President-elect Trump made grandiose promises to voters on the campaign trail to quickly cut costs, end the war in Ukraine before he even took office, and exploit tariffs to boost the U.S. economy and manufacturing.
Since his election victory in November, Trump has suggested that keeping those promises may not be as uncomplicated as advertised.
Trump said in a recent “Meet the Press” interview, he couldn’t guarantee Tariffs would not lead to higher consumer prices.
In an interview with Time magazine for its Person of the Year award, he admitted that it was arduous to bring down food prices once they had risen.
And in his first post-election news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump suggested ending the war in Ukraine would be more arduous than to ease tensions in the Middle East.
While Democrats and critics accused Trump of lowering expectations or signaling he would not follow through on his campaign promises, the Trump transition and other allies argued it was the president-elect’s shift from sweeping campaign rhetoric to the nuances and realities of governing.
“The American people overwhelmingly re-elected President Trump, giving him a mandate to follow through on the promises he made during his campaign. He will deliver,” Karoline Leavitt, transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary, said in a statement.
A Trump ally argued that the president-elect did not contradict his promises on the ground but rather deviated from the sales pitch rhetoric typical of campaigns.
Trump made improving the economy, and particularly inflation, a central part of his campaign for the White House in 2024. He frequently railed against the Biden White House, particularly over high food costs, and he often told his supporters that he would Costs would be reduced by increasing energy supply, which would affect overall prices.
“Prices will go down. Just watch. They will sink, and quickly. Not just insurance, everything,” Trump told supporters in North Carolina in August.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on the eve of Election Day, Trump said a vote for him meant “your food will be cheaper.”
But in comments to Time on November 25, Trump expressed more caution about his ability to reduce food costs. Asked whether his presidency would be a failure if prices didn’t fall, Trump said he didn’t think so. “See, they picked her up. I would like to take her down. It’s hard to break things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard,” Trump said. “But I think they will. I think this energy will bring them down. I think a better supply chain will bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still disrupted.”
Democrats quickly responded to Trump’s comments, suggesting they were a broken campaign promise before he even took office.
“Candidate Trump promised to lower food prices, but now it looks like he won’t even try,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) posted on the social platform X. “While at Mar-a- Lago, President-elect Trump says he can’t really lower food prices because it’s “very hard.” Sad. It’s the beginning of a broken promise.”
The Democratic National Committee highlighted Trump’s comments on food, comparing them to comments he made on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange last week about trying to further cut the corporate tax rate.
The president-elect also struck a defiant tone on tariffs throughout the campaign. push back against anyone who suggested raising consumer prices, upending the economy or angering allies affected by tariffs.
Since his election victory, Trump has largely maintained that stance, although he has acknowledged the possibility that some companies could pass the costs on to consumers.
“I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump told “Meet the Press” earlier this month. “But I can say that if you look at my situation – especially before the COVID-19 crisis, we had the largest economy in the history of our country. And I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries, but especially China.”
In other areas of U.S. foreign policy, Trump has returned to his more bombastic style – proposing to make Canada the 51st nation, bringing the Panama Canal back under U.S. control and once again attacking Greenland, pointing out that US property is an “absolute necessity”. Trump may exploit these warnings as leverage for negotiating tactics such as tariffs and reducing the cost of sailing American ships from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
But Trump had also spoken more nuancedly in recent days about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, a war he said he was talking about on the debate stage in September he would end “Before he even became president.”
The president-elect told reporters at a news conference this week that he believes it will be more arduous to resolve the situation in Ukraine than to ease tensions in the Middle East, a region where there is much conflict between Israel, Iran and Syria and various proxy groups.
Trump told reporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin should be prepared for an agreement to end the war, but he declined to elaborate on what concessions both sides should be prepared to make.
Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst this week that it would not be “easy” for Trump to influence Putin to end the war.
“But I think if he can take advantage of all the problems that the United States has, yes, he can. Because he is much stronger than Putin,” said Zelensky. “He is stronger. The United States is stronger. Economy stronger. You know, money, big money. The United States has great, very great influence.”
In 2016, Trump made a series of campaign promises that he found arduous to keep. He repeatedly promised that he would build a wall along the southern border and that Mexico would pay for it, and although there were some novel barriers, Mexico did not foot the bill.
He also promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare. Republicans managed to eliminate the individual mandate portion of the law, but Trump and lawmakers failed to repeal it or pass a health care plan of their own.
