The progress of Trump’s presidential promises

President Donald Trump is known for the many controversial promises he made during his campaign. The assurances he made are why many Americans voted for him, but some of his supporters are becoming more aware of what these promises actually entail and the fact that the fulfillment of these pledges could in fact be bad for them, or not even possible.

One of Trump’s most famous promises was to remove more than 12.5 million illegal immigrants from the United States. The number of illegal border crossings has already dropped by 36 percent to 840 in February, when compared to last year’s statistics.

The promise of a U.S.-Mexico border wall, paid for by Mexico, was another large part of Trump’s campaign which had supporters excited. The former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, said “we will never pay for that…wall,” a position echoed by the rest of Mexico, which leaves Americans to pay for the project. The wall is now estimated by the Department of the Interior to cost $21.6 billion. As of April 5, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told both the Senate and the Governmental Affairs Committee that, “It is unlikely that we will build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea,” but suggested that fencing could be a more “realistic option and useful in many places.”

Trump’s plan to ban Muslim immigration is another promise that has energized his base but frightened many Muslim Americans. During his campaign, he promised to ban all Muslims entering the U.S., but as president he switched to trying to ban all immigration from several majority-Muslim countries. He has introduced two travel ban executive orders, but they have both been met by legal challenges because of their violation of constitutional protection against discrimination based on religion, and both were struck down by federal courts. Trump has hinted at wanting to take the matter to Supreme Court, but no action has been made to do so.

These are a few of the promises that President Trump has made during both his campaign and presidency but has ended up altering or changing completely. Both his supporters and opposition are waiting to see how the rest of his promises play out and how they will affect each of them as well as the rest of the country.