A term in office: what became of Trump's election promise

Read the video transcript here arrow up arrow down

Donald Trump, then Democratic presidential candidate:

"I'm going to build a great, great wall."

We have to renegotiate our trade agreements."

With promises like these, Donald Trump applied for the office of US President in 2016 - and made it to the White House.

What did he hold and what did he break?

A look back at his key announcements:

IMMIGRATION

Donald Trump, then Republican presidential candidate:

"I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will make sure that Mexico pays for the wall."

The promise has always been symbolic of Trump's tough line in immigration policy.

After almost four years, not much has happened on the border with Mexico:

When he took office, there were 1053 kilometers of walls, fences or a similar type of boundary on the 3000 kilometers long border.

The Trump administration has now built 579 kilometers, but primarily replaced old structures.

Only eight kilometers are really new.

And Mexico didn't pay anything to build it.

In addition, Trump advertised the plan to rigorously deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Between 2017 and 2019 there were around 423,000 such deportations.

In Obama's last three years there were around 456,000.

Donald Trump, then Republican presidential candidate:

"Donald J. Trump calls for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States."

Trump did not go through with this plan.

However, in January 2017 he imposed an entry freeze of 90 days for seven Muslim-majority states by decree.

At the same time, Trump suspended entry for refugees for 120 days and completely banned it for refugees from Syria.

Twice the law was stopped by the courts, and the Supreme Court waved a third version through.

ECONOMY

Donald Trump, then Republican presidential candidate:

In addition to the issue of immigration, a booming economy was another of Trump's great promises - combined with a sharp increase in jobs.

Trump clearly missed the growth target, even before the corona crisis.

Even in its strongest year, 2018, it only managed to grow by 3.0 percent.

On the subject of jobs: Trump has promised 25 million jobs in ten years.

In the first three years he came at least close to this goal, with an average of 2.2 million additional jobs per year - but then came Corona and with it the slump.

Point three in the economy: tax policy

Donald Trump, then Republican presidential candidate:

"With my plan, I will cut taxes enormously - from 35 to 15 percent for companies, small and large companies."

In the end, it wasn't 15 percent, but 21 percent.

But that also meant considerable relief for companies.

Trump's second tax promise: The middle class should be greatly relieved.

In fact, experts see the greatest relief from the tax package among rich Americans.

TRADE AND INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTS

Donald Trump, then Republican presidential candidate:

"We have to renegotiate our trade agreements and we have to stop these countries from stealing our companies and our jobs."

As for trade, Trump kept his promises.

It has replaced NAFTA, the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, with the new USMCA agreement.

Trump has withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Agreement TPP.

He also terminated the nuclear agreement with Iran, as well as the Paris climate agreement, and he left the World Health Organization.

However, the US is still part of NATO.

With the new trade policy, Trump pursued the goal of making the USA better financially.

Donald Trump, then Republican presidential candidate:

"We have a trade deficit with all the countries we do business with nearly $ 800 billion a year. Do you know what that means? That is, who is negotiating these trade deals?"

In fact, the trade deficit has grown under Trump.

In the last Obama year, 2016, the US had a trade deficit of around 750 billion US dollars in terms of pure goods traffic.

Every year under Trump, the number was higher.

At the end of 2019 it was around $ 860 billion.

Donald Trump, then Republican presidential candidate:

"We have $ 20 trillion in debt - we can't go on like this."

Trump wanted to completely reduce the debt of almost $ 20 trillion in eight years.

Instead, however, they have also risen steadily, long before the corona crisis.

The pandemic then accelerated the process again, after the first half of 2020 the US had around $ 27 trillion in debt.

DOMESTIC POLICY

Donald Trump:

"All of my co-workers have big problems with Obamacare. And you here are just as affected, right? What these people are going through with their health insurance is terrible because of Obamacare. So we are going to cancel and replace that."

Trump has not yet succeeded in completely overturning Obamacare, Barack Obama's health care reform.

But he has deleted one part: people who can afford health insurance but decide against it no longer have to pay a fine.

And the Supreme Court has yet to make a decision on Obamacare.

It is expected in 2021.

This is where another promise from Trump comes into play.

Donald Trump:

"We will save the Second Amendment and appoint judges who will protect your freedom."

A promise that is more relevant than any other.

Filling a vacancy at the Supreme Court is currently being discussed in the USA.

Trump wants to get Amy Coney Barret through.

It would be the third Supreme Court judge to nominate Trump.

With her, the Conservatives would have a very safe majority.

In total, Trump installed 217 judges with lifelong terms in federal courts, only Jimmy Carter appointed more in his first four years - because the courts were enlarged at the time.

If the Senate gets Barret through before a new president is in office, then by keeping this promise Trump would have shaped the USA for years, possibly decades - even if he is not re-elected.

Overall, Donald Trump broke a significantly larger proportion of his promises than his predecessor Barack Obama.

The American portal Politifact has checked the announcements of both presidents.

According to their assessment, Obama has kept almost half of his promises, broken almost a quarter, and compromised a quarter.

Trump, on the other hand, has already broken almost half of his promises - and only kept around a quarter.