It has been just over a year since Donald Trump began his second term in office. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he made a lot of promises to the MAGA base as well as to independent voters who helped bring him back to the White House. However, when comparing those campaign pledges to the current state of our country, questions remain about how fully those promises have been delivered.
No New Wars: Ending Russia and Ukraine in Less Than 24 Hours
This promise was big and appealed to many voters who wanted to see the end of killings on both sides. Something else that was found to be appealing to voters was “No New Wars,” after seeing two under Biden. Trump said many times, “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after I win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled.” It will take me no longer than one day.” He also made this statement after winning the 2024 election: “I’m not going to start wars; I’m going to stop wars. We had no wars; for four years, we had no wars. Except we defeated ISIS.”
If we look at this today, Trump has yet to be able to make a peace plan for the Russia–Ukraine conflict and is nowhere close to a deal in less than 24 hours. In fact, he made calls three weeks later but still was not able to get a deal. To be fair, nobody is saying ending a war is easy, but the fact that Trump made this bold claim and has failed means this promise has not been fulfilled. Now, if we look at his claim of “No New Wars,” people have disputed whether he has broken this promise. But if we look at it, we had the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, the 2026 Afghanistan–Pakistan War, and most noticeably, the current war between Israel and the U.S. against Iran that has cost the lives of six U.S. soldiers. All of this happened under his second term, so the claim of “No New Wars” has fallen.
Bringing Prices Down, Including Groceries and Gas
According to the data, groceries have not gone down; they have seen an increase of 2.1%. Gas prices have gone down in price, but not in a historically dramatic way like Trump said back in 2024, when he said, “Prices will come down… they’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast…” Prices will come down and come down dramatically and come down fast.” Overall, for groceries, Trump has so far failed on this promise. Gas prices are mixed—they have gone down, but not the way Trump claimed.
The Biggest Massive Deportations in U.S. History / Violent Illegals First in Deportations
Trump made a big promise on massive deportations, the biggest in history. He said, “We will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history.” As of his first year, Trump has only deported about 270,000 illegal immigrants, which is about the same as former President Biden’s last year in office. “They’re going back home where they belong. And we start with the criminals. There are many, many criminals.” This is another promise Trump and JD Vance made before winning the 2024 election. According to the numbers, 70% of the people ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has deported do not have a criminal record. This is not what half the country really voted for, especially the Latino vote, where Trump won big numbers. Everyone agreed that violent illegals should be deported, but that’s not what’s happening. Only 39% of Americans, according to polling, approve of Trump’s deportations.
Bringing Back Manufacturing Jobs
This was one of Trump’s most popular promises to the MAGA base. He said back in 2024, “We’re going to build back manufacturing and construction jobs and bring those workers back home.… We’re going to bring many of that back—many—I think we’re going to bring more than—more than all of it back.” The current numbers show we have lost 90,000 manufacturing jobs, nowhere near bringing them back.
The Release of the Epstein Files
This was also an attractive promise since Kamala did not comment on this issue. Many Americans were in favor of full transparency of these files to bring justice to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes. Trump said in a Fox News interview back in 2024, when he was asked if he would declassify the Epstein files, “Yeah, I would.” He also said, “I guess I would… but you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.” In the beginning, with Trump having executive power, he dodged the Epstein files, saying things like “Democrat hoax” and also saying, “I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring. And I don’t understand why it keeps going.” It later took the House of Representatives to vote on the act and win approval, but the thing is, Trump has the executive power to simply release these files. It should not have taken him this long, and as of today, March 6, 2026, only half has been released, with no arrests made at all.
Putting America First
This one was the most intriguing for me. The idea of helping our citizens first—our children, our poor towns—and finally using our tax dollars sounded amazing from Trump. He said many times in 2024, “We are going to start by all putting America first.” In 2024, Donald Trump said, “We are going to start by all putting America first.” As of right now, sadly, this has not been the case. According to the numbers, Trump has spent more on foreign countries than on our own. For example, Trump, so far in his second term, has given the state of Israel about 30 billion dollars, along with executive orders giving them extra advanced military weapons. Trump is also, like I mentioned earlier, about the Iran war, fighting on behalf of Israel’s interests. There has been no evidence of Iran developing a nuclear weapon; in fact, back in March 2025, Trump’s United States Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said, “The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.” This is not putting America first; it is doing the work of a foreign country that costs and risks the lives of our brave men and women in our military.
In the end, campaign promises are so easy to make but much harder to fulfill once you’re elected. Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2024 with strong support from voters who believed in him ending wars, lowering prices, deporting criminals, bringing back jobs, and putting America first. However, when comparing those promises to the reality one year into his second term, many of them remain unfinished. Supporters may argue that change takes time, while critics believe these promises should have already produced clearer results.
