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Broken promises: Trump in a campaign appearance in Wisconsin
Photo: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
It is one of the US President's favorite sayings in the final spurt of this 2020 election campaign: "I didn't give in. I kept my promises. All of them," Donald Trump likes to call out to his supporters.
They cheer enthusiastically.
"
Promises made, promises kept
" - with this slogan Trump likes to present himself as the anti-politician, as supposedly the first and only honest president who does what he says.
His message is clear: he not only speaks, he also delivers.
Is that correct?
Trump has kept key election promises from 2016, but only partially.
With others, he has barely made any progress or has failed.
Most of the time, he mainly focused on repealing existing laws or international agreements of his predecessors.
But even there he has only succeeded in replacing them with sustainable policies of his own in a few cases.
Here are the most important promises Trump made - and what became of them.
Wall and immigration
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Not exactly "beautiful": Prototype of the Trump Wall in California
Photo: MARIO TAMA / AFP
The promise
The construction of a "big, beautiful wall" on the US southern border with Mexico was probably Trump's most important and prominent election promise in 2016.
He has always linked it with the assurance that "Mexico will pay for the wall".
Trump also promised a general stop to illegal immigration.
The reality
By the end of this year, 450 miles of new border fortifications will be completed on the 2000 mile US-Mexico border.
The new, higher and more massive fences are almost without exception in places where border installations were already in place, so they only replace existing obstacles.
Mexico is not paying for the new fences, the US taxpayers are. After a long budget dispute between Trump and the Democrats, the president has diverted funds from the Pentagon's defense budget to build the wall.
Health policy
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"We love Obamacare": Protesters in front of the Supreme Court (2012)
Photo: REUTERS
The promise
In the election campaign, Trump and the Republicans have always campaigned to reverse Barack Obama's health care reform (Obamacare) and replace it with a better plan that should be cheaper for many patients.
You think Obamacare is too much of an encroachment on the freedom of citizens and businesses.
The reality
In fact, Trump & Co. have so far only changed individual parts of Obamacare.
Every American is no longer required to take out health insurance.
The rest of the Affordable Care Act, as the legislative package is called, still exists.
The Trump administration is now suing other parts of Obamacare in the Supreme Court.
With the new Conservative majority in the US Supreme Court, she could at least achieve further deletions in the law in the coming weeks.
But even if that were to succeed, Trump's promise would only be half fulfilled: He would have overturned the existing regulations without replacing them with his own, sensible idea.
The promised "better" reform is not in sight.
America First Foreign Policy
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Disgruntled: Trump with Macron and Merkel at the NATO summit 2019
Photo: CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / AFP
The promise
Trump started with the slogan "America First".
With regard to foreign and security policy, this meant for him above all to question a number of international treaties or memberships in international organizations, which he claimed were "unfair" and only disadvantageous for the USA.
This also included getting the NATO partners to invest more in defense.
The reality
In fact, under Trump, the US has gradually withdrawn from central international treaties and organizations.
The President has terminated the participation of the USA in the Paris Climate Agreement.
He has cut payments for the UN and, in connection with the corona crisis, also canceled his country's grants to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Trump was able to make some progress in the dispute over the NATO contributions.
Overall, the NATO countries have increased their defense spending by a good 130 billion dollars since he took office.
Many of these increases were planned anyway.
And: Germany, which Trump has repeatedly criticized most sharply in this context, is still far from the goal of spending two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.
German defense spending currently amounts to around 1.3 percent of GDP.
Middle East Policy
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New message, no peace: Pro-Trump protesters in Jerusalem
Photo: Ammar Awad / REUTERS
The promise
Trump made several promises with regard to Middle East policy: he made the prospect of brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and he wanted to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The reality
Trump has kept an important promise: The embassy has actually been relocated and the US has officially recognized Jerusalem's status as the capital of Israel.
However, nothing has come of the prospect of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
But there is also a historic success in this region: In the so-called Abraham Accord, the USA brokered a treaty to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
In addition, there is now peace between Israel and Bahrain.
IS and the military
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Suicide in the tunnel: Trump announces Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death
Photo: Jim Bourg / REUTERS
The promise
In the last election campaign, Trump promised to strengthen what he called the "decimated" US military, to bomb the IS terrorist militia to hell and to pull the US out of its "endless wars" in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The reality
Together with the allies, the US troops liberated the IS-controlled areas in Iraq and Syria - but that too is a continuation of the Obama war.
Terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself with a suicide vest in a US raid in 2019.
Despite these US victories, according to an analysis by the think tank CSIS, IS is in the process of reforming itself, so it continues to pose an international threat.
Trump increased defense spending, still below Obama's.
He withdrew most of the US troops from Syria, but left the Kurdish allies defenseless, which provoked the resignation of his then Defense Minister Jim Mattis.
In Afghanistan, Trump reduced the number of US soldiers this year from 13,000 to 8,600, with a promise to withdraw completely from the country if the peace agreement with the Taliban holds.
Termination of the Iran deal
Call for retaliation: Demobstration in Iran after Qasem Soleimani's death
Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi / AP
The promise
Donald Trump spoke of a "terrible nuclear deal" between the US and Iran during the 2016 election campaign. If he won, he promised to strike a far better deal with Tehran.
The mullahs should be denied any right to nuclear armament, forever.
The reality
Trump canceled Obama's Iran deal with great pomp.
In trying to negotiate a new, better agreement with Tehran, he has not made any progress so far.
On the contrary: after the US killing of Iranian top general Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, the chances of negotiating a new agreement are slim.
Tehran is even beginning to gradually resume its nuclear program.
Sooner or later there is a threat of a new conflict between the USA and Iran.
Trade wars and China
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Friend or foe?
Trump with China's President Xi (2017)
Photo: CARLOS BARRIA / REUTERS
The promise
From the beginning, Trump has raised the mood against the US trade agreements with other countries and blocs.
He described the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada and the planned Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a "disaster".
He also promised to "correct" the "unfair" US trade deficits with China and Europe.
The reality
Trump has terminated Nafta and TPP and imposed US punitive tariffs on many imported goods, not just for the partners in the pacts.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), an improved version of the 26-year-old NAFTA regulations, replaced the NAFTA.
Relations between Washington and Beijing are currently largely frozen after a long and turbulent trade and tariff war.
A "phase one deal" between the two states has so far not been followed by any specific commitments.
The US trade deficit is now $ 67 billion - the highest it has been since 2006.
Economy and Taxes
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Calm Before the Storm: New York Stock Traders March 2020
Photo: BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS
The promise
Despite his enormous debt, Trump advertised in 2016 with the image of the successful businessman who could also improve the US economy.
In the current election campaign, he is boasting that under him the United States enjoyed "the greatest economy of all time," only slowed down by the corona crisis.
He also promised massive tax cuts for private citizens and corporations as well as a repayment of the national debt by 2024 and a new stock market boom.
The reality
The US economy was indeed doing well up until the corona crisis, a continuation of a trend that began under Obama.
However, it was never the "greatest economy ever," as Trump claims.
In his first three full years in office, the economy grew by an average of 2.5 percent.
Under Obama it was up to 3.1 percent.
The pandemic and Trump's negligent failure to deal with it ruined everything.
According to estimates by the Federal Reserve
, the
US economy is likely to
shrink
by 6.5 percent in 2020
, and the real unemployment rate has now risen to almost 20 percent.
The situation has calmed down a bit recently, but the new corona wave gives rise to fears of a hard winter.
In 2017, the Republicans passed a massive tax package.
But corporate taxes fell less than promised, and the other tax cuts were temporary and unevenly distributed.
Its extension was left to later governments.
The national debt under Trump has exploded to $ 27 trillion.
The Dow Jones benchmark index of the New York Stock Exchange has increased by 34 percent since Trump took office, but since the outbreak of the corona crisis it has wobbled and fell again, especially in the last few days.
Kulturkampf and judge
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Right Revolution: Trump with Amy Coney Barrett in the White House
Photo: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
The promise
Trump vowed to appoint as many conservative judges as possible, right up to the Supreme Court. It was the most important promise for many voters who opposed Trump's other policies but came to terms with him.
Their hope: the right to abortion, the legalization of same-sex marriage, expanded voting rights, environmental and occupational safety regulations and other historical advances could be turned back.
The reality
Trump kept his word.
With the help of the Republican Chief Senator Mitch McConnell, he has filled three Supreme Court judges with conservative lawyers.
Richard Nixon recently succeeded in doing this.
The conservative majority in the US Supreme Court has thus solidified to 6: 3 - which could benefit Trump first if the election itself lands in the highest court in November.
In addition, Trump has appointed 217 judges to the state district and appeals courts.
Almost a third of all US district judges are conservatives appointed by Trump.
The shift to the right by the courts, which will shape US policy in the long term, is Trump's greatest achievement.
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