“Promises Made Promises Kept:” recent Trump campaign slogan. Let’s examine it.

• Build a wall and MEXICO will pay for it: how is that going?

• Reverse US trade deficit: US trade deficits are at record highs.

• Get rid of budget deficits as well as national debt: government is facing a record high non-recession deficit this fiscal year.

• Pass a middle class tax cut: actually the tax cut was aimed at the top 1% of wage earners and the corporations, which has resulted in the record high budget deficit for this year and contributed to the exploding national debt.

• Protect Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare: over the next 10 years, Trump’s 2020 budget aims to spend $1.5 trillion less on Medicaid, $25 billion less on Social Security, and $845 billion less on Medicare.

• “Drain the swamp”: the following individuals are former and current cabinet secretaries in the Trump administration.

— Tom Price, former HHS Secretary, resigned after it was revealed he used private aircraft at taxpayer expense for government trips which cost in excess of $400,000.

— Ryan Zinke, former Interior Secretary, resigned as he was facing two Inspector General inquiries.

— Scott Pruitt, former EPA Secretary, resigned when faced with 16 investigations.

— Mathew Whitaker, former acting Attorney General, was on the board and worked for a company (World Patent Marketing) previous to coming to the DOJ. This company was charged by the FTC and convicted of fraud, and the court ordered the company to close and pay a $26 million fine.

— Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, is being investigated by Congress because he lifted sanctions on Russian Oligarch and Putin ally Oleg Deripaska.

— Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary, is going to be held accountable for failing to uphold campus sexual assault rules and for her rollback of for-profit college regulations and for several other issues.

— Alex Acosta, Labor Secretary, has been ruled by a Federal Judge to have broken the law (while he was a prosecutor in Florida) by arranging  a lenient plea deal for billionaire Jeffery Epstein for human trafficking and keeping the plea deal secret from the victims (some as young as 13).

If these individuals represent Trump’s effort to “Drain the Swamp” (clean up Washington), it does not appear that he has been effective. It also appears Donald Trump has not been successful in keeping his promises he made during his campaign.

Rene Payne

Stanford