Broken Promises: The story of President Trump’s first 100 days in office

This past Saturday marked President Trump’s first one hundred days in office. Given his disinterest in the difficult details of policy making, it’s no surprise that Trump has accomplished very little, but he’s also broken a series of promises to the same voters who have counted on him to look out for their best interests. Which is why we need to make sure Trump is held accountable for the growing gap between what he said he would do and what he is actually doing. Let’s take a look at the real story of his first 100 days in office:

The promise of reliable health care: Broken.

During his campaign, candidate Trump promised a big, beautiful health care plan that would take care of everybody. But, instead, he happily tried to strip away access to affordable health care from 24 million Americans just so he could provide a tax break of about $700 billion to big insurance companies and the wealthiest people in this country.

Even worse, he was ready to cut Medicaid by $880 billion and remove the requirement in Medicaid that helps fund substance abuse treatment. If you look at the big picture, it would have been a huge cut to affordable health care for everyday Americans, all while the richest one-tenth of 1% would get an average annual tax cut of $200,000.

The promise to help working Americans: Broken.

During his campaign, candidate Trump promised to lower tax rates for working Americans. Even his Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin promised that the ultra-wealthy wouldn’t benefit from Trump’s tax plan. My colleagues and I began to call it the Mnuchin Rule, no tax breaks for millionaires.

But, in reality, Trump’s plan is all about tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires just like him and his Wall Street friends. Even worse, his huge special interest tax cuts will balloon the federal debt, which, in turn, will have to be paid for by working Americans, and our children and grandchildren.

The promise of promoting good-paying jobs: Broken.

During his campaign, candidate Trump constantly talked about creating “jobs, jobs, jobs.” But, his budget wipes out the Community Development Block Grant — one of the most important tools that local leaders have at their disposal to improve economic development for their communities.

Candidate Trump also promised to expand manufacturing jobs. But his budget eliminates the one federal program that helps form partnerships with small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses.

The promise of fixing America’s crumbling infrastructure: Broken.

During his campaign, candidate Trump promised to “rebuild our highways, our bridges, our tunnels, our airports, our schools, and our hospitals.” In fact, it’s the only issue he talked about on the night of the election and said he was going to have a big plan in the first 100 days of his presidency.

But, Trump doesn’t have an infrastructure plan and, even worse, his budget eliminates funding for the program that supports high-impact transportation projects of national significance. His budget also zeroes out funding for all new transit projects.

The promise to make higher education affordable: Broken.

During his campaign, President Trump promised to help students who are weighed down by the soaring cost of student debt. But his budget cuts the Department of Education by a whopping thirteen percent, cutting critical student loan assistance programs. Even worse, his Secretary of Education is quietly changing the rules to reduce protections for students with heavy loans and help out the same debt collectors who have abused student borrowers during the lending process. Additionally, he eliminates after-school funding and is planning on diverting important federal taxpayer dollars away from public education to private school vouchers.

The promise to help rural America: Broken.

During his campaign candidate Trump promised he was going to help “forgotten Americans.” But, if you look at this budget: He didn’t actually forget them; he comes after them in a way that will cause great harm.

In many ways Trump’s budget is really a dagger aimed at the heart of rural America. His budget cuts:

• The Department of Agriculture by 21 percent
• The water and wastewater loan program for rural areas
• The Appalachian Regional Commission, which supports transportation and economic development projects throughout Appalachia.
• An education program that in recent years has been targeted to provide more STEM training to teachers in rural areas.
• The federal support that keeps many rural airports operating.

And that’s only the first 100 days.

When it comes to good-paying jobs for hardworking Americans, higher wages, and greater economic security, the Trump budget has left a trail of broken promises. Most of his Presidency has been about rhetoric and theatrics, not substance — a tweeter, not a leader.

What promises will President Trump break next?