{"id":702290,"date":"2026-01-17T14:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/702290\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T14:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:45:10","slug":"heres-where-trumps-most-jaw-dropping-promises-stand-a-year-into-his-second-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/702290\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s where Trump’s most jaw-dropping promises stand a year into his second term"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — From toppling Venezuela’s leader<\/a> to ordering mass deportations<\/a>, from turning once independent<\/a> government entities into rubber stamps to demolishing the East Wing<\/a> for a White House ballroom, President Donald Trump<\/a> spent his first year back in office trampling political norms and testing institutional checks and balances.<\/p>\n

Some of his ideas that once seemed implausible<\/a>, if not outright fanciful<\/a>, are now reality. But there are other things that Trump could not deliver on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve kept all my promises and much more,\u201d Trump insisted during a speech this week in Detroit.<\/p>\n

With his administration nearing the one-year mark, here’s a look at where some of his most jaw-dropping promises stand:<\/p>\n

U.S. defense officials in May accepted<\/a> a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar<\/a> for Trump to eventually use as Air Force One, brushing aside ethical and legal questions and even anti-bribery constitutional provisions<\/a>. The aircraft is being retrofitted in Texas to meet U.S. security and communications standards that are likely to cost about $400 million, the Air Force says. Outside experts estimate costs could approach $1 billion. Despite Trump’s boasts that the work would be done in six months, completion may not actually occur until after he leaves office in January 2029. <\/p>\n

After the U.S. military’s removal of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, Trump renewed his calls to take over<\/a> the semiautonomous Danish territory<\/a>, insisting the United States will \u201chave\u201d Greenland \u201cone way or another.\u201d The president also tapped Gov. Jeff Landry<\/a>, R-La., as the special U.S. envoy to Greenland, with a nod to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France that doubled the size of the U.S. Denmark says it is not ceding the world’s largest island and that any invasion could have geopolitical implications given that Denmark is a NATO ally.<\/p>\n

Trump has tried to denigrate his predecessor, Joe Biden, by accusing the Democrat of overreliance on the autopen<\/a> to sign presidential pardons, legislation and other key documents, despite the fact that Trump and other presidents have also used the tool. In October, a GOP-controlled House committee released a report alleging misuse of the autopen by the Biden administration. Trump’s Department of Justice is investigating. <\/p>\n

The president has said he wants to reopen<\/a> an \u201cexpanded and rebuilt\u201d Alcatraz<\/a>, the notorious San Francisco Bay prison that has been closed for six-plus decades, to house immigration detainees. William K. Marshall III, the director of the Bureau of Prisons, toured the island in July. His agency announced that engineers and planners were developing design concepts, preliminary budgets and logistical models.<\/p>\n

Trump has posted on social media about extending traditional home mortgages repayments from 30 years to 50 years, suggesting that this could ease concerns about housing affordability. Economists say the switch would make it harder to build wealth through home ownership. Nonetheless, the White House has pledged to push the change. Officials have made little headway since, however, and Trump instead has looked to reduce mortgage rates by having the federal government buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds.<\/p>\n

Trump has frequently toyed with the idea of a third term, despite the Constitution stating that no one can be elected president \u201cmore than twice.\u201d He acknowledged in October, \u201cI would say that if you read it, it\u2019s pretty clear I\u2019m not allowed to run. It\u2019s too bad.\u201d White House chief of staff Susie Wiles also told Vanity Fair that Trump \u201cknows he can\u2019t run again.\u201d Still, Trump mused this month, \u201cI\u2019m not allowed to run? I\u2019m not sure,\u201d and suggested there could be \u201ca constitutional movement\u201d to make that happen. <\/p>\n

Despite it being far-fetched<\/a>, Trump has talked about making America’s northern neighbor the \u201cGreat State of Canada\u201d since before his second term started. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> assured Trump during a subsequent White House visit that his country \u201cwon\u2019t be for sale, ever.\u201d Carney suggested in June that Trump had lost interest. Trump has continued to bring up the idea, though, including during a September speech to military personnel in Virginia. <\/p>\n

Trump suggested in February<\/a> that billionaire Elon Musk<\/a> would be checking out Fort Knox in Kentucky to ensure that U.S. gold reserves were still there. The president even floated the notion of tagging along. Nothing came of that, however, and Musk has left the administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The president pledged to ship<\/a> up to 30,000 of the \u201cworst criminal aliens\u201d to a U.S. Navy lockup in Cuba, and between February and June, about 500 immigrants were held there. But those numbers have since declined and sometimes reached zero<\/a>. Housing migrants at Guantanamo is more expensive than in traditional detention centers, and doing so has drawn legal challenges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump repeatedly suggested that the U.S. would take over war-torn Gaza and move out the Palestinians<\/a> living there, and that U.S. developers could turn the area into a \u201cRiviera of the Middle East,\u201d<\/a> after the war between Israel and Hamas<\/a>. Gaza’s reconstruction is a key question amid a Trump administration-brokered ceasefire<\/a>, but Arab nations have rejected<\/a> the idea of it being a vacation spot. Trump no longer mentions it. <\/p>\n

The president says his tariffs<\/a> could raise enough revenue for most Americans to get $2,000 payments. But he also has pledged to spend that same money on plugging deficits created by tax cuts, reducing the national debt, keeping a key nutrition program for low-income mothers and children funded<\/a> during last year’s government shutdown, aiding farmers and adding to defense spending for 2027<\/a>. The U.S. collected about $289 billion in tariff revenue<\/a> last year, which would be well short of what rebate checks would cost, even without the other promised earmarks. Trump also promised that slashing the size of federal government<\/a> would give Americans rebate checks, but those never materialized. <\/p>\n

Trump has frequently said that steep import tariffs<\/a> \u201cwill be enough to cut all of the income tax,\u201d long suggesting that the U.S. was better off during the Gilded Age<\/a>, when there was no income tax and federal revenue came largely from tariffs. \u201cIf you go back to the 1800s, 1887,\u201d he said Friday, \u201cWe had money, so much money, we didn\u2019t know what to do with it.\u201d Lately, however, his administration has more often been promoting how much his tax and spending law<\/a> might reduce 2026 tax bills for many Americans. <\/p>\n

Trump hates the dynamic kickoff<\/a>, calling it a \u201cdemeaning\u201d and \u201cunromantic\u201d affront to football’s \u201cpageantry.\u201d By November, Trump was suggesting the NFL didn’t \u201chave the right to do that to the game\u201d while acknowledging, \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ll change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump signed an executive order<\/a> in September aiming to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War. It will take an act of Congress to make the change lawful. <\/p>\n

The board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, stocked with Trump loyalists, voted in December to add Trump’s name<\/a> to Washington’s premier performing arts venue, memorializing the 35th president. The move drew show cancellations<\/a> and a lawsuit<\/a>. The Kennedy Center is named by statute<\/a> and would need Congress’ approval for a legal change. <\/p>\n

Trump suggested before his second term that the U.S. might retake control of the Panama Canal<\/a> because Panama had failed to check Chinese influence over the waterway<\/a>. His administration then pressured China to have the Hong Kong-based operator of ports at both ends of the canal sell those interests<\/a> to a U.S. consortium, though that process faced delays. Panama withdrew from China’s Belt and Road<\/a> investment program in Latin America, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Panama<\/a> in April and agreed to bolster security coordination. <\/p>\n

The president announced<\/a> in December that his long-promised \u201c gold card<\/a> \u201d was going on sale. It offers legal status, and an eventual pathway to U.S. citizenship, for individuals paying $1 million and corporations ponying up twice that per foreign-born employee, plus an upfront $15,000 fee to cover screening costs. The program is meant to replace EB-5 visas<\/a>, which offered permanent U.S. residency in exchange for foreign investors spending a bit more than $1 million on a business that creates at least 10 full-time jobs for American workers. <\/p>\n

Since tearing down the East Wing, construction crews have worked into the night, hustling to finish the massive ballroom<\/a> before Trump’s term ends. The president initially said the structure, set to be bigger than the White House itself, would cost $200 million but he now says $400 million. He has promised that it will be paid for by himself and private donors. The White House has released only a partial list<\/a> of who is actually contributing and has argued that parts of the project’s plans are \u201c top secret<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Following the U.S. operation in Venezuela, Trump accused Colombian President Gustavo Petro of \u201cmaking cocaine and selling it to the United States\u201d and said U.S intervention in that country \u201csounds good to me.\u201d After a friendly call with Petro, however, Trump suggested that \u201cthe situation of drugs and other disagreements\u201d had been defused. Trump, though, also maintains that Mexico is \u201crun\u201d by drug cartels and says, \u201cYou have to do something with Mexico.\u201d He’s warned Iran<\/a> that if that country starts \u201ckilling people like they have in the past\u201d during a recent round of sweeping, anti-government protests<\/a>, then \u201cthey are going to get hit very hard by the United States.\u201d Killings have run into the thousands, but by Friday, Trump appeared to be backing off<\/a> those threats.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly noted Cuba’s weakened position since the U.S. captured Maduro, whose country was a major ally of the communist-run island. Trump has said Cuba \u201conly survives because of Venezuela\u201d and is \u201cready to fall\u201d without the U.S. intervening. Venezuela’s economic and social chaos and Maduro’s ouster have raised questions<\/a> about Cuba’s future. But Trump has also suggested Cuba \u201cmake a deal, BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE,\u201d without saying what that means. <\/p>\n

Trump says he wants a Golden Dome missile defense program<\/a> \u2014 a multilayered, $175 billion system that would put U.S. weapons in space for the first time \u2014 to be fully operational<\/a> by January 2029. Defense officials say more likely all that will be achieved by then is some initial capability for the system. It is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that can detect and stop missiles at various stages of attack. <\/p>\n

Trump said he talked to Rob Manfred before Major League Baseball’s commissioner reinstated Cincinnati Reds slugger Pete Rose in May<\/a>. Rose died in 2024 but still faced a baseball ban over betting on the game, despite having a record 4,256 career hits. Trump now wants Rose in the Hall of Fame, but that’s up to the Hall\u2019s Classic Baseball Committee, which likely will not meet until at least December 2027.<\/p>\n

The fourth installment of the cop buddy-comedy series starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan will be coming out<\/a> after a reported request from Trump. Paramount, which is co-owned by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder and Trump megadonor Larry Ellison, is set to distribute the film. Semafor reported that Trump had asked Ellison to help revive the franchise. Warner Bros. released the first three \u201cRush Hour\u201d films, but eschewed the fourth after earlier sexual misconduct allegations<\/a> against its director, Brett Ratner. Ratner also made a documentary on first lady Melania Trump.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — From toppling Venezuela’s leader to ordering mass deportations, from turning once independent government entities into rubber…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[211134,3907,4179,40,285,1523,211133,49,978,659,10673,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-702290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-211134","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-immigration","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-taxes","14":"tag-u-s-venezuela-conflict","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa","18":"tag-washington-news","19":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115910981848575529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}