Trump’s executive actions leave many Day One promises unfilled The president added three new policy moves, but hasn't yet tackled big priorities like immigration

President Donald Trump signed a trio of executive actions on his first regular workday at the White House — withdrawing from a trade agreement, freezing federal hiring and restricting federal funds for groups overseas that provide or promote abortions — but the moves represented only a small fraction of the “Day One” promises he made during the campaign.

Less than three weeks before the election, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Trump was remarkably specific as he told voters his candidacy represented “the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime.” He vowed to push on Day One a constitutional measure for congressional term limits, label China a currency manipulator, and impose a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists.


On Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during his first official briefing that it’s still Trump’s “intention” to follow through on what Trump called a “contract” with the American voters.

“We’re going to continue to sequence those out,” Spicer said of the unfulfilled promises.

The combined moves Trump made on Monday offered something for each of three key constituencies: social conservatives (the abortion policy), fiscal conservatives (the hiring freeze) and his populist base (withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership).

“We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Trump said in the Oval Office, with Vice President Mike Pence and a handful of senior aides standing behind him.

“Great thing for the American worker what we just did,” Trump said of pulling out of the trade deal, which had already stalled in Congress, rendering the new order largely symbolic.

Trump said the hiring freeze did not apply to the armed forces. “Except for the military,” Trump said of the memorandum as he signed it.

The actions were the most sweeping of his early presidency, following a Friday move asking federal agencies to “ease the burdens” of President Barack Obama’s health care law, a first step toward the Republican goal of dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

Trump tried to set a galloping pace in his first regular workday in the White House. Along with signing the new orders, he met with American CEOs in the morning and sat down with union representatives in the afternoon and congressional leaders, including Speaker Paul Ryan, in the evening. Trump also spoke by phone with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a day after speaking with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump had pledged that “on the first day of my term of office” he would “pursue” six measures “to clean up the corruption”: a constitutional amendment for term limits for Congress, a federal hiring freeze, a requirement to eliminate two federal regulations for each new one promulgated, a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of foreign governments and a ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

So far, he has announced only the hiring freeze.

The slow release of orders over several weeks is in part a public relations play. “That gives the American people — the issue — the proper attention that they deserve because part of it is that, if we put them all out in one day, then they get lost in the ether,” Spicer said.

Asked whether Trump still planned to follow through on all his promises, Spicer said, “That’s his intention.”

Trump also gave voters seven other promises related to the economy, including renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, labeling China a currency manipulator, approving the Keystone XL pipeline and cutting off funding to United Nations climate-change programs.

On Sunday, Trump addressed the future of NAFTA while swearing in his senior staff. “I ran a campaign somewhat based on NAFTA,” Trump said at the ceremony. “But we’re going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border.”

At Gettysburg, Trump had included some hedges in his 100-day contract, saying he would “propose” a term-limits amendment (versus enact it) and that he would “direct my secretary of the treasury” to label China a manipulator, not necessarily do so from the Oval Office.

He also promised to cancel federal funds for sanctuary cities and to “suspend immigration from terror-prone regions.” Neither has happened yet.

Trump has made clear he wants to focus heavily on the economy and jobs. “I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created,” he said earlier this month.

Trump told the business leaders he assembled at the White House that he’d slash taxes “massively” and curtail regulations. “We think we can cut regulations by 75 percent,” Trump said. “Maybe more.”

The group included Mark Fields of Ford Motor Co., Elon Musk of SpaceX, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and representatives from Whirlpool, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Arconic, Dow Chemical, U.S. Steel, Under Armour, International Paper and Corning.

Trump also threatened American companies that ship operations abroad. “If that happens, we are going to be imposing a very major border tax on the products when it comes in,” he said.

He pledged to be especially focused on trade and the economy: “It’s what the people wanted. It’s one of the reasons I’m sitting here instead of someone else sitting here. I think it’s something I’m good at,” Trump said.

