Trump wasted no time breaking his campaign promises. It's been 100 days of lies. | Opinion
As we approach the end of President Trump's first 100 days in office, let's review all the ways he's lied to our faces.
President Donald Trump will hit the 100th day of his second presidential term on April 30, and two things are already pretty clear: he will offer an intentionally inaccurate review of his own performance and then kvetch about anyone who refuses to swallow and regurgitate his self-aggrandizing delusions.
From the price of eggs to immigration to the war in Ukraine, nothing Trump has done comes close to what he bragged last year about planning to accomplish if voters sent him back to the White House.
The "100 day" milestone has always been an arbitrary marker in politics, amounting to less than 7% of the 1,461 days in Trump's term. But his move-fast-and-break-things approach has garnered plenty of attention in a short period, while fundamentally breaking many of the promises he made while campaigning for reelection.
Trump promised to lower costs. Now groceries are more expensive, and gas isn't cheaper.
Trump pegged his 2024 win on "groceries" in a December interview with NBC News' "Meet The Press," after spending more than a year complaining about inflation and rising costs for food and fuel.
He bragged in an April 24 social media post that costs are now "WAY DOWN" while claiming that the cost of eggs has dropped 87%.
This encapsulates Trump's approach to proclamations ‒ if they can't be accurate, make them flashy.
Consumer price index data shows that a trip to the grocery store in April will be more expensive than it was 12 months ago. And, while the prices of eggs have been fluctuating, they hit a record high in March.
Trump also promised while campaigning in September to reduce the cost of gasoline to below $2 per gallon. Right on schedule, he claimed during April 17 remarks at the White House that gasoline had dropped to $1.98 "in a couple of states."
A CNN fact-check found that claim to be bunk, as the national average for gas that day was $3.17 per gallon and the lowest known price was $2.19 at one gas station in Texas. Don't expect the White House to stick to the facts. Trump's media team circulated his lie on social media.
Trump said he would improve Biden's economy. Instead, he made it worse.
Trump's reelection campaign pledges to constrain inflation and enrich Americans through trade-war-inducing tariffs have not panned out as he promised, either.
His tariffs, which hit America's allies just as hard, if not harder, than geopolitical foes, had the net result of erasing serious gains in American retirement investment accounts while tanking the stock market and raising legitimate concerns about a recession. Trump is acting in contravention of conventional wisdom for most economists.
The results are in. Americans prefer the conventional wisdom. The Pew Research Center, in a survey released April 23, found that 59% of Americans disapprove of Trump's tariffs, matching the number for people who disapprove of his performance overall so far.
On inflation, Trump has chosen to publicly feud with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, demanding a reduction in interest rates while musing about firing him, which caused havoc in the stock market until Trump backed down.
Americans did not find any of that reassuring.
A Fox News poll released April 23 found that 82% of registered voters are very or somewhat concerned about inflation, while 59% disapproved of how Trump handles the issue.
Trump, a day after the Fox News poll dropped, lashed out on social media at his slavishly loyal cable television allies and their pollster while offering a concise summation of them that inadvertently reflected the state of the economy with him in power — "It sucks!!!"
Trump lied about his mass deportations and deported legal US residents
Trump also campaigned aggressively on a pledge of the "largest deportation" of undocumented migrants in American history. He has, so far, missed that mark.
The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, in an April 24, report, said Trump is on pace to deport about 500,000 people this year, compared with the 685,000 people deported during fiscal year 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
Trump could pass the blame here to Kristi Noem, his Homeland Security secretary who has proved adept at cosplaying as a heavily armed enforcer, if less adroit at guarding her own purse in public.
Trump was not satisfied with scooping up people off the streets for deportations, including some with a legal right to be here, tourists and others who are American citizens. He wanted to go after babies born here, too.
Trump promised to end "birthright citizenship" granted in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment to anyone born in America. A federal judge in Seattle called Trump's executive order to undo birthright citizenship "blatantly unconstitutional."
An appellate court refused to let Trump move forward with his plans. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the issue on May 15.
Americans have already weighed in, with 56% opposing Trump's plans to end birthright citizenship, according to a February survey from the Pew Research Center.
Trump even lied about his foreign policy influence. Now he's begging Putin to 'STOP!'
Trump's failures have not been limited to domestic issues. He has enraged foreign trading partners. He single-handedly revived Canada's Liberal Party ahead of April 28 elections with anti-tariff fervor.
And his promise to end Russia's war in Ukraine even before taking office? Welp, that didn't happen.
Instead, Trump started waffling about ending that war even before taking office. His diplomatic approach to peace has consisted entirely of blaming Ukraine for being invaded while acting annoyed that the country will not sacrifice more to make Russia happy.
The arc of Trump's Ukraine pledge has been ‒ I will fix it, to I'll try to fix it, to I might just give up on fixing it.
His most strident comments for Russia, the aggressor that started all this, was a pathetic April 24 social media plea for that country to "STOP" killing Ukrainian civilians. Somewhere, Vladimir Putin is likely giggling at the absurdity of it all.
Trump has two simple tactics when dealing with promises he failed to keep ‒ deny the failure, or stomp away while blaming anyone but himself. He might try both if he can't end Russia's war in Ukraine. He'll likely use one or both on any other promises he made on the campaign trail, as he fails to follow through while in power.
Follow Paste BN columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.