WASHINGTON (AP) — In an Associated Press interview, President Donald Trump claimed more progress than he’s achieved on his 100-day plan and showed he was not completely familiar with what he had promised in that “contract” with voters.
A look at some of his assertions in the interview conducted Friday and other statements he made over the past week:
TRUMP, on his 100-day plan: “I’m mostly there on most items.” — AP interview
THE FACTS: He’s not. Many have yet to be taken up.
Of 38 specific promises Trump made in his 100-day “contract” with voters, he’s accomplished 10, mostly through executive orders that don’t require legislation. For example, he’s withdrawn the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, created a violent crime task force and lifted restrictions on fossil fuel development. Of the 10 pieces of legislation he promised, none has been achieved and most have not been introduced, with the notable exception of the health care overhaul that was put in play but withdrawn from Congress because of insufficient support. That proposal is being reworked.
He hasn’t started on 15 of his 100-day promises, which include several immigration laws, college affordability, infrastructure incentives and punishment for companies that move jobs overseas. Saturday will be his 100th day.
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TRUMP: “I think the 100 days is, you know, it’s an artificial barrier. It’s not very meaningful.” — AP interview
THE FACTS: He’s right that a 100-day measurement of a new president is artificial. As for whether it’s meaningful, that depends on how much meaning a presidential candidate invests in that benchmark. Trump invested it with a series of promises by which he was to be measured in 100 days, released in an appearance at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 22.
“What follows is my 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again,” says the manifesto. “It is a contract between myself and the American voter.”
It continued: “On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government. This is my pledge to you.”
Trump has grown dismissive of the 100-day mark, calling it “ridiculous,” and now plays down his manifesto even as he boasts of his achievements. In the AP interview, he appeared to attribute the plan to his campaign staff, saying “Somebody, yeah, somebody put out the concept of a 100-day plan.”
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TRUMP: “I didn’t put Supreme Court judge on the 100 (day) plan, and I got a Supreme Court judge.” — AP interview
THE FACTS: He actually did promise in his plan to “begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia.” On this, he delivered more than promised – not only starting the process of finding a new Supreme Court justice but winning Senate confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, who now sits on the court.
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TRUMP: “No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days.” — Tuesday at the Kenosha, Wisconsin, headquarters of Snap-on tools
THE FACTS: Trump’s legislative victories are minor, surpassed by those of a variety of high achievers in the White House.
Taking office in the Great Depression, Roosevelt quickly declared a banking holiday to quiet panic, called a special session of Congress and won passage of emergency legislation to stabilize the banking system. He came forward with a flurry of consequential legislation that set the pillars of the New Deal in place within his first 100 days, “the most concentrated period of U.S. reform in U.S. history,” say Alan Brinkley and Davis Dyer in “The Reader’s Companion to the American Presidency.” No fewer than 14 historic laws were enacted in that time.
Trump’s big agenda items, like his promised tax overhaul and infrastructure plan, have yet to reach Congress. His attempt to secure the borders from people from terrorism-prone regions is so far blocked by courts. His first attempt to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health care law failed in Congress.
Trump needn’t look as far back as FDR to see a president who got off to a fast start. Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package into law in his first month, while also achieving laws expanding health care for children and advancing equal pay for women in that time.
Like Roosevelt, Obama came to office in an economic crisis, the worst since the Depression. Lawmakers from both parties were inclined to act quickly and did, even as they fought over the details of the big stimulus package that defined Obama’s early days.
President Ronald Reagan’s 100 days were considered the hardest-driving since FDR’s time, even though Reagan was shot March 30, 1981. He presented Congress with the most consequential tax, spending and government-overhaul plan it had seen in decades, a comprehensive package that exceeds in scope anything Trump has brought forward, including his first run at health care. Congressional approval came later.
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TRUMP: “The weak illegal immigration policies of the Obama Admin. allowed bad MS 13 gangs to form in cities across U.S. We are removing them fast!” — tweet, Tuesday
THE FACTS: Obama can’t be blamed for allowing MS-13 to form as a nationwide gang because that happened long before he became president.
A fact sheet from Trump’s own Justice Department states that the gang, which originated in the 1980s in the Central American community in Los Angeles, “quickly spread to states across the country.”
The department indirectly credits the Obama administration, in its early years, with helping to rein in the group: “Through the combined efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement, great progress was made diminishing or severely (disrupting) the gang within certain targeted areas of the U.S. by 2009 and 2010.”
The U.S. carried out record deportations during the Obama administration and, on MS-13 specifically, took the unprecedented action of labelling the street gang a transnational criminal organization and announcing a freeze on its U.S. assets.
Such actions were not enough to bring down the group and the Trump administration says it will do more.
According to an FBI assessment from January 2008, before Obama took office, the gang was operating in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia, roughly the same number of states estimated now. The assessment said the group was made up of Salvadoran nationals and first-generation Salvadoran-Americans. The FBI at the time did not provide a breakdown of how many of the gang’s members were immigrants or U.S. citizens.
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TRUMP: “I didn’t soften my stance” on China. “Nobody’s ever seen such a positive response on our behalf from China, and then the fake media goes ‘Donald Trump has changed his stance on China.’ I haven’t changed my stance. China’s trying to help us.” — Fox interview Tuesday
THE FACTS: It’s hard to imagine a clearer switch in positions than the president’s abandonment of his campaign pledge to declare China a currency manipulator, a move that would have set the stage for trade penalties. China had once devalued its currency to make its exports artificially cheaper, crowding out other countries’ products, but in recent years has let market forces do more to shape currency exchange rates. Even as Trump railed against Chinese currency manipulation in the presidential campaign, there already were signs that China was taking steps to keep the value of the yuan from sinking further against the dollar.
Trump didn’t let go of his accusation easily. As recently as April 2 he told The Financial Times that the Chinese are “world champions” of currency manipulation.
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TRUMP, speaking about fellow NATO members, says he wants to “make sure these countries start paying their bills a little bit more. You know, they’re way, way behind.” — remarks in Kenosha
THE FACTS: That’s an oversimplification of NATO financial obligations, and one Trump has made repeatedly. NATO members are not in arrears on payments. They committed in 2014 to ensuring that by 2024, they would be spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their military budgets. Most NATO countries are spending less than that now, and Washington is putting pressure on them to do more.
In any event, the commitment is for these nations to spend more on their own military capabilities, which would strengthen the alliance, not to hand over money.
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Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Alicia A. Caldwell, Josh Boak and Robert Burns contributed to this report.
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It would be far simpler to list the moments when Trump unwittingly answered something truthfully or correctly judged a situation.
Another good review of the interview.