From rhetoric to reality, Trump strives to fulfil
Donald Trump’s 100th day as US President will be on Saturday. Scott D’Arcy has assessed how his actions in office have matched up with his campaign promises
DONALD Trump promised to start work on a host of major reforms “immediately” upon taking office as US President.
The billionaire Republican set out a 100-day action plan he called his “contract with the American people”, in which he made pledges on issues from immigration to jobs.
He was also a vociferous critic of the previous White House occupant, Barack Obama, calling him out over his handling of everything from healthcare to how often he played golf.
So how has President Trump matched up to candidate Trump? Here is a comparison of his campaign rhetoric against the reality. The Wall A key pledge that earned wild cheers at campaign rallies but drew derision from domestic and international opponents, Mr Trump’s contract included a vow to introduce an End Illegal Immigration Act that “fully funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost”.
Within days of his inauguration, the President signed an executive order kick-starting the project and contract requests were prepared by US Customs and Border Protection by mid-March.
But progress has stalled, with Mexico refusing to entertain the idea of paying for the wall, forcing Mr Trump to propose immediate budget cuts of $US18bn (£14bn) from US programmes like medical research, infrastructure and community grants and the allocation of $US1.4bn (£1.1 bn) for a down payment on the border barrier.
The spending plans face strong resistance from Democrats as they go before Congress in a budget vote which could lead to a government shutdown on the President’s 100th day.
Mr Trump has told a gathering of conservative media reporters that he might be willing to wait until September for the funding for the wall.
But he has continued to defend the plan in a recent string of tweets. On Sunday, Mr Trump tweeted: “Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.”
On Monday, he tweeted: “The Wall is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)! If .the wall is not built, which it will be, the drug situation will NEVER be fixed the way it should be! #BuildTheWall.”
On Tuesday, as his close adviser Kellyanne Conway reportedly said, wall funding could be cut from the spending bill, he said: “Don’t let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking. etc.” Immigration His contract promised action to “suspend immigration from terrorprone regions” and introduce “extreme vetting” at the border.
Just seven days into his tenure, he issued an executive order which barred indefinitely those fleeing from Syria and imposed a 90-day ban on entry to the US for people from seven Muslim-majority nations.
But the President appeared not to have anticipated resistance from the judiciary, with judges blocking both the initial and a revised travel ban, leaving this cornerstone pledge snarled up in a legal fight.
The US has imposed a ban on passengers having large electronics in cabin bags when flying from mostly Middle Eastern and North African countries. Islamic State (IS) Mr Trump accused Mr Obama of causing the rise of the militant group in Iraq and Syria and failing to prevent its atrocities in the Middle East and the West.
During the campaign he was confident he could “fix it fast” and promised in his inaugural address to “eradicate completely from the face of the Earth” radical Islamic terrorism.
This was unlikely to be achieved inside 100 days and the US-led military coalition had already reported significant gains against IS, particularly in Iraq, before Mr Trump took office.
He has shown a willingness to throw more resources into the effort to drive the extremists out, deploying hundreds more troops to help local Syrian forces retake the IS stronghold of Raqqa and authorising the use of the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the US military, dubbed the “mother of all bombs”, on an IS hideout in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. Nato Having said during the campaign that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was “obsolete” and criticising other members whose security he believed was being subsidised by the US, Mr Trump has made a complete U-turn.
The 28-nation military alliance had not undergone any substantial reform in response to Mr Trump’s barbs when, earlier this month at a press conference with the organisation’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, the President declared: “I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete.”
He also repeated calls for countries to meet a 2014 agreement to boost defence spending to 2% of gross domestic product over the next decade. Russia As a candidate and even as president-elect, the property tycoon said a closer relationship with Russia was a “good thing”, claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had called him a “genius” and suggested the country would “respect us far more” once he took office.
But Mr Trump’s administration has been plagued with allegations of Russian interference and hacking during the election campaign, as well as an FBI probe into the President’s associates’ alleged improper ties with the country.
Mr Putin’s refusal to abandon Syrian President Bashar Assad over a chemical weapons attack on civilians has seen Mr Trump admit relations are at an “all-time low”. Jobs “We will bring back our jobs,” went the much-repeated, eagerly received rallying cry to supporters across America and in particular in the disenchanted Rust Belt.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump said “we’ve created more than almost 600,000 jobs” in the first three months of 2017 and hailed announcements by companies including Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Intel and Walmart that they are hiring in the US.
But he had inflated the official figure of 533,000 jobs and took credit for growth that had, in several cases, been planned by companies before his election. Average monthly job creation was slightly down on last year at 178,000.
He did fulfil his pledge to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership