Thread: Trump's promises before and after the election

Trump's promises before and after the election

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Donald Trump made a string of promises during his long campaign to be the 45th president of the United States.

Many of them made headlines - from banning all Muslims entering the US, to building a wall along the border with Mexico.
So how is he doing?

Tax cuts

Before election: Trump promised to lower the corporate tax rate and huge tax cuts for working Americans.

After: The Republican tax plan finally passed in December, and it largely ticks the box for the president although its merits are hotly disputed. He has had to compromise on his pledge to bring corporation tax down from 35% to 15% (it will be 21% instead). And the tax cuts for individuals will expire, although Republicans say future governments will simply renew them. But wealthy Americans are expected to benefit more than poorer ones.

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Paris climate deal

Before: As a candidate, Mr Trump derided climate change as a hoax concocted by China, and the regulations of Paris as stifling to American growth.

After: After three months of prevarications behind the closed doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the president came down decisively on the side near the exits. Quitting the Paris deal, signed by nearly 200 countries, will take a few years but this is unequivocally a promise kept.

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Supreme Court nominee

Before: "I am looking for judges and have actually picked 20 of them. They'll respect the Second Amendment and what it stands for and what it represents."

After: He vowed to appoint a conservative justice and he has - Neil Gorsuch. It took a procedural change to Senate rules, but it's a victory nonetheless.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Gorsuch sailed through his nomination hearing

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Bombing IS

Before: During a speech in Iowa in November 2015, Mr Trump warned that he would, using an expletive, bomb so-called Islamic State into obliteration.

After: The president dropped the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal on an IS-stronghold in Afghanistan. He also takes credit for accelerating progress in driving IS out of parts of Iraq and Syria.

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Trade deals

Before: Mr Trump called Nafta "a disaster" and warned that the TPP "is going to be worse, so we will stop it."

After: Mr Trump pledged to withdraw from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). He did in his first few days.
He also vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Association (Nafta) and, after threatening to pull out, the White House has said that Canada and the US have agreed to talks.

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Ban on Muslims

Before: Mr Trump initially promised to ban all Muslims entering the US - a "total and complete" shutdown should remain until the US authorities "can figure out what's going on".

But he switched to "extreme vetting" after he became the party's presidential candidate.

After: As president, he introduced two travel bans which become ensnarled in the courts but the third had more luck. The US Supreme Court ruled President Trump's ban on six mainly Muslim countries can go into full effect, pending legal challenges.

The decision is a boost for Mr Trump's policy against travellers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

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Cuba thaw no more

Before: Mr Trump said in September 2016 that he would reverse the deal President Barack Obama had struck to reopen diplomatic relations and improve trade.

After: As president, he told an audience in Miami that he was "cancelling the Obama administration's one-sided deal." But in reality, he has only rolled back certain parts, placing restrictions on travel and business.

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Obamacare

Before: One of Mr Trump's trademark rally pledges was to repeal and replace Obamacare - his predecessor's attempt to extend healthcare to the estimated 15% of the country who are not covered.

It is widely hated by Republicans, who say the law imposes too many costs on business, with many describing it as a "job killer" and decrying the reforms - officially the Affordable Care Act - as an unwarranted intrusion into the affairs of private businesses and individuals.

After: The Republican healthcare plan has been unable to pass the Senate, and has been mauled by doctors' groups, hospitals and other parts of the medical industry, mainly because of its deep cuts to Medicaid, the health programme for the poor, and fears that millions would lose insurance.

But Mr Trump has been able to dismantle parts of the law - the fine for people who did not get health insurance has been eliminated as part of the tax plan. Some fear that may have a spiralling effect on premiums as healthy people choose not to get insured.

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Moving Israel embassy

Before: Mr Trump pledged during his campaign to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a divided city which both Israelis and Palestinians claim.

After: In December, he said he formally recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and approved moving the US embassy although that would not happen for several years.

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Troops in Afghanistan

Before: Long before he ran for president, Mr Trump posted a number of tweets calling for an end to US involvement in Afghanistan. They were similar in tone to this one from 2013: "Our troops are being killed by the Afghanis we train and we waste billions there. Nonsense! Rebuild the USA."

But his stance changed during last year's presidential election, when he said US troops would probably have to stay in order to avoid the total collapse of the Afghan government, and to keep a check on neighbouring nuclear-armed Pakistan.

After: He has committed the US Army to the open-ended conflict, saying his approach will be based on conditions on the ground and will not have time limits. He also said he would get tough on Pakistan, who he criticised for offering "safe havens" to extremists - claims rejected by Pakistan.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed Mr Trump's strategy in an announcement that the US would send 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

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A border wall paid for by Mexico

Before: His vow to build a wall along the US-Mexican border was one of the most controversial of Mr Trump's campaign promises. Mr Trump also insisted that Mexico would pay for it.

After: Mexico maintains it will never pay for it, and even the president has conceded that the US will have to pay up front and then seek reimbursement in some way.

The US Congress is exploring funding options for the wall, but many Republicans will be unhappy about footing a bill which could rise to $21.5bn (£17.2bn), according to a Department of Homeland Security internal report.

There are also landowners who protest against a "government land grab" - and a lawsuit from an environmental group launched in April. Prototypes are being built but not one brick has been laid of the "big, beautiful wall".

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Deporting all illegal immigrants

Before: Mr Trump repeatedly told his supporters that every single undocumented immigrant - of which there are 11.3 million - "have to go".

After: As polling day approached, his stance began to soften slightly, then after the election he scaled it back to some two to three million deportations of people who "are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers".

Setting aside the fact that the number of illegal immigrants with criminal records (including border crossings) is thought to be below a million, the president has failed to deliver on this promise.

In the fiscal year 2017, deportations were at 211,068 which is lower than they were in the previous year. That is despite a huge jump in arrests since Mr Trump took office. The number of removals peaked in 2012 and has been falling since.

The future of young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers hangs in the balance because Mr Trump has cancelled the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme, which allows some 800,000 people to remain in the US.

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Ditching Nato

Before: Mr Trump repeatedly questioned the military alliance's purpose, calling it "obsolete". One issue that bugged him was whether members were pulling their weight and "paying their bills". In one New York Times interview in July 2016, he even hinted that the US would not come to the aid of a member invaded by Russia.

After: But as he hosted Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House in April, the US president said the threat of terrorism had underlined the alliance's importance. "I said it [Nato] was obsolete," Mr Trump said. "It's no longer obsolete."

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China as currency manipulator

Before: Mr Trump repeatedly pledged to label Beijing a "currency manipulator" on his first day in office, during an election campaign when he also accused the Asian powerhouse of "raping" the US. China has been accused of suppressing the yuan to make its exports more competitive with US goods.

After: He told the Wall Street Journal in April that China had not been "currency manipulators" for some time and had actually been trying to prevent the yuan from further weakening.

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Torture

Before: Mr Trump said he would approve waterboarding "immediately" and "make it also much worse", adding "torture works".

After: But after his inauguration, the president said he would defer to the opposing belief, espoused by Defence Secretary James Mattis and CIA director Mike Pompeo.
Mr Pompeo said during his confirmation hearing said he would "absolutely not" reinstate such methods.

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Prosecuting Hillary Clinton

Before: "Lock her up" was one of the main rallying cries of Mr Trump's supporters.

They wanted to see Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in prison over the use of her private email server while secretary of state.

And Mr Trump was more than willing to back their calls for, at the very least, a fresh investigation. During the debates, he told Mrs Clinton: "If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation."

After: The president-elect's tone changed almost as soon as he had won, describing the woman he had said was "such a nasty woman" as someone the country owed "a debt of gratitude". Later, he said he "hadn't given [the prosecution] a lot of thought" and had other priorities.

On 22 November, Mr Trump's spokeswoman said he would not pursue a further investigation - to help Mrs Clinton "heal".

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Rebuilding infrastructure

Before: The country's infrastructure "will become, by the way, second to none, and we will put millions of our people back to work as we rebuild it", he said in his victory speech in November.

After: Has repeated his vow to spend big on the country's roads, rail and airports, but no sign yet of action.

Other policy shifts

• Used to blast Janet Yellen, head of the Federal Reserve, but now says he respects her
• Dismissed the Export-Import Bank while campaigning but now says it has helped small companies
• On his first day, he signed a memo ordering a freeze on federal hires, but by April that was gone

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37982000

This article writer conveniently forgot Trump's promise to end DACA immediately after his election!

"Congress and the White House prepare to replace President Obama’s flimsy DACA executive order with a replacement as early as January."

"DACA is going to be law, that the President supports it, and that none of the “Dreamers” are going to be deported."

@
Will Dreamers thank President Trump when he signs a DACA replacement law in January?

Trump repeatedly told his supporters that every single undocumented immigrant - of which there are 11.3 million - "have to go".

After: As polling day approached, his stance began to soften slightly, then after the election he scaled it back to some two to three million deportations of people who "are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers".

Setting aside the fact that the number of illegal immigrants with criminal records (including border crossings) is thought to be below a million, the president has failed to deliver on this promise.

In the fiscal year 2017, deportations were at 211,068 which is lower than they were in the previous year. That is despite a huge jump in arrests since Mr Trump took office. The number of removals peaked in 2012 and has been falling since.

The future of young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers hangs in the balance because Mr Trump has cancelled the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme, which allows some 800,000 people to remain in the US.

President Trump has not followed through on his commitments in regards to illegal immigration. He is poised to grant amnesty for DACA illegal aliens per too many who should know.

There are too many people crossing the borders, too few employer sanctions and raids of businesses under President Trump. Amnesty supporters like John Kelly, Kirstjen Nielsen, others have the president's ear and are implementing actions toward amnesty.

The reason the deportations are lower even though arrests are higher may be because per Trump's campaign promise his initial focus was going to be on deporting criminal illegal aliens. They take longer to process and investigate because many of them have committed crimes that need to be prosecuted first, then the people deported. Still for these huge agencies, Border Patrol and ICE, plus all the other staff in DHS plus the prosecution staff in DOJ, for there only to be 211,000 deportations is really a joke. That's like 2 to 3 illegal aliens per government employee involved in this process per year. When you consider that 45% of Border Patrol agents are Hispanic, and I would imagine the same with ICE, completely out of line with our population demographics, you begin to wonder what's going on in these agencies.

A FLASH TO THE PAST:

Trump Begins to Walk Back Illegal Immigration Promises

Photo by Scott Olson/Staff via Getty Images

ByFRANK CAMP@FrankDCamp

November 13, 2016

During an interview with Lesley Stahl for 60 Minutes, which will air in its entirety Sunday night, Donald Trump began to walk back his campaign promise regarding the deportation of illegal immigrants:

"We are getting them out of our country," the president elect said about the several million illegal immigrants with serious criminal records. "After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we're going to make a determination on the people you're talking about who are terrific people, they're terrific people who we're going to make a determination on, but before we make a determination, we want to secure our border."

Gasp.

Donald Trump rose to political fame on the back of his strong stance on illegal immigration. Throughout the primary process, he promised a "deportation force," telling MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski in November 2015:

"You're going to have a deportation force, and you're going to do it humanely. Don't forget, Mika, that you have millions of people that are waiting in line to come into this country and they're waiting to come in legally. And I always say the wall, we're going to build the wall. It's going to be a real deal. It's going to be a real wall."

In August, Trump delivered a major immigration speech in Phoenix, Arizona, in which he softened his stance a bit, focusing on illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes:

"Within ICE, I am going to create a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants in America who have evaded justice."

He then added that "anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don’t have a country."

During the final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Trump reiterated his position against amnesty:

"Well, first of all, [Clinton] wants to give amnesty, which is a disaster and very unfair to all of the people that are waiting on line for many, many years. We need strong borders."

For Trump diehards, these statements were enough. Their guy was going to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, and no one would tell them otherwise. However, as anyone with access to Google should know, the president elect has long supported amnesty in some fashion.

In July 2015, Donald Trump told CNN's Dana Bash:

"I would get people out and then have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so they can be legal…A lot of these people are helping us…and sometimes it’s jobs a citizen of the United States doesn’t want to do. I want to move ’em out, and we’re going to move ’em back in and let them be legal."

What Trump was talking about is known as "touchback amnesty." Such a plan would indeed involve the deportation of illegal immigrants, but allow them an expedited means of returning to the United States in order to obtain legal status. In other words, they touch base in their home country, then come right back.
In November 2015, Eric Trump repeated his father's plan during an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly:

"The point isn’t just deporting them, it’s deporting them and letting them back in legally. He’s been so clear about that and I know the liberal media wants to misconstrue it, but its deporting them and letting them back legally."

Going back further, Trump's support for amnesty is even more stark. Speaking on Fox & Friends in 2012, he said:

"For people that have been here for years that have been hard-workers, have good jobs, they’re supporting their family–it’s very, very tough to just say ‘By the way, 22 years, you have to leave. Get out’…I’m one of the world’s very conservative people, but I have to tell you on a human basis, how do you throw somebody out that’s lived in this country for twenty years?"

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During the 2012 presidential election cycle, Trump even called Mitt Romney's idea of self-deportation "maniacal," and remarked that Republican Party policy toward illegal immigrants was "mean-spirited."

Donald Trump is a man who will say whatever he needs to in order to win. Now that he has won, he's already backtracking on multiple campaign promises, from the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to the deportation of illegal immigrants.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/10758...on-frank-camp#

DACA Amnesty Final 24 Hours

https://www.alipac.us/f8/daca-amnest...-hours-353613/