Trump Promised...

Apparently, the initial plan to address the solvency of social security was to rely on an improved economy and elimination of fraud and waste in the system.

Tax reform proposals debuted in April 2017 that would ostensibly cut taxes for the middle class, but at the expense of payroll taxes that fund Social Security. This effectively amounts to cuts in Social Security but no proposals were released at that time.

Fast forward to Davos 2020, asked in an interview with CNBC if cuts to entitlements would ever be on his plate, Trump said “At some point they will be... At the right time, we will take a look at that.”

Initially, the best measure of how inclusive Trump's leadership would be could be found in his list of cabinet picks.  Thus far, his list has a dearth of minorities and only a handful of women.  Three of these women represent immigrant groups: Nikki Haley, a daughter of Sikh immigrants, was picked for U.N. Ambassador; Elaine Chao, born in Taiwan (and wife to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell), was picked as Transportation secretary; and Seema Verma, a daughter of Indian immigrants, picked as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Unfortunately, his choice of Stephen Bannon and Jeff Sessions, both known to foment racist sentiments, are considered by many to run counter to his promise. Trump did disavow the support of white supremacists just days after a high-profile meeting in November 2016 of the "National Policy Institute" - an avowed white supremacist group - in Washington D.C. featured Nazi salutes and cheers of "hail Trump!"  Similarly, earlier in the year Trump was eventually compelled to distance himself from David Duke, a member of the KKK and avid Trump supporter.

The issue of white supremacy came to a head in August 2017 when a group of white supremacists descended upon Charlottesville, VA and were met by anti-fascist demonstrators.  The White House response to the chaos and violence that ensued was widely seen as anemic if not implicitly supportive of the white supremacists. Subsequent tone-deaf responses to the ongoing NFL national anthem protests during September 2017 did little to assuage the idea that the administration does not support racism.

In a glaring and unusual statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day in late January 2017, no mention was made about Jews or anti-Semitism in Trump's statement. The omission is troubling in that no previous statement from the White House has purposefully omitted such mention, and that the White House defended the omission, leading many to wonder if the omission was a deliberate snub.

Looking at class differences, Trump has assembled the richest cabinet in modern American history. For reference, George W. Bush's first cabinet had a combined, inflation-adjusted net worth of about $250 million — which is roughly one-tenth the wealth of Donald Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary alone. In fact, by mid-December 2016 the wealth possessed by the 17 cabinet picks, at least $9.5 billion, is greater than the 43 million least wealthy households in America. It's questionable that a cabinet of millionaires and billionaires will understand the vast majority of Americans in the problems they face.

On January 20th, 2017, immediately after Trump took office, the official White House web site dropped content on LGBTQ rights and also removed the Spanish language version of the site. It is not clear whether these editorial actions were deliberate signals against these communities or a side-effect of the process of transitioning the site to new ownership. For example, despite removing content related to LGBTQ rights, Trump announced that his administration would continue a 2014 Obama executive order which protects LGBTQ employees of Federal contractors.

Any doubt as to the stance of the administration towards LGBTQ people was erased in October 2017 when Trump addressed the "Values Voters Summit," an event hosted by the Family Research Council, an organization with well known, extreme anti-LGBTQ positions. But even before this address, Trump took measures to prevent transgendered people from serving in the military and the Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions took several steps to eliminate protections for trans-people.

Trump's stance on Democrats, "Never-Trumpers," and anyone who doesn't explicitly support him has been more than self-evident - to the point of threatening to withdraw funding from entire states whose electoral votes did not go to Trump, threatening urban areas with "sanctuary" policies, and so on. While this sort of rhetoric may play well with his supporters, it shows that Trump has hardly been a unifier in any sense of the word. His message has been consistent in one respect, however: if you praise him he will support you; if not, he won't. This doctrine is fundamentally incompatible with representing a diverse nation of over 300 million people.

The November 2016 settlement was approved by a Federal court in February 2018. There have been no known efforts since then to reopen Trump University.

Trump can propose an amendment to the Constitution, which would require a two-thirds majority in Congress to advance. But Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said the measure would not be on the agenda.

As of 21 January, 2017, after a full 24 hours in office, this promise had not been addressed.

On April 30th, 2018, Trump renewed the promise on Twitter stating "I recently had a terrific meeting with a bipartisan group of freshman lawmakers who feel very strongly in favor of Congressional term limits. I gave them my full support and endorsement for their efforts." However, it is not clear if any substantive action has been taken to push this proposal beyond the usual spate of Congressional proposals and, even then, it is highly unlikely that any action will be taken given the current deadlock between the Democratically-controlled House and a Senate led by Mitch McConnell in the 116th Congress.

Coal has seen a major decline in the past eight years and Trump attributes much of this decline to excessive regulation. Trump’s vow to “end the war on coal” will start by killing the Clean Power Plan. But his administration has also vowed to scale back an EPA rule to limit ground-level ozone pollution, as well as an Interior Department rule to protect streams from coal-mining waste. In January 2016, the Obama administration implemented an immediate moratorium on new coal leases, as the program was examined to make sure it was fair to taxpayers and ecologically sensitive. Trump would end that moratorium.

The closure of coal-fired power plants and the decline in domestically consumed coal has more to do with low natural gas prices than it does with the Environmental Protection Agency, so although coal won't completely disappear it is unclear how Trump will bring back jobs that have little economic incentive to exist.  Additionally, Trump is unlikely to be able to lift all of the applicable regulations, if past experience proves correct.

Additionally, a contradictory signal comes in the form of several of Trump's cabinet picks who come from oil & gas backgrounds and are unlikely to favor coal in any significant way.

The most direct action taken by the Trump administration came in June 2018 when the administration sought to use two obscure national defense related acts - Section 202 of the Federal Power Act and the Defense Production Act - to force grid providers to prioritize purchases from a designated list of coal and nuclear power providers in an attempt to bolster the revenues of such power generation facilities. The order comprises the most direct government interference in energy markets in a generation, increasing coal and nuclear energy plant operators' revenue at the expense of increased consumer price of electricity. Ostensibly, the plan was meant to buy time to study the vulnerabilities in the US energy system, particularly with particular consideration of the effect of variable and distributed generation such as wind and solar. 

 By 2019, however, more than eight major coal producing companies closed or filed for bankruptcy, citing a variety of factors from trade policies, gains in renewable energy, cheap gas, and even Trump's policies.

Although Trump's election stemmed the precipitous decline in coal jobs, no significant gains have been seen in coal employment above the levels of Summer 2016. Meanwhile, in 2018 there were 3.26 million "green energy" jobs compared to 1.17 million for all fossil fuel-related jobs.

Trump's transition team has already asked administration appointees to sign a form agreeing to the policies, although this does not apply to Congressional officials.  His administration may not be able to prohibit former administration officials from lobbying House and Senate members unless Congress itself passes legislation.

He didn't address this promise on his first day, but on January 28th, 2017, Trump signed an executive order enjoining Executive branch employees from becoming lobbyists within 5 years of their employment with the Federal government. This order has no effect on Legislative branch employees and it is currently uncertain how or if Trump will try to implement the same ban there.

2019 Update:

According to a database that tracks political appointees across government, the Trump administration has brought on at least 281 lobbyists - far more than any previous administration - with many who have worked in the administration returning to industry in a lobbying capacity. This trend seems to indicate a lack of enforcement or other weakness in the executive orders issued early in the administration.

The Navy signaled that it is foregoing a planned cruiser modernization program in its 2020 budget, opting instead to decommission at least six ageing cruisers in 2021 & 2022 without a plan for replacement.

The current (2019) 30 year plan from the Navy has the number of ships (not including unmanned ships currently in development) reaching a cap of 355 ships by 2034, up from approximately 300 in 2019.

Marine Lt. Gen. David Berger testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2019 that the Marine Corps would have to "consider potential end strength reductions in order to invest in equipment modernization and necessary training upgrades." This was delivered in an environment where Marines are looking to significant budget increases to support the purchase of more modern equipment and specialized personnel.

Total Army strength i\at the end of 2018 stood at 476,000 active duty soldiers - effectively the same strength as the previous years' goal. On top of that, the Army was having difficulty meeting it's recruiting goals and had to revise it's 2019 growth plan downwards.