Donald Trump’s Promises to Keep

AS KAMALA HARRIS AND TIM WALZ leave the Democratic convention in Chicago full of optimism and ideas for a better future, it’s worth remembering what Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump has promised to achieve: a hodgepodge of grievances, radicalism and ill will.

Leave aside the extreme policy goals set out in this document. Project2025from which Trump and his campaign emerged requested to distance himself, even though the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for “the next conservative president” was drawn up with extensive input from Trump associates, and even though the people putting the plan together were claim in private that Trump is “very supportive of what we’re doing.” Let’s also leave aside for a moment what Trump’s critics stand for, in case they misinterpret something.

Instead, let’s just look at what the former president himself said, in his campaign speeches and on the Agenda 47 section from his website, which lays out his various policies and has videos and transcripts that show his reasoning, if that’s the right word. Here’s some of what he’s promised to do:

“Release the J-6 hostages now. They should release them now for what they went through.”
—Speak at a campaign rally in Virginia, June 28, 2024

“The moment I win the election, I will quickly investigate the cases of all political prisoners who have been wrongly victimized by the Biden-Harris regime so we can get them out of prison and back home to their families where they belong.”
—Addressing religious conservatives at a rally on July 26, 2024

“The Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. Even larger than President Dwight D. Eisenhower did many years ago. You know, he was a moderate, but he believed very strongly in borders. He carried out the largest deportation operation we have ever had (Operation Wetback).”
—From Trumps speech accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention, July 18, 2024

“On the first day of my new term, I will sign an executive order making it clear to federal agencies that, under the proper interpretation of the law, the future children of illegal aliens will not automatically be granted U.S. citizenship. . . They must be returned.”
—Agenda 47 campaign video on “Ending Citizenship for Children of Illegal Aliens and Banning Birth Tourism”, May 30, 2023

“I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border is immediately sentenced to death, and that includes women, because as you know, women are the number one trafficker. Children are actually number two.”
—From Agenda 47 campaign video on Trump’s website, July 21, 2023

“We are going to ask everyone who sells drugs and is caught selling drugs to get the death penalty for their heinous acts.”
—Trump in announce his campaign, on November 15, 2022

“The drug cartels are waging war on America — and now is the time for America to wage war on the cartels. . . . I will direct the Department of Defense to use special forces, cyber warfare, and other overt and covert actions as appropriate to inflict maximum damage on the cartel’s leadership, infrastructure, and operations.”
-Trump campaign videoDecember 22, 2023

“I’m also going to exempt all police officers and law enforcement officers in the United States from being destroyed by the radical left for taking strong measures against crime. These are people, they want to destroy them because they want to lock up criminals.”
-Trump speaking at a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, December 19, 2023

“We’re going to give our police back their powers and we’re going to give them immunity from prosecution so they don’t get prosecuted for doing their job.”
—Speak at a campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, May 1, 2024

“Every single attack Biden has on gun owners and gun manufacturers will be ended in my very first week back in office, perhaps my very first day.”
—Addressing the NRA Presidential Forum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, February 9, 2024

“Within hours of my inauguration, I will sign an executive order prohibiting any federal department or agency from working with any organization, company, or individual to censor, restrict, categorize, or impede the lawful expression of American citizens. I will prohibit the use of federal funds to label domestic expression as ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation.’ And I will begin identifying and firing every federal official who has engaged in domestic censorship — directly or indirectly — whether it’s the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the DOJ, whoever they are.”
—“Freedom of Expression Policy Initiative” videoDecember 15, 2022

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“I will reinstate my famously successful executive order requiring that for every NEW regulation, two OLD regulations be repealed – and I will ask Congress to make it permanent. . . . In addition, I will require that all agency regulations be made public in a central database, or be declared null and void.”
—Agenda 47 campaign plankApril 16, 2023

“I will deploy a team of warlike lawyers to find all unnecessary regulations in the Federal Register that impede domestic (energy) production. And we will wipe them off the books. We will withdraw from (the) Paris climate agreement again. And we will approve quickly all worthwhile energy infrastructure projects (that involve fossil fuels). . . Nobody has more liquid gold under their feet than the United States of America. And we will use it and profit from it and live with it. And we will be rich again and happy again.”
—Agenda 47 campaign plank on energy independence, February 9, 2023

“I will not give a cent to a school that has a vaccination requirement.”
—Reading from an autocue at a rally in Virginia, March 3, 2024

“Under the plan I am announcing today, we will use the billions and billions of dollars we will collect through taxes, fines, and suing overly large private university endowments to fund a new institution called the American Academy.”
—Agenda 47 campaign videoNovember 1, 2023

“We will empower parents and local school boards to hire and reward great principals and teachers, and also to fire the bad ones. Those whose performance is unsatisfactory will be fired. As in The student: You’re fired.”

“We will teach students to love their country, not to hate their country as they are taught now.”

“We will bring prayer back to our schools.”

“We will create schools that are safe, secure and drug-free, with immediate expulsion for any student who harms a teacher or another student.”

“And another thing I’m going to do very early in my administration is close down the Department of Education. . . . We’re going to send it all back to the United States.”
—Select items from Trumps ten point education planpart of Agenda 47, unveiled on September 13, 2023

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“I will direct the Department of Justice to file federal civil rights lawsuits against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination (i.e., diversity, equity, and inclusion policies). . . . I will propose a measure to fine them up to the full amount of their endowment. A portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution to victims of these illegal and unjust policies, policies that have so badly damaged our country. . . . We will rid our institutions of this anti-American madness once and for all.”
—From Agenda 47 campaign plank titled “Protecting Students from the Radical Left and Marxist Maniacs Infecting Educational Institutions”, July 17, 2023

“I will repeal every Biden policy that promotes the chemical castration and sexual mutilation of our youth and ask Congress to send me a bill banning child sexual mutilation in all 50 states.”
—Speak at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, March 4, 2023

“I will repeat my action to exclude illegals from public housing. We will revoke all work permits for illegal aliens. And I will demand that Congress send me a bill that prevents future presidents from abusing their power to provide social services in this way.
—Agenda 47 campaign videoNovember 1, 2023

“Under my strategy, in collaboration with the states, we will PROHIBIT urban camping wherever possible.

Violators of these bans are arrested, but they are given the option to accept treatment and services if they are willing to be rehabilitated. Many of them do not want to do that, but we give them the option.”
—Agenda 47 campaign videoApril 18, 2023

“Christians, go vote! Just this once. You don’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be solved. It will be good. You don’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. . . . In four years, you don’t have to vote anymore. We will solve it so well, you don’t have to vote anymore.”
—Speak to religious conservatives in West Palm Beach, Florida, July 26, 2024