Ledger · 2016 campaign · № 62
Grow the Army to 540,000 active-duty soldiers
Never delivered“[paraphrase] We will build an active Army of around 540,000 soldiers.”
- Promised
- , Military readiness speech, Union League, Philadelphia
- Re-promised
- 4 times with a fresh deadline
- Topic
- Foreign policy
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
Active-duty Army end strength stayed near 475,000 through the term; recruiting shortfalls led the Army to abandon growth targets in 2018. PolitiFact rated the promise broken. Related pledges for a 350-ship Navy and 1,200 Air Force fighters were rated compromises, with numbers rising but falling well short.