President Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up as he walks to the White House on May 7, 2017, after returning from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Yesterday, journalists discovered that the Trump regime had deleted the president’s infamous press release from 2015 that called for a ban on all Muslims traveling to the United States. But it wasn’t just the Muslim ban. Every single press release from before January 1, 2017 has been erased from donaldjtrump.com. Thankfully, the internet never forgets.


As Russ Kick from the website Memory Hole notes, every Trump/Pence 2016 campaign press release that was deleted this week has been backed up by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. It’s almost impossible to completely erase something from the internet these days—for better and for worse.

So whether it’s Trump’s promise to drain the swamp by imposing congressional term limits, or his promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, every one is saved for your reading pleasure. Or displeasure, as it were.


For instance, you can still read Trump’s original December 7, 2015 press release that starts with the unambiguous call to ban all Muslims from entering the US:



Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.

That particular press release has been controversial not only for just being a shitty and illegal thing to call for. It also lays bare the true intention of Trump’s executive orders targeting travel from predominantly Muslim countries.

Screenshot from a now-deleted press release by the Donald Trump campaign, saved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)


Or you can read Trump’s November 1, 2016 remarks about Obamacare, titled “Donald J. Trump pledges to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare.”

That’s the one where he complains that “No one even read the 2,700-page bill” and even promised to convene a special session of Congress to get it done:

When we win on November 8th, and elect a Republican Congress, we will be able to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare. I will ask Congress to convene a special session.


Needless to say, that whole plan to repeal and replace Obamacare hasn’t gone exactly as Trump planned. The House passed a bill that nobody read last week, but it still has to make its way through the Senate if the Republicans want to fulfill their goal of stripping health insurance from millions of people while giving the wealthiest Americans a big, fat tax cut.

Screenshot from a now-deleted press release by the Donald Trump campaign, saved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)


There’s also “Donald J. Trump’s New Deal For Black America,” which includes his 10-point “plan for urban renewal. Number three would be especially interesting for anyone who’s paid attention to the track record of Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions:



3. Equal Justice Under the Law. We will apply the law fairly, equally and without prejudice. There will be only one set of rules – not a two-tiered system of justice. Equal justice also means the same rules for Wall Street.


How’s that going, Mr. President?

Screenshot from a now-deleted press release by the Donald Trump campaign, saved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)


And how about Trump’s April 5, 2016 press release with his repeated promise to get Mexico to pay for a wall at the US-Mexico border? One of the ideas he floated was to somehow siphon remittance payments from Mexicans sending money home from the US.

Mexico currently receives $24 billion in remittance payments annually from the United States. This provides substantial leverage for the United States to obtain from Mexico the funds necessary to pay for a border wall. The cost of a border wall is nothing compared to the hundreds of billions we spend year after year providing services and benefits to illegal immigrants.


It’s become increasingly clear that The Wall™ isn’t happening. Sean Spicer can’t even agree with the White House Press Corps about what a wall is. But if some version of a “wall” does get built, Mexico definitely isn’t paying for it.

Screenshot from a now-deleted press release by the Donald Trump campaign, saved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)


You can also read Trump’s “America First Energy Plan” from May 26, 2016. That’s the one where he promises to roll back any investment to combat climate change.

We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.


Who needed a planet anyway?

Screenshot from a now-deleted press release by the Donald Trump campaign, saved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)


And don’t forget Trump’s October 18, 2016 press release promising to propose a Constitutional Amendment to set up term limits on members of Congress. We haven’t heard about that one in quite a while. It was all part of Trump’s plan to “drain the swamp” and even included a proposed “5-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government after they leave government service.”

There is another major announcement I am going to make today as part of our pledge to drain the swamp in Washington. If I am elected President, I will push for a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress. Decades of failure in Washington, and decades of special interest dealing, must come to an end. We have to break the cycle of corruption, and we have to give new voices a chance to go into government service. The time for Congressional term limits has arrived.


Screenshot from a now-deleted press release by the Donald Trump campaign, saved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to search the old press releases at this point. But at least they’re there. The Internet Archive, if you recall, set up servers in Canada after Trump’s election, just in case. So the press release backups are at least safe for now. Until Trump annexes Canada, of course. Nobody tell him that Canada is America’s largest foreign supplier of oil.

