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Got Every Campaign Promise and Didnt Run Again

Donald Trump hasn't fulfilled every promise he made on the entrada trail in 2016, just the U.S. president has kept enough of them to fundamentally change the country. CBC News provides a bit of a scorecard for his 4 years in the White Firm.

Donald Trump didn't fulfil every promise he fabricated on the campaign trail in 2016, only the U.S. president has kept plenty of them to fundamentally alter the country. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

In the flood of half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies Donald Trump is selling in the final days before the election, his campaign makes one assertion that has some validity to it.

"I didn't back down from my promises. I kept every unmarried i," Trump said in a video played at the Republican National Convention in August.

Well, no, he didn't keep every i, only the U.S. president has kept enough of them to fundamentally change the country. And for his supporters, that might be enough to in one case again support their guy — even in the center of a deadly pandemic that is getting worse.

Instance in signal: Jeff Johns, a Trump supporter who spoke to CBC reporter Paul Hunter outside the terminal presidential fence in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 22.

"He does what he said he's going to do," Johns said of Trump. "Almost everything he said he's going to do, he'due south done."

In fact, Trump's tape on his pledges is a mixed pocketbook, at best. Independent fact-checking organization Politifact looked at 100 of Trump's campaign promises from 2016. It calculated that while 49 per cent of them have been cleaved, he'south delivered on 44 percent of them, either in full or in role — and five per cent are stalled.

WATCH | How many of his 2016 campaign promises did Trump continue?

Did Trump deliver on his starting time election promises?

From boosting manufacturing in the United States to building a edge wall, Donald Trump made a lot of promises during his get-go presidential campaign. CBC News'south Paul Hunter checks in on whether he delivered on them. 6:00

Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, had a amend record of promises kept, merely that hasn't stopped Trump from touting his accomplishments, and his supporters from believing him all the way to the election box.

Remaking the judiciary

The rightward shift of the judiciary isn't just a promise kept — information technology's the home run of campaign promises, right out of the political park.

Trump confirmed three Supreme Court justices in his four-year term. Presidents Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each had only two opportunities to ostend justices in their 8-year presidencies.

Trump's success in this area is partially due to circumstances, including the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Sept. 18.

Trump presides over the swearing-in of Amy Coney Barrett equally a new Supreme Court justice on the S Lawn of the White Firm on Oct. 26. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

But it is also the result of calculation and planning by the Republican Political party and, specifically, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. If McConnell hadn't held up the nomination of Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016, Trump's first opportunity to nominate a justice (Neil Gorsuch) wouldn't take happened. And if McConnell had played by his own rules to wait until afterward the ballot to nominate a replacement for Ginsberg, Amy Coney Barrett wouldn't be on the top court right now.

This promise kept goes well beyond the Supreme Court. Earlier her engagement to the U.Due south. Supreme Court, Barrett was the 220th federal judge confirmed under the Trump presidency and McConnell-led Senate.

"We practise a lot of stuff hither that is small ball, only this is something that may last 25 or 30 years," Texas Sen. John Cornyn told the Washington Mail last week when describing the affect of judicial appointments during the Trump administration.

WATCH | Confirmation hearings brainstorm Oct. xiii for Amy Coney Barrett:

U.South. political divisions eye stage at Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearing

The deep-seated divisions between Republicans and Democrats were forepart and centre during the first day of Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Coney Barrett says she wouldn't let her personal beliefs impact her judgements. 2:01

Tax cuts and the economic system

At a rally in Bullhead, Ariz., on Oct. 28, Trump told the crowd, "A vote for me is a vote for massive, middle-class tax cuts, regulation cuts, fair merchandise."

His tape has some testify of that. In 2017, the Trump administration overhauled the U.S. taxation code, dropping rates for individuals and corporations. But has the heart class actually benefitted from those cuts?

The White Firm says a family of four earning $73,000 US a year received a $two,000 tax intermission in 2018. Simply that's small potatoes compared to what corporations are saving — an estimated $ane.5 trillion over 10 years, co-ordinate to the Joint Committee on Taxation, which reports to the Senate and House finance and budget committees.

Trump displays the $1.v-trillion tax overhaul package he signed in December 2017. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

Democrats debate the tax cuts have benefitted the rich and exacerbated inequality — and The Eye for Public Integrity reported more companies paid no tax at all in 2018, partially every bit a result of the tax law. This is also a case where fulfilling one promise meant the president couldn't make practiced on some other. The combination of losing tax acquirement, spending more coin on defense force — another campaign promise — and the costs of the coronavirus have ballooned the U.S. national debt to more $27 trillion.

That'due south around $viii trillion more than when Trump took office in 2017, when he was promising to eliminate it entirely.

When it comes to deregulation, much of the administration's rollback of rules has focused on the environment. The New York Times counted 100 policies related to clean air, water, wild fauna and toxic chemicals that take been rolled dorsum or reversed under Trump, including weakening rules for emissions from vehicles and power plants, as well as removing protections from wetlands.

America Offset

Donald Trump promised a new kind of foreign policy, ane that put "America start." Over the past four years, that has meant pulling dorsum from multilateral international institutions, resulting in diminished American leadership in the world.

The The states left the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and re-negotiated NAFTA with Canada and United mexican states to grade the new USMCA trade deal. While U.S. troops remain in Iraq and Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, their numbers are going down, reflecting Trump'south commitment to put an end to endless wars.

Immigration

Trump's promise to build a "big, beautiful wall" on the U.S. border with Mexico — and have Mexico pay for it — was a cornerstone of his 2016 campaign.

In 2020, Trump has been telling crowds at his campaign rallies that the wall is almost finished, merely that'due south a very generous definition of "about."

Trump speaks during a June 2020 tour of a section of the border wall in San Luis, Ariz. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Printing)

The original hope was for more than than i,600 kilometres of concrete barrier. In reality, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says about 500 kilometres take been built, mostly reinforcement of existing barriers and fencing. The Associated Printing reports less than seven kilometres of wall have been congenital where no bulwark existed earlier.

United mexican states did non pay for any of information technology. The cost of the project — estimated at upward of $xi billion — is being borne by the United states of america. In fact, the president diverted money from the Pentagon'south upkeep to embrace it.

Sentry | Trump promises to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border at a 2016 campaign rally in Phoenix, Ariz.:

Trump: 'United mexican states will pay for the wall.'

Trump: 'Mexico will pay for the wall.' 0:38

But the president'southward promised clearing crackdown is existent. Nether Trump, the U.S. is a much harder identify to get into. As promised, the administration restricted travel from several Muslim-bulk countries (although the constabulary had to be adapted and expanded after court challenges). The non-partisan Migration Policy Institute found Trump used executive actions to pretty much end the asylum system at the southwest edge and reduce refugee admissions.

In 2021, the Trump administration plans to cap the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. at 15,000 a year, down from the electric current cap of eighteen,000, and far less than the more than than 85,000 slots during the final year of the Obama administration.

Cleaved promises

In that location are some pledges from the 2016 campaign that simply oasis't been kept. The Affordable Intendance Human action, as well known as Obamacare, remains in place despite Trump's promise to repeal and supersede the health-care law. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Obamacare in Nov, and the Trump assistants supports scrapping it entirely. Despite Trump's promise to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions, he hasn't explained how he would do that.

Remember "Drain the swamp," Trump's call to clean up corruption in Washington? That hasn't happened. His administration has presented no anti-abuse legislation and Trump himself did non divest from his businesses. In fact, many argue the swamp has gotten swampier, with Trump's own family in key government positions and his properties profiting from government business organisation.

A demonstrator holds a sign at a September protest march in Los Angeles. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Coal hasn't come dorsum despite his promises information technology would. Neither have manufacturing jobs in a meaningful way. In both cases, that may have more to do with broader market forces.

All of these promises, kept or not, may pale in comparison to the growing U.South. death toll from COVID-19. For those inclined to believe Trump when he says the pandemic has "rounded the corner" — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — or that he did the best he could, at that place are plenty of reasons to justify voting to keep him in part.

The question earlier the electorate is whether they run into more positive than negative in a record that, in iv years, has changed the country dramatically.


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Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-us-president-promise-1.5784117