opinion

Iowans deserve better than Trump's broken promises

Iowans know exactly what to expect when Donald Trump arrives in Des Moines on Thursday: more broken promises. After all, we’ve been through this before — and we’ve been hearing his empty rhetoric for even longer than most of the country.

Five years ago this month, Trump traveled here just as he was preparing to launch his bid for president.

“If I run for president and if I win,” he told the Iowa Freedom Summit, “I would totally succeed in ... saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, without cutting it down to the bone because it's not fair to people that have been paying for their whole lives.”

It was a straightforward pledge — one that was ultimately at the heart of Trump’s campaign. Yet, it proved to be one of his first and most egregious broken promises to Iowa.

Once in office, he pushed a budget slashing billions from all three programs. And just last week, while schmoozing with billionaires in Switzerland, Trump said cutting working families’ social safety net would be “the easiest of all things.”

As jarring as it is, that sort of betrayal is nothing new. In every corner of the state, in backyards, school gyms and union halls, I’ve heard the same stories again and again.

A farmer who remembers Trump’s promise to “end this war on the American farmer,” only to hear his secretary of agriculture question whether family farms deserve to survive at all.

An overworked parent who heard Trump vow to “take our government back from the donors and the special interests” — and could now face higher taxes so Trump and Republicans could pass massive giveaways to powerful corporations.

A retiree who took to heart Trump’s pledge to “save health care for every family in Iowa,” only to watch him lead an assault on protections for more than a million Iowans with pre-existing conditions.

From farms and offices to working families’ bottom line, Iowa is littered with the consequences of Donald Trump’s careless and self-serving broken promises.

Nothing Trump says Thursday can spin a presidency that has delivered lower crop prices and higher prescription drug costs. No amount of kicking, screaming, or tweeting can change a cemented legacy of failure — or voters’ desperation for something new.

It’s no wonder Iowans are energized like never before ahead of Monday’s caucuses. We won’t tolerate a president who spews empty promises at us while catering to the demands of a few powerful interests. As we officially enter the 2020 presidential election, we’re ready to do something about it.

Whoever Democrats ultimately choose as our nominee, we’re prepared to unite and mobilize behind them. Because the stakes are too high. Because we believe in a future that includes and empowers every one of our neighbors. And because Iowans deserve better than Trump’s broken promises.

Troy Price is chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.