# The Trump Campaign Promise Walk-Back Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 12, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556 "2016-11-12T00:14:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/241 "2017-03-31T10:50:32Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I think it’s important to note that there is a material difference between “walking back a promise,” and “being an abject failure.” Well…yes and no. I agree that there is a distinction between “I made a promise and now I am going to do nothing to keep it” and “I made a promise which I have endeavored to keep, however despite my best efforts, due to circumstances beyond my control I was unsuccessful.” We can all cut someone some slack when they try and fail, if circumstances were truly beyond their control and unforeseeable at the time the promise was made. However, Trump was particularly prone to boasting that he was the only one who could solve a problem, that his business skills would allow him to accomplish what no politician ever could, and so forth. He presented himself as uniquely able to get the job done and overcome obstacles that ordinary politicians had failed to surmount. Because of that, in his case I am not inclined to see a big difference between “not trying” and “trying and failing.” ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/242 "2017-03-31T12:35:32Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Well…yes and no. I agree that there is a distinction between “I made a promise and now I am going to do nothing to keep it” and “I made a promise which I have endeavored to keep, however despite my best efforts, due to circumstances beyond my control I was unsuccessful.” > > We can all cut someone some slack when they try and fail, if circumstances were truly beyond their control and unforeseeable at the time the promise was made. > > However, Trump was particularly prone to boasting that he was the only one who could solve a problem, that his business skills would allow him to accomplish what no politician ever could, and so forth. He presented himself as uniquely able to get the job done and overcome obstacles that ordinary politicians had failed to surmount. Because of that, in his case I am not inclined to see a big difference between “not trying” and “trying and failing.” But you have to give him credit that no one could have possibly known that the job would be hard. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/243 "2017-03-31T19:29:24Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > But you have to give him credit that no one could have possibly known that the job would be hard. Is that sarcasm? I can’t really tell. Taken as a isolated text in conjunction with Trump’s quote “Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated”, it looks like it ought to be sarcasm. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/244 "2017-03-31T19:39:48Z")
“Trying and failing” is a peculuar concept. Trump’s party has both houses and presidency, so less leeway for him. Also, he’s made a career of not accepting “trying” as an acceptable excuse, whether it comes from his so-called apprentices or from opposing politicians (Republicans in primary season, Democrats after). He did campaign on his ability to get things done, and that was with no assurance of a Republican senate. Lastly, on healthcare there are at least appearances that he didn’t really “leave everything on the field”, despite what Ryan has told us. In general, I may be more accepting of “tried but failed” if he seeks to tackle some new and difficult problem. Until then, I’m tired of waiting to get “tired of winning”. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/245 "2017-03-31T19:42:56Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > Is that sarcasm? I can’t really tell. Taken as a isolated text in conjunction with Trump’s quote “Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated”, it looks like it ought to be sarcasm. 'twas a sarcastic comment, in the line of anything that he learns for the first time must also be news to everyone else. I suppose if you believe that you are the smartest, most knowledgeable and best respecter of women/minorities/etc., then any time you learn something new, you must, in order to keep your ego intact, assume that you were among the first to learn of it. He went into the campaign claiming he would be the best and most capable president ever, when he won, he claimed that he would be the best president ever, and now that he actually is in the job, now is when he realizes just how small he measures up. All politicians make promises. I doubt that any politician ever has ever kept all of them. I doubt the majority of politicians have kept the majority of them. So, just the fact that he made promises that he can’t keep isn’t that damning. It’s that he made promises that he said he was uniquely qualified to keep. Promises that he claimed no one else could accomplish. Makes me think of this [Dilbert comic](http://dilbert.com/strip/1997-11-24) from 20 years ago. Sometimes, something unanticipatable happens, and sometimes it is only unexpected because of sheer and willful ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/246 "2017-03-31T19:45:14Z")
Has he ripped up the Iran deal yet? ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/247 "2017-03-31T21:33:04Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Has he ripped up the Iran deal yet? That was a day one promise, too, wasn’t it? Maybe we are supposed to view this ‘allegorically’, as in one day for God is 100,000 years. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/248 "2017-04-01T02:40:03Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Yeah, I almost said something to that effect myself - but I’m trying to stick to a relatively neutral review of whether Trump is keeping his campaign promises or not. When he said he would “drain the swamp,” I took that to mean (and I think his supporters did) that he would remove Washington insiders from positions of power and replace them with outsiders. To some extent he has done that. The fact that his chosen outsiders are horrifying in their own right doesn’t mean he didn’t keep his promise. Or at least, that’s how I see it. It used to be that someone like the CEO of Exxon or Goldman Sachs had to give up millions of dollars to buy access to politicians to get their agendas enacted. But there were all those pesky financial disclosure forms to (pay someone to) fill out. And after the politicians and PACs had lined their pockets, they really had no guarantee of results. Trump recognized, and rightly so, that such a system was not meeting the needs of those it was supposed to serve, and reform was needed. Trump didn’t want to drain the swamp, he just wanted to cut out the middleman. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/249 "2017-04-12T22:41:32Z")
[Trump flips on four policies in one day - The Hill](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328568-trump-flips-on-four-policies-in-one-day) China - OK (not a currency manipulator) Yellen - OK ExIm Bank - OK NATO - OK ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/250 "2017-04-12T23:14:48Z")
Yeah, today Trump thinks NATO is NEATO. But that’s only because he says whatever he wants whenever he want’s, contradictions be damned. He of course didn’t say: “As it turns out, I was wrong about NATO, and they’re not obsolete.” Because that would mean he was wrong. Instead he said: “I said NATO was obsolete, it’s no longer obsolete.” Because, naturally, NATO caved to Trump’s masterful deal-making demands. What a blowhard windbag. Like a whoopie cushion, only dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/251 "2017-04-12T23:23:54Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > [Trump flips on four policies in one day - The Hill](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328568-trump-flips-on-four-policies-in-one-day) > > China - OK (not a currency manipulator) > Yellen - OK > ExIm Bank - OK > NATO - OK I wonder if Steve Bannon is disappointed that he hitched his wagon to such a “cuck”. Hopefully once Bannon is fired he can turn the full force of Brietbart against Trump. That will be fun to watch in the time remaining to us before Trump sparks a nuclear Armageddon. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/252 "2017-04-13T02:15:19Z")
I don’t know if it is technically a “campaign promise” walk back, but Trump rescinding his own Executive Order and lifting the Fed hiring freeze on many agencies after 80 days deserves a mention. > **[Trump Lifting Federal Hiring Freeze](https://www.npr.org/2017/04/12/523473051/trump-lifting-federal-hiring-freeze)** > > The White House Office of Management and Budget also calls on federal agencies and the public to come up with ideas to overhaul government services. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/253 "2017-04-13T11:45:57Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > [Trump flips on four policies in one day - The Hill](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328568-trump-flips-on-four-policies-in-one-day) > > China - OK (not a currency manipulator) > Yellen - OK > ExIm Bank - OK > NATO - OK The thing is, his supporters could not possibly care less. Whatever he says, they will agree with. It doesn’t matter if it’s the polar opposite of what he said 5 minutes ago, he said it and they will believe it with the intensity of a thousand suns and they will change their minds with absolute certainty whenever he tells them to. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/254 "2017-04-13T13:02:06Z")
Draining the swamp involved signing an ethics requirement that members of the administration couldn’t become lobbyists for five years after leaving. Sounds great. Except they’re [waiving it](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-12/senior-white-house-adviser-departs-for-business-lobbying-group). ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/255 "2017-04-16T02:32:09Z")
If Bannon leaves, I think we’ll start to see some fallout. We’re already seeing some conservatives (Ann Coulter) split due to his reversal on America First. If Bannon is out, I think the drumbeat gets louder on Trump’s reversals and failures to meet any of the promises that align with that. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/256 "2017-04-16T12:13:13Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > The thing is, his supporters could not possibly care less. Whatever he says, they will agree with. It doesn’t matter if it’s the polar opposite of what he said 5 minutes ago, he said it and they will believe it with the intensity of a thousand suns and they will change their minds with absolute certainty whenever he tells them to. This. We’ve seen articles quoting specific individuals who voted for him saying that even though he is promoting actions that would harm them and work against them (like taking away their health care), \*\*they would vote for him again. \*\* \ You can’t touch that depth of [del]loyalty[/del] stupidity with mere facts. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556/257 "2017-04-17T07:46:22Z")
From the New York Times: [“Here’s a partial list of his reversals and revisions, large and small, to date.”](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/15/opinion/sunday/mr-trumps-10-second-convictions.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-campaign-promise-walk-back-thread/771556.md?page=12)