Can Trump keep his promises?
Now that the unthinkable has happened: a Donald Trump presidential election victory despite the best efforts of myriad honorable individuals who fought for a different result, it will soon be time for our new leader to put up or shut up.
I will be keeping a scorecard to evaluate how many of his promises are kept as all of us should. Will he:
– Be responsible for the imprisonment of his opponent?
– Erect a $25 billion “beautiful wall” between the United States and Mexico which Mexico will finance?
– “Wipe out ISIS fast”?
– End all crime and violence in our country?
– Bring back the steel mills and make coal an energy king?
– Be able to bolster the military, maintain crumbling entitlements, and enact massive spending for infrastructure without adding trillions of dollars to the national debt that he bemoans?
– Unravel the treaty to limit Iran’s nuclear capability?
– Repeal the Affordable Care Act?
– Extricate the United States from trade and climate agreements that we pledged to support without regard to the consequences of our word being found to be worthless?
– Impose a first-ever religious test for entry into this country and ban all Muslims “until we figure out what the hell is going on”?
– Slam the door on all of the Syrian refugees whom we helped to create through our military escapades?
– Create a massive deportation squad to break up families as our government ousts eleven million or more illegal immigrants, including those who were brought here long ago as children?
– Finally, and most importantly (smile), will store clerks again say “Merry Christmas” (yes, he did make this idiotic pledge).
A new president with no experience in public service is likely to find that the simplistic solutions that he promoted during his campaign to address serious problems are not achievable.
Most of the promises made by Donald Trump should not be kept and my bet is that his batting average will be close to zero.
Oren M. Spiegler is a resident of Upper Saint Clair.