I think I owe Trump a apology. Not a big one. Let's not get carried away.
But I do think I've been mishearing him for years.
You remember the promise. We were going to win. A lot. So much, in fact, that we'd eventually get tired of all the winning.
Winning, winning, winning.
Except lately I've started to wonder if that's actually what he's been saying.
Maybe it's not winning.
Maybe it's when-ing.
And, y'all, once I heard it that way, a whole lot of things started making more sense. Because if there's one thing we've gotten plenty of during Trump's second term, it's when.
When prices come down.
That was a pretty big part of the pitch. Groceries were too expensive. Everyday life cost too much. Trump was going to fix it.
Except, more than a year and a half into his second term, overall prices are about 4.3% higher than when he took office. Grocery prices are up about 3.4%.
But, you know. When.
When energy costs get cut in half.
And I don't mean that as some exaggerated version of what he said. He actually promised to cut energy and electricity prices by 50% during his first year in office.
Well, we've had the first year.
Gas prices initially came down some, but nowhere close to 50%. Electricity and natural gas prices went up.
So... When.
When the war in Ukraine ends.
This one was supposed to be a particularly short when. Twenty-four hours.
Trump said it over and over again. He could end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours. Sometimes he went even further and said he'd get it settled before he even took office.
At this point, I'm thinking we may need to check what kind of clock he's using. The war continues. PolitiFact now categorizes that promise as broken.
Apparently it wasn't that 24 hours.
When.
When Social Security benefits aren't taxed anymore.
“No tax on Social Security.” Pretty straightforward.
What we actually got was a temporary additional tax deduction available to many people over 65. That's certainly something. It also isn't “no tax on Social Security.” Social Security benefits can still be federally taxable.
When.
When the Department of Education is gone.
Now, to be fair here, the Trump administration really has gone after the Department of Education. Its workforce was roughly halved, and responsibilities have been shifted elsewhere.
But the department is still there.
Turns out abolishing a federal department created by Congress requires Congress to get involved. And Congress hasn't abolished it.
So... When.
When gas gets below $2 a gallon.
Remember that one?
Instead, after initially declining, gas prices climbed above $4 a gallon this year amid the war with Iran.
When.
See what I mean? So. Much. When-ing.
Now, obviously, presidents don't get everything they promise. That's not a Trump thing. That's a president thing.
Congress gets in the way. Courts get in the way. Other countries stubbornly continue being other countries. Economies refuse to behave according to campaign speeches. Sometimes presidents discover that the thing they promised everybody would be incredibly easy is, in fact, not incredibly easy.
And Trump has kept some significant promises. Any fair accounting of his presidency has to acknowledge that. PolitiFact is tracking 75 specific second-term promises and currently lists 15 as kept.
But that leaves 60 that are currently something other than “Promise Kept.” Some are broken. Some are stalled. Some have been compromised. Some are still being worked on.
And that's where I think the difference between winning and when-ing actually matters.
Winning eventually requires something to happen. When-ing doesn't. When-ing just needs you to keep believing the thing is coming.
When the prices come down.
When the war ends.
When the department closes.
When the wall gets finished.
When the budget gets smaller.
When the next big, beautiful promise finally becomes the big, beautiful reality.
And there's always another when.
That's the part I don't think we should shrug off as just politics being politics. At some point, citizens have to stop judging politicians by what they say they're going to do and start judging them by what actually happened.
Not because every campaign promise has to be fulfilled. That's an absurd standard. But because a promise can't stay a promise forever.
Eventually, when has to become now.
Trump once promised Americans that we'd have so much winning we'd get tired of it. Maybe I really did hear him wrong. Because I'm not tired of winning.
But I am getting pretty damn tired of when-ing.
