With so much criticism being shot at President Trump, I decided to do something most news outlets seem unable to do. I found President Trump’s 2016 “Contract with the American Voter” and decided to go through each point to see where he falls on his pledges. Surprisingly this contract which was used as a 100 day outline of his action plan is actually going well. Take a look below and remember one key thing: WORDING MEANS EVERYTHING!
https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/_landings/contract/O-TRU-102316-Contractv02.pdf
Six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in DC:
- FIRST, propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress. (Not complete, but this was far reaching anyways)
- SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (Complete, Trump put forth a hiring freeze almost immediately that ironically led to his administration being understaffed)
- THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated. (Complete, but more information is needed on what qualifies as a “new federal regulation”)
- FOURTH, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service. (Not complete, but again hard to implement)
- FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government. (Not complete and ironically hilarious right now)
- SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections. (Not complete)
So for his first set of plans he’s 2 / 6 or 33%. What we’re seeing is that President Trump’s mission to drain the swamp has so far been unsuccessful however his push to decrease government is going well.
Seven actions to protect American workers:
- FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205. (Complete, President Trump did announce his intent on this topic. What he did following the announcement is irrelevant…remember wording matters)
- SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership. (Complete, again all he promised was to announce)
- THIRD, I will direct the Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator. (Not complete, but if you thought this was actually going to happen, you don’t understand America’s relationship with China)
- FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately. (Possibly complete. President Trump hasn’t made a formal specific announcement on the subject but what he’s been doing in his meetings could cover this)
- FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal. (Complete…well more in progress, but he’s so far moving forward with this)
- SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward. (Complete, he has lifted roadblocks, but its forward progress is now a legal one)
- SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure. (In progress. President Trump’s new budget seems to be pushing towards lesser payments to the UN for climate change programs but he’s still in negotiation phase. Based on his rhetoric we can assume he is seeking to move forward with this)
Within this section, President Trump has kept 6 of his 7 promises (85%), or at worst is in the process of his campaign promises. If you want to get technical then he’s 4 of 7 (57%), with 3 in progress but still he’s moving forward with this more or less.
Five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:
- FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama. (Not sure if he’s canceled EVERY action he feels was unconstitutional, that’s subjective. But for argument sake we will give this to him)
- SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution. (Complete)
- THIRD, cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities. (In progress)
- FOURTH, begin removing the more than two million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back. (Complete, wording again matters as it states “begin removing”)
- FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered “extreme vetting.” (Not complete. Action is in the courts and may be found illegal and struck down)
For the last section, President Trump is 2 of 5 or 40% with another 2 in progress for around 80%. In looking at his initial pledges, President Trump is actually doing a good job. Surprising I’m sure.
BUT WAIT…..what about his Obamacare repeal pledge?
Well…he never actually promised to repeal and replace Obamacare in his first 100 days…..
AGAIN…REMEMBER….WORDING MATTERS!
On his second page, President Trump lists a few plans under the phrase “I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:”
Key words are “introduce” and “fight for their passage within the first 100 days”. He never actually promises they will pass! Amazing right? And with that distinction, President Trump has kept his pledge, by introducing and fighting for an Obamacare replacement. Sure it hasn’t happened, but he never actually pledged to the American people in the document that it would. Combining all 10 points in this section means the President is 10 for 10 in that regard (although technical, you could make a reasonable argument that he has promoted all 10 points in my opinion.)
In total President Trump’s campaign promised to complete 18 points. The administration has completed or is in progress with at least 12 of those points. This gives him a grand percentage of 66.7%. For strictly completed, it falls to 9 or 50%. Including the 10 points that he promised to “fight for”, he’s at 22 of 28 (78%) or 19 of 28 (68%). That’s actually not bad for a guy with zero experience governing.
In a quick analysis of his pledges, it seems the future President promoted action items he could accomplish with simple executive orders. While this says nothing about his governing ability, this does show America his focus on completing tasks early in his administration.
So what this means on a larger scale?
Well to be fair, President Trump has not shown an ability to govern effectively. As he transitions out of his first 100 days and into his 4 years as President, things will have to change for our President to move from simply introducing ideas to actually making them into laws.
https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/_landings/contract/O-TRU-102316-Contractv02.pdf