On November 5, 2024, Donald J. Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the quadrennial presidential election to become the 47th President of the United States of America. President Trump was previously the 45th president, making him the second president in history to serve nonconsecutive terms. The first was Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd and 24th president.
President Trump ran on multiple core issues, the largest being inflation, immigration, transparency, and, as he put it, “no new wars.” But has the president been true to his promises? To this point, he has unequivocally been ineffective in his commitments to the very issues that resulted in his reelection.
On October 1, 2024, President Trump claimed at a rally that, “Starting on day one of my new administration, we will end inflation, and we will make America affordable again.” Meanwhile, the January Consumer Price Index (CPI) report was revised up to 3.1% year over year. President Trump has enacted sweeping tariffs, and while he denies their impact, the Cato Institute has found that these import duties have added 0.83 percentage points to the CPI. Additionally, gas prices in many parts of the country are now $4 or over, with many places here in California posting prices of $5 or $6 per gallon.
“We’re going to get the prices down. We have to get them down. It’s too much,” Trump shouted on the campaign trail. So when will Americans’ costs of living “get down?”
Meanwhile, this administration is less transparent than any others. In a June 2024 interview on Fox News, President Trump, asked if he would release the Epstein files, simply replied, “Yeah, yeah, I would…I’d certainly take a look at it.” However, the President went on to call the files and their release a hoax “made up by Comey… made up by Obama… made up by Biden…” on Truth Social. Even after the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, more than 2 million files remain fully redacted. How transparent.
“I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars,” President Trump declared in his election night speech shortly after securing his victory. On February 28 of this year, a Tomahawk missile struck a school in Iran, killing at least 175 people, mainly girls between 7 and 12. This came days after the start of Operation Epic Fury, the United States attack on Iran that has dragged us into yet another foreign war.
“So many promises he made have been broken,” shared one student who requested anonymity. “Gas is up a dollar from last year, basic groceries like eggs and ground meat have gone up by so much that we barely buy them anymore, and his proposed ‘securing the border’ and ‘keeping Americans safe’ with ICE, has me scared to leave my house… This president has not kept a single promise that would actually help the people of the U.S. or that wouldn’t directly benefit him.”
“He seems to be doing the opposite of what he promised,” said Adrian Vega, another student. “Recently, gas prices have been rising and the U.S. is now involved in a military conflict with Iran. The situation risks escalating into a larger war and could further damage the economy.”
Whether you supported President Trump during the 2024 campaign or not, it is undeniable that he has not alleviated any of the issues everyday Americans face. He promised to make our lives easier, but it seems like our lives have only been made more difficult through his reckless decision making and dishonesty with voters.
