By Paul Angel
Judging from the letters I get from subscribers, the articles I receive from AFP’s own experts on U.S. foreign and domestic policy, and the editorials we run from our best columnists, everyone is done with Donald Trump. And who can blame them? People with good intentions make promises. People with good character keep them.
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On the campaign trail, Trump made some big promises, not only to conservatives but Independent and Democrat voters fed up with the painful fiscal policies of the previous administration. Some are rather ironic.
Voters were filled with real hope should Trump become president. Unable to pay their bills, and skewered by inflation at the same time, they heard him clearly promise at a campaign rally in Bozeman, Mt., on Aug. 9, 2024:
Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.
At the same rally he promised the raucous crowd:
Prices will come down. You just watch. They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.
On Oct. 1, 2024, in Wisconsin, he promised rally goers:
Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again. We’ll do that.
Remember those unaffordable houses Trump promised he could make affordable for everyone? During an address to the Economic Club of New York on Sept. 5, 2024, he assured the audience:
We will eliminate regulations that drive up housing costs with the goal of cutting the cost of a new home in half. We think we can do that.
And he insisted:
Energy is going to bring us back. That means we’re going down [sic] and getting gasoline below $2 a gallon, bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, airfares, and housing costs.
At a rally in North Carolina, on Aug. 14, 2024, Trump promised:
Under my administration, we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months.
He also swore:
We will bring our auto-making industry to the record levels of 37 years ago, and we’ll be able to do it very quickly through tariffs and other smart use of certain things we have that other countries don’t.
The skyrocketing cost of groceries was on the minds of many voters, but Trump had a simple answer. At a campaign event in Pittsburgh, he guaranteed the attendees, “A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper.”
At a press conference in Florida, viewers were happy to hear, if elected, Trump would lower food prices:
… [Y]ou’re going to see some pretty drastic price reductions.”
As far as the deportation of “millions” of illegals, Trump pledged at a campaign event in Wisconsin:
As soon as I take the oath of office, we will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. … We’re going to deport millions.
Trump also promised to be a “peace president.” In his Sept. 10, 2024 debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Trump told the moderators (and every American listening):
[The Ukraine-Russia war] is dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. … They don’t respect [Joe] Biden.
As for ending the forever wars whose costs have been incessantly foisted on the backs of American taxpayers for decades, Trump promised in campaign pitches, with real sincerity, “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”
In his debate with non compos mentis Biden in June 2024, Trump criticized his opponent, saying:
He [Biden] will drive us into World War III, and we’re closer to World War III than anybody can imagine. … These are wars that will never end with him.
In his own inaugural address of January 20, 2025, exactly one year ago as I write this, he said, under his administration, he would:
… stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable.
Many potential voters were also happy to hear that weaponization of the Justice Department was ending. Trump gave his word that:
Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents … We will not allow that to happen.
Millions of Americans, when they cast their vote, were in acute need of a president who was going to improve their lives; to do what he promised. They took him at his word. They desperately hoped he would do everything he vowed.
But he has broken too many promises. To them, he is just a huckster.
It all seemed so simple: end the forever wars and start enacting policies in the best interests of average Americans. But Trump has done the exact opposite at almost every turn.
Deportations, the one issue Trump was winning on, have been done in such a heavyhanded fashion that the issue is now a liability, with a majority of Americans objecting to the police state tactics being used by the administration to round up illegals.
Time is short for Trump and the Republican Party. If they do not stop breaking their promises and reject their America-last course, they will be swept away in the midterms.
Good news? I just bought a dozen eggs for $1.99. Unfortunately, man cannot live by eggs alone.
