Trump’s promises are more sizzle than steak

If you voted for Trump, despite his mountain of misgivings, for the sole purpose of getting our nation’s fiscal house back in order, you’re either devastated or at a minimum disappointed. Trump 2.0 is picking up right where he left off in his first term — writing massive checks the U.S. government can’t cash and continuing to borrow trillions of dollars from global creditors just to keep the lights on.

The latest conservative budget projections now estimate our debt load is going to increase by at least another $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years. This fiscal reality sharply contradicts Trump’s sales pitch out on the campaign trail where he promised no new debt. At a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania, in August 2024, Trump said: “We’re going to pay off the debt of our country because this country owes $35 trillion, but that rapidly can come down.” Bait, meet switch.

I’m guessing it would’ve been tough to cast a vote for Trump under the guise of fiscal sanity if you got a sneak peek at the current headlines: “Trump’s combined two-term debt totals up to $10.3 trillion and climbing”

If world peace were the motivating factor to hold your nose and vote for Trump in November, then you’re probably as confused as the rest of us. Trump’s campaign promises to quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza now have the strong stench of propaganda. Thousands of military and civilian lives continue to be lost each month on both war fronts with no ceasefires, no serious peace talks, and certainly no end in sight, just escalating death tolls.

What if the peace seekers got a glimpse of today’s headline a few days before they voted: “Ukraine and Gaza wars continue to rage — 100K more dead since Trump sworn in”

The next batch of disgruntled Trump voters rapidly coming down the pike are likely to be the millions of Medicaid recipients who suddenly lose their health care coverage. I’m guessing none of the estimated 49% of Medicaid recipients who voted for Trump in 2024 did so expecting their health insurance to be on the chopping block. Why should they? Trump never mentioned cutting Medicaid benefits when he was begging for their votes out on the campaign trail.

Credit: Geoff Duncan

Credit: Geoff Duncan

If the already cash-strapped Medicaid population would have caught an early glimpse of today’s headlines, can you imagine their electoral revolt: “DOGE rocket explodes on launch pad — Congress forced to cut $800 billion out of Medicaid.”

The Texas two-step on the campaign trail went like this — Trump promised tax cuts to everyone with a heartbeat and Elon Musk promised to eliminate $2 trillion worth of waste, fraud and abuse inside the federal government to pay for those tax cuts. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Unfortunately for America both today and tomorrow, that’s not the way things are going to work out. Musk failed at his $2 trillion “phishing” expedition (pun intended) and Trump continues to push his sweet tasting tax cuts across the legislative finish line, despite no way to pay for them. Recipe meet disaster for Congress.

Other pockets of frustration are mounting in response to Trump’s all too familiar more sizzle than steak leadership style. Whipsawing tariffs, mass deportations and revenge-filled executive orders are leading many back to the same headspace they were in November of 2020. A headspace that persuaded them to vote for a less than perfect Biden over an unhinged Trump, only to reverse course in 2024.

With a second chance on his political life, Trump 2.0 is once again proving to Americans he is a better campaigner than a president.

Hard to tell what future headlines are going to say. There’s a growing chance in the not-too-distant future they will either label Trump a village idiot or neighborhood bully, neither of which is befitting of a U.S. president.