record.)

Negotiate trade deals with individual countries instead of regions. Trump would gather together the “smartest negotiators in the world” and assign them each a country. Billionaire hedge fund manager Carl Icahn would be in charge of trade negotiations with China and Japan. (Icahn advised on regulatory reform but quit without holding a formal position. There is no evidence that individuals such as him were hired to handle trade deals with specific countries.)

Impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese products imported into the United States. (Trump’s trade war did not go that far.)

Stop spending money on space exploration until the United States can fix its potholes. Encourage private space-exploration companies to expand. (Trump proposed increased spending for NASA and launched Space Force.)

Stop so-called zombie spending, in which the government funds programs that have had their congressional authorization lapse. By cutting 5 percent of this spending, Trump estimates he could save almost $200 billion over 10 years. (Such spending included funding “veterans’ medical care, the National Institutes of Health, the FBI, the Federal Election Commission and U.S. embassies and consulates abroad,” none of which have ceased).

Knock down the regulatory walls between states for health insurance, making plans available nationally instead of regionally. “Insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up.” (Fact check)

Expand use of Health Savings Accounts, which allow workers to save money for medical expenses without having to pay federal income tax on those funds. These payments will be allowed to accumulate and can be passed on to heirs. These funds can be used by any member of a family. (HSAs are very similar to when Trump took office.)

Bring down drug prices by importing cheaper medications from overseas and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. (By and large, drug prices haven’t decreased.)

Fully fund the construction of an “impenetrable physical wall” along the southern border with Mexico. The wall will be one foot taller than the Great Wall of China and “artistically beautiful,” constructed of hardened concrete, rebar and steel. The wall might cover only about 1,000 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile border because of natural barriers, and Trump is open to using fencing in some places. (The portion of wall that has been built is not impenetrable, and it’s not nearly as expansive as Trump pledged.)

Make Mexico pay for the wall, “100 percent.” If Mexico refuses, then the United States will impound remittance payments taken from the wages of undocumented immigrants, cut foreign aid, institute tariffs, cancel visas for Mexican business leaders and diplomats, and increase fees for visas, border-crossing cards and port use. (None of this has happened.)

Each time President Trump turned down money for his wall, he ended up with less money than he started with. (Video: JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

“Charge Mexico $100,000 for every illegal that crosses that border because it’s trouble.” (See above.)

Triple the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. (The size of ICE has not increased substantially during Trump’s presidency.)

Cancel federal funding to “sanctuary cities” that choose to not prosecute undocumented immigrants for being in the country illegally. (According to PolitiFact, “Overall, the Justice Department has not been successful in withholding federal funds for so-called sanctuary cities.”)

Immediately deport undocumented immigrants who have committed a crime, are a member of a gang or pose a security threat. Trump estimates this is 2 million to 3 million people, although experts say the number is much lower. Deport the millions of undocumented immigrants who are in the United States on an expired visa. (Trump removed about 935,000 people during his four years — far short of the millions promised and less than Obama’s first term, according to figures from the Migration Policy Institute.

Restore the Secure Communities deportation program, which was ended by the Obama administration in 2014. The program was a partnership among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that worked together to identify and deport undocumented immigrants. (Trump’s attempt was blocked by a judge.)

Allow “tremendous numbers” of legal immigrants based on a “merit system,” selecting immigrants who will help grow the country’s economy. (The number of legal immigrants has been sharply reduced, although Trump at other points promised to decrease them.)

Expand the number of H-1B visas for highly skilled workers so that more of the “talented people” who graduate from Ivy League institutions can stay in the United States and work in Silicon Valley. (Trump tightened rules for these, although he at other points said he would restrict them.)

Get rid of the H-1B visa program because it’s “very, very bad” for American workers. (He did not get rid of the program, although he tightened the rules.)

End birthright citizenship, granting citizenship only to babies whose parents are legally in the country. (This would have required a constitutional amendment, but it was never pushed.)

Strengthen and expand the use of E-Verify, which allows employers to check an employee’s eligibility to work. (Trump retreated on this.)

Urge assimilation because “our system of government, and our American culture, is the best in the world and will produce the best outcomes for all who adopt it.” (Trump didn’t mention “assimilation” or “assimilate” once after he became president, per Factbase.)

Grow the Army from its current size of 470,000 active-duty soldiers to 540,000. (As of September, it stood at about 481,000.)

Drop that “dirty, rotten traitor” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl out of an airplane into desolate Afghanistan without a parachute. Trump has also suggested that Bergdahl be shot. (Neither has occurred.)

Appoint a Department of Veterans Affairs secretary whose “sole purpose will be to serve veterans.” (Trump’s first VA secretary, David Shulkin, was forced out over alleged misuse of taxpayer money.)

Dramatically reform the agency. Fire “the corrupt and incompetent” leaders and make it easier for the secretary to fire people. Trump promises to protect and promote “honest employees” who highlight wrongdoing. These employees will also receive bonuses. (Trump has claimed credit for the VA Choice Act, but it was passed under Obama.)

President Trump has repeatedly tried to erase former president Barack Obama and the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) from the history of the Veterans Choice Act. (Video: The Washington Post)

Stay out of the Syrian civil war. Although Trump considers Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “bad,” he has said the United States has higher priorities. Around the world, Trump said, he prefers stability over regime changes. (Trump struck Syria after a chemical weapons attack and hailed the U.S. role in the decline of the Islamic State in the region.)

Negotiate the release of all U.S. prisoners held in Iran before taking office. (Five Americans were released during the campaign, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian; Trump claimed some credit for this.) (Other U.S. prisoners remain in Iran.)

Refuse to call Iran’s leader by his preferred title. “I’ll say, ‘Hey, baby, how ya doing?’ I will never call him the supreme leader.” (Trump occasionally cast doubt on that title, but has also used it without that caveat.)

Call an international conference focused on how to halt the spread of the “hateful ideology of Radical Islam.”

Allow Russia to deal with the Islamic State in Syria and/or work with Putin to wipe out shared enemies. (Trump routinely claimed credit for knocking out the Islamic State caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Although the United States became involved, there was no explicit partnership with Russia.)

Shut down parts of the Internet so that Islamic State terrorists cannot use it to recruit American children. (Fact check)

Bring back waterboarding, which is widely considered torture, and use interrogation techniques that are “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” Even if such tactics don’t work, Trump says, suspected terrorists “deserve it anyway, for what they’re doing.” (Trump suggested after the election, however, that he was reconsidering his position because of a conversation with a general who opposed the tactic.)

Establish a Commission on Radical Islam that will include “reformist voices in the Muslim community” and will identify the warning signs of radicalization, educate the American public, and develop protocol for police officers, federal investigators and immigration screeners. (Fact check)

Heavily surveil mosques in the United States. Trump has said he would “strongly consider” closing some mosques.

Encourage Muslim communities to “cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad — and they do know where they are.”

Bar Syrian refugees from entering the country and kick out any who are already living here, as they might be “the ultimate Trojan horse.” (Trump pulled back on kicking out Syrian refugees.)

Create a database of Syrian refugees. Trump has also seemed open to the idea of creating a database of Muslims in the country, although his aides say that is not true.

Set up safe zones in Syria and then force wealthy Persian Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia to pick up the bill. “They’re going to put up all the money. We’re not going to put up money. We’re going to lead it, and we’ll do a great a job. But we’re going to get the Gulf states to put up the money.” (Trump continued talking about the idea, but there is no indication they’ve been set up or funded as he suggested.)

Scrap the Clean Power Plan, which reduces the amount of carbon pollution from power plants. Trump says this could save the country $7.2 billion per year. (Just this week, a federal appeals court struck down the Trump administration’s Clean Power Plan replacement.)

Treat climate change such as the “hoax” that Trump has said it is. (In a recent interview with the New York Times, Trump seemed to soften that position.) (Trump had not called climate change a “hoax” since assuming the presidency, although he cast doubt on its severity.)

Become the world’s dominant leader in energy production. Attain “complete American energy independence” so that the United States is no longer dependent on foreign oil. (The United States is not the world’s dominant leader in energy, although it has increased energy production across sectors. The nation also still imports foreign oil.)

Ensure the country has “absolutely crystal clear and clean water” and “beautiful, immaculate air.” (Air pollution has increased in recent years.)

Spur the spending of $1 trillion in public and private funds on infrastructure projects over 10 years. Invest in “transportation, clean water, a modern and reliable electricity grid, telecommunications, security infrastructure and other pressing domestic infrastructure needs” without adding to the national debt. (Despite repeated “infrastructure weeks,” no significant infrastructure legislation was passed on Trump’s watch.)

President Trump has derailed White House "infrastructure week," meant to promote his infrastructure agenda, at least half a dozen times over the past two years. (Video: The Washington Post)

Drain the swamp” in Washington and “cut our ties with the failed politicians of the past.” (Trump pardoned several politicians found guilty of wrongdoing. He has also recently acknowledged, even after the 2020 campaign, that the “swamp” is not yet drained, suggesting that much of the work still lay ahead. “Our fight to drain the Washington swamp and reclaim America’s destiny and dignity has only just begun,” he said earlier this month.)

Trump said he would drain the swamp, even as his personal lawyer sold access to the president for hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Video: JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

Propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress, limiting House members to three terms, or six years, and senators to two terms, or 12 years. (Trump never did so.)

Ban foreign lobbyists from raising money for American elections. (This was never passed. Trump also at times welcomed foreign help in his reelection campaign, including from Ukraine and China.)

“Lock her up.” Instruct the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s “situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception.” Trump had said the investigation would include Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and the ways in which the Clinton Foundation raised money. (Trump never got this done, although at times he reportedly pushed for such a step.)

Get rid of Common Core because it’s “a disaster” and a “very bad thing.” (Many states still use Common Core.)

Reduce or end the government’s role in student loans. (The federal government remains very much involved in student loans, which Trump used to delay loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic.)

Rewrite the tax code to allow parents to fully deduct child-care expenses for up to four children and older dependents. (Some of these expenses are already deductible under the law.)

Guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave by amending the conditions of unemployment insurance employers are required to carry. (The vast majority of workers still don’t have such paid leave.)

Get rid of the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations such as churches from formally endorsing or opposing political candidates. (Despite Trump’s claims to he contrary, the Johnson Amendment is still on the books.)

Quickly end inner-city violence, which Trump has repeatedly compared to war zones. “I’ll be able to make sure that when you walk down the street in your inner city, or wherever you are, you’re not going to be shot. Your child isn’t going to be shot.” (Trump said recently that urban areas remain dangerous places and used that as a centerpiece of his campaign.)

Stop the surge of violent crime and homicides in Chicago within “one week.” (Chicago has recently experienced its highest crime and homicide rate in decades. Regardless of the cause, Trump didn’t stop the surge — much less in one week.)

“The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored.” On that day, Trump says, “Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.” (See above.)

Immediately stop the killing of police officers. “It’s going to stop, okay? It’s going to stop. We’re going to be law and order. It’s going to stop.” (Police officer deaths didn’t stop, and they actually were on the high end during much of Trump’s presidency.)

Sign an executive order calling for the death penalty for anyone found guilty of killing a police officer. (This in all likelihood couldn’t be done via executive order, and Trump never attempted it.)

Expand the use of “stop and frisk,” which Trump says worked “incredibly well” in New York. (Trump talked about stop and frisk occasionally, but never took steps to expand its use.)

Encourage profiling and targeting “people that maybe look suspicious.” (Trump didn’t talk about profiling — racial or otherwise — as president, although some opponents of his immigration policies warned that such things could result from them.)

“If I become president, we’re all going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.” (A December 2018 poll showed that, since Trump was elected in 2016, those preferring “Merry Christmas” over “Happy Holidays” actually dipped below 60 percent each year — lower than in previous surveys.)

“And at the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African American vote. I promise you. Because I will produce.” (Not even close. Trump got 12 percent, according to exit polls — although that was an improvement on recent Republican candidates.)

Sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks, the point at which antiabortion activists say a fetus can feel pain. (The Senate did not pass the law, so Trump never signed it.)

Make the Hyde Amendment permanent. Since 1976, Congress has annually passed the Hyde Amendment, banning the use of federal dollars — in particular, Medicaid funds — for abortion, except in the case of rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s life. (The Senate also voted against making the Hyde Amendment permanent.)

On the first day in office, get rid of gun-free zones at military bases, recruiting centers and, in some cases, schools. These zones are like “target practice for the sickos and for the mentally ill.” (Fact check)

Fix the background check system used when purchasing guns to ensure states are properly uploading criminal and health records. (There have been no significant fixes to the background check system, even as Trump flirted with such ideas after mass shootings.)

Allow concealed-carry permits to be recognized in all 50 states. (See above.)

Impose a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison for any violent felon who commits a crime using a gun, with no chance for parole or early release. (See above.)

Expand programs such as Project Exile, a federal program started in Virginia in 1997 that locked up criminals possessing illegal guns for years in federal prisons far from their homes. (See above.)

Open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.” (Libel laws remain unchanged, despite Trump’s frequent threats on this front.)

Stop AT&T from buying Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. Federal antitrust regulators would have to review and approve that type of merger. (Trump’s Justice Department attempted to block the merger, but failed.)

Fix the rigged system. (Trump claimed many things are “rigged,” but foremost among them was our electoral system. Yet he failed to fix it, by his own admission. Trump spent two months after the 2020 election baselessly alleging that it had been stolen from him.)

Institute a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave office. (Trump signed an executive order, but it included significant caveats, including restricting officials from lobbying their former agency and leaving a relatively narrow definition of “lobbying.” He then rescinded that order, doing so overnight in the final hours of his presidency.)

Sue the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct or assault. “All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.” (He never did so.)

Sue the New York Times for publishing accusations from women who say Trump groped them. (Trump didn’t sue the newspaper, although he later attempted to do so for its Russia investigation coverage.)

Reopen Trump University.

“I don’t settle cases. I don’t do it.” (Even after this comment but before he became president, Trump University settled. And since then, his organizations have settled some more.)

Change the new name of North America’s tallest mountain back to Mount McKinley. (It’s still called Denali.)

“Be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” (Even Trump’s suspiciously rosy doctor’s reports have put him on the borderline of obesity, and he made a still-unexplained visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in late 2019. However serious, he has clearly not been as healthy as much younger presidents.)

“I will give you everything.” (Everything is, well, everything.)

Promises … in between

Tell Ford’s president that unless he cancels plans to build a massive plant in Mexico, the auto company will face a 35 percent tax on cars imported into the United States. (Ford scrapped the plan in 2017 but then said it would build the cars in China. Ford then said in 2018 it would stop U.S. production of the Focus because of Trump’s trade war with China.

Bring back the steel industry to Pennsylvania and use American-made steel in all federal infrastructure projects. (Trump’s administration did expand the use of American steel, but not to the point where all steel used in infrastructure is American-made. Pennsylvania’s production was up slightly before the pandemic — albeit it was not a huge resurgence.)

Bring the coal industry back to life in the Appalachian Mountain region. (Mining and logging were up slightly early in the Trump administration but down since the pandemic. West Virginia, in particular, surged before the pandemic but has been hurt since then.

Allow states to set their own minimum wage. (States were already doing this.)

Release his tax returns as soon as an Internal Revenue Service audit is complete. (The audits are apparently still ongoing, although Trump hasn’t provided any tax information that may not be under audit.)

Pass the Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act, which will reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to four and lower income taxes for all. The highest earners would pay a 25 percent tax. Individuals earning less than $25,000 per year or couples earning less than $50,000 would not be charged income tax, although they would have to file a one-page form with the IRS that states: “I win.” (Trump’s tax cuts passed, but there were still seven brackets, and the highest earners were at 37 percent. Many of those at the bottom still pay some and can’t simply write, “I win.”)

Identify all foreign trading abuses that affect American workers and “use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately.” This would include cracking down on “sweatshops in Mexico that undercut U.S. workers.” (The NAFTA replacement includes some increased worker protections, though Trump has done little to crack down on human rights abuses more broadly.)

Dismantle the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which aims to prevent the excessive risk-taking that led to the financial crisis and was signed into law by Obama in 2010. (A 2018 law left “the central structure of the post-financial-crisis rules in place, but it [made] the most significant changes to weaken" the Dodd-Frank banking regulations since they were passed in 2010.)

Make medical marijuana widely available to patients and allow states to decide if they want to fully legalize pot. (Marijuana legalization has continued apace, although Trump hasn’t pushed federal action on the medical front.)

On the first day in office, terminate President Obama’s executive orders related to immigration. (Trump didn’t end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — also known as DACA — until September 2017.)

Create a Deportation Task Force. (A “denaturalization” task force was created to find people cheating on the citizenship process.)

On the first day in office, ask Congress to pass “Kate’s Law” — named for Kate Steinle, who was killed by an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco last summer — to “ensure that criminal aliens convicted of illegal reentry face receive strong mandatory minimum sentences.” (Trump asked, but the Senate didn’t comply.)

Modernize and renew the nuclear weapons arsenal. (Trump claimed early on that the U.S. arsenal was bigger and more powerful than before, but with little to back that up.)

Force other NATO countries to pay for more of their defense, and only come to the aid of other countries if those nations have “fulfilled their obligations to us.” In particular, Trump expects Germany, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia to pay more for the security the United States provides. (NATO funding has increased, and Trump has rocked the boat. But as Defense News reported, “Under NATO commitments forged 2014 — two years before Trump took office, and coinciding with Russia’s annexation of Crimea — each ally has until 2024 to reach their goal to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on its own defense.”)

Do not throw a lavish state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, as Obama did last year, and instead buy Jinping a “double-size Big Mac” and tell him, “We got to get down to work.” (Trump didn’t give Xi a state dinner, but he hosted him for a dinner at Mar-a-Lago. He also took part in a state dinner thrown by Xi in China.)

Tear up the Iran deal and then “totally” renegotiate the whole thing. (Trump left the Iran deal and did not renegotiate it.)

“Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and, under a Trump administration, will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.” (Iran’s nuclear program has continued, after Trump canceled the deal, although there are no indications that it has a nuclear weapon.)

Direct the secretary of the treasury to label China a currency manipulator. (This was eventually done — albeit after Trump delayed such an action — and it was soon rescinded as a result of trade war negotiations.)

Crack down on China’s “lax labor and environmental standards.” (Trump has done little to crack down on human rights abuses in China or elsewhere and, according to former national security adviser John Bolton, encouraged Xi on China’s concentration camps for Uighur Muslims.)

Temporarily ban most foreign Muslims from entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” Trump would allow exceptions for dignitaries, business people, athletes and others who have “proven” themselves. Although Trump’s aides, surrogates and running mate insist he no longer wants this so-called Muslim ban, Trump himself has yet to fully disavow the idea and it is still posted on his campaign website. (Trump did not ban all or most Muslims, but did institute a travel ban on several majority-Muslim countries.)

Do not admit any refugees without the support of the local community where they will be placed. (Trump followed through with this idea. But he did so not via legislation, but rather through executive order, and a federal appeals court recently blocked it.)

Gut, if not eliminate, the Environmental Protection Agency, which Trump has called a “disgrace.” (Depending upon how you define “gut,” Trump sought to make good on this promise. Many of his actions, although, remain tied up in the courts.)

Eliminate the Clean Water Rule that defines the “waters of the United States” and gives added protection to tributaries that impact the health of downstream waters. (Trump rolled back large portions of the rule but didn’t eliminate it entirely.)

Ease federal regulations on coal mining to revive the industry. Eliminate Obama’s moratorium on new leases for coal mined from federal lands. (The moratorium was eliminated, although the industry has not undergone a resurgence.)

Create “thousands of new jobs in construction, steel manufacturing, and other sectors” to carry out this work. Only “American workers” will be hired for these jobs. (Trump cleared the relatively low bar of “thousands” of such jobs early in his administration. It’s undoubtedly false that 100 percent of those occupying such jobs are American, though.)

Reduce the number of people receiving welfare. (Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration reduced the number of people eligible for assistance, and the numbers declined also because of improvements in the economy. Since then, though, the number of Americans receiving government help has vastly expanded.)

Defund Planned Parenthood and reallocate its funding to community health centers. (Planned Parenthood is still funded, although the administration has moved to strip some of its funding. Trump also promised to fully block taxpayer money from going to Planned Parenthood as part of his reelection campaign — reflecting the lack of fulfillment on the promise.)

Fully protect Social Security benefits. (Social Security benefits haven’t been reduced, although Trump pursued a permanent payroll tax cut that some warned could have put the entitlement in jeopardy.)