Topic
17 entries.
“I'll tell you in about two weeks.”
No buyer was named within two weeks. The divest-or-ban deadline was extended repeatedly through 2025 by executive order. A framework deal involving a US joint venture was only announced in late September 2025, roughly three months after the two-week promise.
“[paraphrase] I'm going to save TikTok. We'll issue an executive order on day one.”
Four consecutive enforcement delays followed: January 20, 2025 (75 days), April 4, 2025 (75 days), June 19, 2025 (90 days) and September 2025 (to December 16, 2025). Asked in mid-2025 who the buyer was, Trump said 'I'll tell you in about two weeks.' A framework was signed off on September 25, 2025 and the deal finally closed on January 22, 2026 — about a year and four extensions after day one.
“[paraphrase] We will revisit Section 230 and hold the big tech platforms accountable.”
No Section 230 legislation reached Trump's desk. PolitiFact still had the promise unfulfilled at the January 2026 one-year review, and no bill advanced in either chamber during 2026.
“[paraphrase] We will build the National Garden of American Heroes — a vast outdoor park with statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived.”
Trump signed the order again in January 2025 and tied the garden to the nation's 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. That date passed with no garden built: a site in South Dakota was still under discussion, funding remained partial, and statue commissions were only beginning. PolitiFact kept the promise in the unfulfilled column.
“[paraphrase] We will open up large parcels of inexpensive land, bring in doctors, psychiatrists, social workers and drug rehab specialists, and create tent cities where the homeless can be relocated.”
No federally supported tent city with services has been created. PolitiFact found that 11 months into the term the administration had shifted to enforcement instead: a July 24, 2025 executive order focused on clearing encampments from public spaces and expanding forced treatment and civil commitment, without the promised medical and rehabilitation infrastructure.
“AMERICA NEEDS A SUPERHERO!... I will be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW.”
Deadline Dec 15, 2022 · 3 years, 9 months overdue
He met the one-day deadline, but the 'major announcement' on December 15, 2022 — three weeks after launching his 2024 campaign — was a $99 line of 45,000 digital trading cards depicting him as an astronaut, cowboy and superhero, with fine print noting they had 'no inherent monetary value.' The run sold out in roughly twelve hours for about $4.45 million and secondary-market volume collapsed by January 2023.
“[paraphrase] Beta launch for invited guests in November 2021, with a full nationwide rollout in the first quarter of 2022.”
The November 2021 iOS beta missed its schedule. The app reached the App Store on February 21, 2022 but immediately put tens of thousands of users on a waitlist amid glitches; CEO Devin Nunes conceded it would not be "fully functional" until the end of March. A web version followed in May 2022 with geographic restrictions, and Google Play approval did not come until October 12, 2022 — nearly a year after the promised beta.
“I do think that we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here, with his own platform. ... It's going to completely redefine the game.”
What actually appeared in early May 2021 was a blog, "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump," which drew almost no traffic and was shut down on June 2, 2021 — 29 days after launch — with Miller teasing that it was a precursor to the real platform. That platform, Truth Social, did not arrive until February 2022, about eleven months after the two-to-three-month promise.
“[paraphrase] I set a date of around Sept. 15, at which point it's going to be out of business in the United States.”
September 15, 2020 passed with no completed sale. Trump gave preliminary blessing on September 19 to an Oracle/Walmart 'TikTok Global' structure and Commerce postponed the app-store ban by a week. A federal judge enjoined the ban on September 27, 2020, and a second injunction followed on December 7. The deal was never consummated and TikTok kept operating — a pattern that repeated with serial extensions in his second term.
“And I'll be making a big decision on the Paris accord over the next two weeks.”
Two weeks passed with no decision. At the G7 in Taormina on May 26-27 Trump refused to endorse the accord and tweeted that he would announce his decision 'next week.' He announced withdrawal on June 1, 2017, roughly a month after the two-week pledge. Formal withdrawal notice did not come until November 4, 2019 and took effect November 4, 2020.
“[paraphrase] A hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition, exempting military, public safety and public health.”
Deadline Oct 23, 2016 · 9 years, 10 months overdue
A hiring freeze was imposed on January 23, 2017 but lifted on April 12, 2017, replaced by agency-by-agency workforce plans. Federal civilian employment was higher at the end of the term than at the start. PolitiFact rated the promise broken, noting no movement since April 2017.
“I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration.”
By day 55, nine of the ten named bills had not been introduced: the Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act, End the Offshoring Act, American Energy and Infrastructure Act, School Choice and Education Opportunity Act, Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act, End Illegal Immigration Act, Restoring Community Safety Act, Restoring National Security Act and Clean Up Corruption in Washington Act. Only a repeal-and-replace bill was introduced, and it did not pass. By April 2017 Trump called the 100-day benchmark a "ridiculous standard."
“[paraphrase] Provide six weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn child whose employer does not provide the benefit.”
No national paid maternity leave program was enacted. Proposals appeared in budget documents but were not taken up by Congress. The 2019 defense authorization act gave 12 weeks of paid parental leave to federal employees only, which PolitiFact cited in rating the broader promise a compromise: the vast majority of private-sector workers still had no paid leave.
“I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf.”
Trump visited golf clubs on 92 days in his first year and on 237 of the first 1,022 days of his first term — roughly a quarter of his presidency. By 2020 he had golfed more than Obama had at the same point, while claiming the opposite. He kept the habit in his second term, spending 106 of his first 473 days back in office at golf courses.
“[paraphrase] I alone can fix it.”
The federal government shut down three times during the term, including the longest shutdown in U.S. history, 35 days from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019, over border wall funding. Roughly 800,000 federal workers went without pay and the Congressional Budget Office estimated a $11 billion hit to GDP, $3 billion of it permanent.
“[paraphrase] We raised $6 million for the veterans, including $1 million of my own money, and it's going out to veterans' charities right away.”
By March 2016 the Washington Post found much of the money unaccounted for and charities said they had not received it. Trump only wrote his own $1 million cheque on May 24, 2016 — nearly four months later, and only after Post reporter David Fahrenthold pressed him publicly. The related Trump Foundation reporting contributed to the foundation's court-ordered dissolution and a $2 million payment in 2019.
“President Obama has renamed Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than 100 years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!”
The name was not changed during the first term; Alaska's congressional delegation opposed a reversal. PolitiFact rated the promise broken in July 2020. The mountain was renamed Mount McKinley by executive order in January 2025, during the second term.