It was almost exactly a year ago, on the 8th of November 2016, that Donald Trump, a real-estate mogul and former reality TV host, was elected to hold the most powerful office in the world. During the campaign, Trump made a string of xenophobic and racist pledges. But what has happened since the inauguration of Trump on the 20th of January 2017? Has he kept the promises his core supporters hold dear? What does the future hold? It’s time to take stock of Trump’s first ten months in office. In the first part of this two-part article series, we’re looking at some of the campaign promises that Trump made and what has become of them.
1. The Wall
Building a wall along the border with Mexico to prevent ‘rapists’ and ‘people who are (…) bringing drugs and crime’ from coming to America was one the most controversial pledges Trump made on the campaign trail. Before and after the election, many have questioned the feasibility of such a project, not to mention its desirability. So, what is the deal with the wall now?
There was a small but very concrete step forward in late October, when eight prototypes of a potential border wall were erected in San Diego. The next stage is to test which prototype is best suited for the purpose of making crossing the border as difficult as possible. Whether the actual wall will get build in the near future, however, remains unclear. While the House of Representatives (the lower chamber of the bicameral United States Congress) approved a bill including $10 billion towards the costs of the border wall, the bill faces an uphill battle in the upper chamber of Congress – the Senate – where it needs 60 senators’ backing. Republicans currently hold the majority, but only an absolute one with 52 senators. With much bargaining and tradeoffs involved, the fight over the wall might even go as far as to a government shutdown. The estimated cost of the border wall stands at $21.6 billion.
2. The ‘Muslim Ban’, i.e. Travel Ban
This was one of Trump’s central election promises, and arguably the most racist of them all, one which provoked disgust in many and admiration in some of his core supporters. During the campaign, he pledged to install ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’, causing considerable outrage. When Trump, on his seventh day in office, signed an executive order blocking travel to the US by anyone from six majority-Muslim countries, it did look like he was acting on that promise. Mass protests ensued, as did judicial obstacles to the order, with several federal judges blocking it temporarily. All the while, the Trump administration refused to admit the order was about targeting Muslims, despite Trump’s claims on the campaign trail, and insisted that it was instead focused on identifying potentially dangerous individuals from high-risk areas. These efforts were hindered by former New York City Mayor and Trump campaign adviser Rudy Giuliani, who claimed that Trump had specifically asked him how to make a ‘Muslim ban’ legally sound.
Since the first Travel Ban, several human rights groups and US states, including Hawaii, have sued the Trump administration over the ban, forcing the White House to amend the order. The most recent development on this front happened on October 18th when Trump issued a new executive order, adding new countries to the list and creating separate restrictions for each country affected. Despite two non-Muslim-majority countries having been added to the list – North Korea and Venezuela – it’s hard to think of the revised ban as anything other than a more sophisticated way of discriminating against Muslims. Crucially, the latest ban has no time limit, as did the first few versions, meaning that affected citizens from the listed countries cannot know how far into the future their lives might be affected by the ban. As the Supreme Court recently dismissed a case challenging the travel ban, the Trump Administration can now claim at least a temporary victory in the controversy.
3. Pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Accord
Before taking office, Trump had repeatedly said he didn’t believe that climate change was a thing. He’s called it a hoax on several occasions, claimed that it’s bad for US manufacturing jobs and overall simply hurting the US economy. Consequently, when he decided to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement many people’s worst fears were confirmed. The departure of the US dealt a harsh blow to the accord, as the US is one of the world’s biggest polluters. The country stands increasingly alone on this issue, as even Syria, mired in a particularly gruesome civil war since 2011, decided to join the agreement.
Trump also goes against current trends of investing in cleaner energy forms at home: his promise to bring back coal mining jobs to de-industrialized regions suffering from high unemployment was considered to be one of the main reasons he managed to win in so many places that previously voted Democrat. In an attempt to follow up on that promise, he peeled back Obama-era restrictions on mining coal. Even worse news for efforts to fight climate change in the US came when Trump announced he had picked Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA – a federal agency charged with the protection of environment). Pruitt is a known climate-change denier, who hasn’t walked back his statements since taking the lead of the office, claiming for instance that he doesn’t believe that carbon dioxide is a contributor to climate change, thus contradicting clear scientific consensus, and the opinion of his own agency. Trump hasn’t clarified his own views on climate change since the election, but that’s hardly necessary considering his actions speak volumes.
4. Draining the Swamp
Of all the promises he made on the campaign trail, this one was one of the most intriguing. Trump memorably claimed that he would ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington, meaning that he would get rid of special interests that many Americans think are crippling US politics: companies, lobbies and wealthy individuals pouring unlimited amounts of money to politicians who then look after their vested interests. Trump also said that he, unlike other politicians, couldn’t be bought or corrupted, as he was so rich to begin with. When looking at his actions since January 20th, it’s clear, however, that this is a promise on which he has taken zero action, quite the contrary.
The Trump Administration has actually hired former lobbyists to work for it: all in all, they are 74, and out of this number, 49 are also working for the companies or agencies that they used to represent in the past. Many were also wary that Trump might try to use his new position to benefit his private business interests. Trump promised not to do so, and pledged to place his business holdings in a blind trust. In reality, however, Trump still has full access to the assets placed in the trust and his eldest son is even its manager, which is not how a blind trust should work. Furthermore, Trump’s decision to hire both his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner as his White House advisers sent shivers down many spines. In what other Western democracy is the President filling up vacancies with his relatives? The matter is made worse by the fact that Ivanka Trump and Kushner have not distanced themselves from their businesses, creating considerable room for conflicts of interest.
Studying the first ten months of the Trump presidency makes it clear that as President, Trump has vehemently worked to advance his agenda. Despite continued backing from his core constituents, Trump is facing mounting criticism at home and abroad, which is making the future look extremely unclear. In the second part of his article series, we look at the future and what has changed in the US since the election. Stay tuned!
Sources:
First photo by Tiburi/Pixabay, the second by Max Goldberg/Wikimedia Commons, and the last from Wikimedia Commons.