In 2016, Donald Trump vowed to champion forgotten Americans and take on the entrenched interests that he blamed for hollowing out the middle class. He categorically promised “no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid,” and he said he would stop Wall Street from “getting away with murder”; end the outsourcing of American jobs; insure everyone with lower health care costs; and close tax loopholes for people like himself and to focus tax relief on the middle class. Trump promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington.
In office, however, President Trump’s administration has broken each of these promises, betraying the people he said he would fight for. In virtually every policy sphere, his administration has favored powerful corporations and the wealthy at the expense of middle- and working-class Americans. Trump’s broken promises have had real-life consequences for American families: less economic security; lower wages; more expensive health care; greater threats to Social Security and Medicare; and a widening gap between working Americans and the wealthy and powerful.
As President Trump prepares to give his third State of the Union address, here are seven ways his administration has broken his core economic promises and how they have let down ordinary Americans.