Trump's First 100 Days – More Broken Contracts
Tomorrow will mark the 100th day of the Trump presidency and, as in all his dealings in his real estate empire, it will mark yet another string of broken contracts by Donald Trump. With the House admitting late last night that it did not have the votes for another run at Obamacare repeal and replace, Trump will sign yet another executive order, head to the NRA convention and a fundraiser for Karen Handel, and then probably end up at Mar-a-Lago, meaning that it will be another day of accomplishing nothing in his Contract With The American Voter, his “100-day action plan to Make America Great Again”. And he leaves town with the hope that Congress will pass a continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down tonight. If the Republican-controlled Congress can’t even do that, it would surely be the capstone to Trump’s first 100 days.
Let’s review his broken contracts with the American people. For easier understanding, I have broken down his 28 promises into two groups, those that could be accomplished through simple executive actions, such as an executive order, and those that require legislation be proposed and passed by Congress.
Executive Actions
Propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress – No amendment has been introduced or even mentioned by Trump. Fail, No Attempt.
A hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health) – This was actually done as one of Trump’s first acts on January 23rd but Trump recently reversed course and lifted that hiring freeze. Fail.
A requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated – Trump’s January 30th executive order made it sound like he was implementing this but in fact the order simply said that for every new regulation two existing regulations must merely be identified for possible elimination. In addition, there were numerous areas that were exempt and any rule was subject to exemption by OMB Director Mulvaney. Fail.
A 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service – Trump signed an executive order that would ban officials from lobbying the agency they work for, not the total ban that he promised. In addition, the order allowed Trump to give special waivers to exempt specific individuals. Partial Fail.
A lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government – The same executive order as the above 5-year ban actually did implement this promise with the same caveat that special waivers could be issued. Success.
A complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections – Fail, No Attempt.
I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205 – Despite lots of threats, no action. Fail, No Attempt.
I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership – One of his first actions on January 23rd was to withdraw from TPP – Success.
I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator – According to Trump, China stopped being a currency manipulator when he took office. Fail, No Attempt.
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 – Trump did sign an executive order instructing the government to identify the sources of our trade deficit by country and product. There was no instruction on how to “end those abuses”, however. Partial Fail.
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 – While Trump has lifted some mining and drilling restrictions, none of that is anywhere near the $50 trillion level he promised. Other reviews and executive orders, such as allowing drilling in national monuments, will take years and much litigation to become reality, if ever. Partial Fail.
Lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward – Trump did allow the construction of the Keystone and DAPL pipelines to go forward. Although this promise was vague, we will give him full credit here. Success.
Cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama – Since we have no idea which Obama actions Trump is talking about, it is hard to judge this one. But he has reversed some of Obama’s executive orders and the Senate has rolled back some Obama regulations using the Congressional Review Act. Again, we will grade Trump on the curve and give him credit. Success.
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 Constitution of the United States – Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch. Success.
Cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities – Again, despite a lot of threats, no action has been taken and any action will be challenged in court. Fail. No Attempt.
Begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back – Trump and Sessions have stepped up immigration enforcement and an executive order in January directed government agencies to exert pressure on this countries that refuse to take back deportees. Although the promise to cancel visas for those countries has not been met, we will again give Trump credit. Success.
Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting – Trump made two attempts to fulfill this promise with his Muslim bans. Both attempts were struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Fail.
Legislative Actions
Cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure – This requires Congressional budget legislation. While Trump’s budget framework includes rolling back climate change funding, that budget has been declared dead on arrival by Congress. In addition, no infrastructure legislation has even been proposed. Fail. No Attempt.
Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act – Trump’s one-page summary is a joke and not a tax plan. There is no way it will ever get enough Democratic votes to get through the Senate and its viability in the House is even in question, depending on the details that have yet to be fleshed out. There really has been no legislation proposed yet. Fail. No Attempt.
End The Offshoring Act – Again, despite threats of large tariffs, Trump has done nothing. Fail. No Attempt.
American Energy & Infrastructure Act – No legislation has been put forward yet. Fail. No Attempt.
School Choice And Education Opportunity Act – Again, despite some talk, no legislation has been put forward yet. Fail. No Attempt.
Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act – Multiple attempts to craft a bill that could simply pass the House have failed and no vote on the legislation has even taken place. Fail.
Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act – Again, much of this would have to be part of the budget, but, again, no specifics have been detailed by the Trump administration. Fail. No Attempt.
End Illegal Immigration Act – This promise contains funding to the border wall and changes to criminal law regarding illegal immigration. Despite Trump’s push for border wall funding, Congress has rebuffed him and no legislation that would enact changes to criminal law have been introduced. Fail.
Restoring Community Safety Act – Again, no legislation has been put forward yet. Fail. No Attempt.
Restoring National Security Act – This is yet another budgetary item that would increase spending on the military and an attempt to privatize the Veterans Administration. Trump has proposed the increase in military spending in his budget that is going nowhere. No specific legislation has been introduced to privatize the VA. Fail. No Attempt.
Clean up Corruption in Washington Act – Again, no legislation has been put forward yet. Fail. No Attempt.
To summarize, of the eighteen promises that required only executive action from Trump, only six can be deemed to have been kept in some form or other. And none of his legislative promises have been kept. What’s even more remarkable about this level of failure is how many of these promises Trump has made no attempt to fulfill, even those that require a simple executive action from Trump. It speaks to the incompetence and incoherence of the Trump administration that so little has even been proposed. While that may be a relief for many of us, that does not mean that these issues and promises are necessarily going to go away. That will require relentless vigilance and resistance.