Donald Trump has spent the last year and a half making wild accusations against his presidential opponent, labeling minorities and making campaign promises that at least 59 million Americans thought he could keep. He has not even been sworn in as President of the United States yet and already, he is changing his tone. Perhaps Trump realized that now that he’s called Mexicans rapists and disrespected women and essentially designated all Muslims as terrorists, that he is about to be the president for all of the people he’s hurt and betrayed throughout his campaign. Here are just a few of the policies Trump was vying for during his campaign that now seem to be taking a different turn:
1. Obamacare.
During his campaign and especially the presidential debates, Trump referred to Obamacare as a “disaster” and a common phrase he would use during his rallies was that he would “repeal and replace” it. After speaking with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, we found out that Obamacare is not disastrous enough to change the entirety of it, according to Trump. He agreed to listen to Obama’s suggestions and continue to provide coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and allow children to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until the age of 26.
2. Marriage equality.
It’s no secret that Donald Trump gained a lot of his support throughout his campaign from the “alt-right” who believe even normal conservatism is not conservative enough. So perhaps to keep their support until the end, Trump appeased them by saying that he would consider appointing Supreme Court justices who would try to overturn the marriage equality ruling of June 2014. Conservatives may be having buyer’s remorse now that Trump stated that marriage equality is here to stay because “it was already settled, it’s law, it was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean, it’s done.”
3. Imprisoning Hillary Clinton.
If you attended a Trump rally during his campaign, “lock her up” could be heard being chanted, referring to his presidential opponent for her lack of responsibility with her email server. Trump supporters may have forgotten that Donald Trump actually has quite an amiable history with the Clintons, as they attended Trump’s 2005 wedding to Melania Trump.
So it’s not surprising that when asked whether he would truly assign a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton, Trump’s response was “I don’t want to hurt them, they’re nice people.” I guess Hillary isn’t so “crooked” after all.
4. Immigration and the wall.
Other than “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s other campaign slogan was known as “Build the Wall.” For those Trump supporters gearing up to go down to the Mexican border, with hammers and ladders in hand to keep immigrants out of our country, they may be met with the possibility of building a fence instead. On the campaign trail, the number 11 million was repeated many times to emphasize how many undocumented immigrants are living in America, but after being elected, Trump has now cut that number down by more than a half, saying that only two or three million criminal immigrants will be deported.
5. Draining the swamp.
This one cracks me up the most. Trump’s supporters actually thought that he could single-handedly get rid of the corrupt politicians and lobbyists in Washington. As we’ve seen Donald Trump arrange his transition team, we’ve seen politicians like Reince Priebus, Stephen Bannon, Jeff Sessions and Ken Blackwell given positions with the possibility of Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie being offered spots. I’m sure Trump will have great success “draining the swamp” that he’s currently filling.
The only thing Trump has not changed his stance on yet is abortion and appointing Supreme Court justices who will try to overturn Roe v. Wade. Let’s hope that he adjusts that promise to retract women’s reproductive rights as well. Other than that though, throughout Trump’s entire campaign, I’ve been saying that he’s playing us. Donald Trump spent his whole life living in New York City as a self proclaimed Democrat, who has golfed with Bill Clinton. His campaign promises are turning out to be nothing more than just that: campaign promises that may never be fulfilled once he gets to the White House. We’ll see how his supporters feel about a businessman who has no experience in politics promising something that never comes to fruition, kind of like what they accuse all politicians of doing.