United States President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on the simple message that he would fix what he sees as the country’s problems: the border, inflation, housing prices, and healthcare.
After Trump won the 2024 election, we asked PolitiFact readers to send us their questions about his campaign promises. Most were about taxes, immigration, abortion, the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and Medicare.
Trump and Republican congressional leaders appear poised to focus on immigration and economic promises. Republicans will have a Senate majority and, pending a few uncalled races, are also expected to have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
We tracked and rated 100 promises during Trump’s 2024 campaign. Some hinge on situations not entirely within his control – such as his promise to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office. During Trump’s first presidency, he broke about half his campaign promises, kept about one-quarter and for the rest achieved a compromise.
We asked the Trump campaign about his 2024 promises, including his timeframe for telling the public his priorities for the beginning of his term. The campaign didn’t answer our questions but did send a brief statement.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. “He will deliver.”
Economy
Trump’s plan to renew his 2017 tax bill would not provide new tax cuts so much as to prevent a sharp tax escalation that would otherwise have hit if the law had expired on schedule in 2025. Trump has not pledged to expand the child tax credit. In March 2023, he floated a “baby bonus” of cash for families with newborns but does not repeat this idea later in the campaign.
Trump promised to end taxation on tips, which would affect about 2.5 per cent of workers. Trump also said he’d end taxation of Social Security benefits, overtime pay and car loan interest. All of these policies would require congressional action.
However, Trump has also pledged to enact a 10 per cent to 20 per cent across-the-board import tariff. If he follows through, the price increases on consumer goods “could more than offset the benefits” of Trump’s other proposed tax changes, Garrett Watson, a Tax Foundation senior policy analyst, said.
