25 Biggest Failures of the Trump Presidency

Donald Trump was one of Barack Obama’s most vocal critics. He was quite proud of forcing the then president to release his birth certificate after claiming he was not fit to lead the country. But when it came time to prove his worth as the country’s leader, he had more failures to show than achievements. Here are the top 25 biggest trump presidency failures.

1. Withdrawing from the Paris agreement

The United States of America joined the likes of Syria and Nicaragua when President Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Over 200 countries signed the agreement in an attempt to curtail greenhouse gas emissions to contain global warming to two degrees Celsius. It was met with worldwide and nationwide criticism and led many to view the US and Trump as protecting the interest of fossil fuel shareholders.

2. Muslim travel ban

Within the first week of Trump being in office, he implemented a travel ban of travelers coming from six Muslim-majority countries: Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen. It wreaks havoc within the country as well as abroad. Federal courts in California and Hawaii cited the travel ban to be unconstitutional and put a hold on it. Appeals to take the matter up to the Supreme Court have already begun.

3. Getting Mexico to pay for the border wall

The great wall was Trump’s rallying cry during his campaign. He vehemently promised voters that he will build a wall and Mexico will be the one to pay for it. Estimates put the total cost of the border wall close to $25 billion dollars to account for materials, labor, land acquisition, repairs, and new construction. Mexico was adamant that they would never pay for the border wall.

4. Repealing Obamacare

Getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, was a central goal to all Republicans who ran for office that year, including Trump. But drafting a new bill to replace Obamacare brought more challenges. It received numerous objections from senators and reported tension between Mr. Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, efforts to replace Obamacare hit a roadblock.

5. Championing LGBT rights

Donal Trump tweeted in July 2016 claiming he would “fight for you” and arguing that Hilary Clinton would only be a disaster for LGBT rights. However, the administration failed to deliver on its promises. Medicaid Services and Centres for Medicare rolled back a rule recognizing same-sex marriage for visitation rights in care facilities. Trump also signed an executive order that bans transgender people from serving in the military.

6. Federal debt

During this presidential campaign back in 2016, Trump promised to eliminate the federal debt within eight years. Instead, it has skyrocketed because of Trump’s $1.9 trillion tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. He has since used the growing debt to threaten Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid with budgetary cuts.

7. Trade deficit

It is during Trump’s presidency that Americans saw the highest trade deficit in its history. The country is now buying more goods and services from other countries than what it sells to the rest of the world. Bringing down the country’s trade deficit was one of the things Trump promised during his campaign but failed to achieve during his time in office.

8. Tax law

Most Americans remain divided when the new tax law was passed in 2017. Public opinion leans a little more towards the negative, especially when it came to light that more tax breaks were going to be granted to wealthier Americans and the risk that was created for Social Security and Medicare.

9. Changes to SNAP

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a federal program aimed to help no- and low-income people have better access to quality food. The changes proposed by the Trump administration to the program worried a lot of people on how it would impact poor families, particularly children from low-income households.

10. False or misleading claims

The world is witness to Trump’s troubled relationship with truth and facts. He has a well-documented record of embellishing many of his accomplishments. Since being elected as president, Trump has made at least 15,400 misleading or false claims, according to an analysis done by The Washington Post. He has falsely yet repeatedly claimed that he is responsible for the “greatest economy” in United States history. He has also taken credit for the steady economic growth that already began during the previous administration.

11. Charlottesville fiasco

One of the most controversial moments of Trump’s presidency was his response to the deadly neo-Nazi rally which took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. His response sheds light on his controversial record when it comes to white supremacy and race relations. And it highlighted his struggle to bring the entire country together after tragedies. He blamed both sides for the violence that ensued which resulted in the death of a counterprotester, Heather Heyer. He was criticized by both sides for his failure to swiftly condemn white supremacist violence.

12. America’s global image

Under the leadership of Trump, America’s global image has steadily declined due to his tendency to insult US allies and siding with dictators. A report from the Institute for Economics and Peace stated that confidence in American leadership has significantly declined since Trump was elected into office. Trump’s antics which include pulling out of important landmark international agreements such as the Paris Agreement have pushed many important allies away and left the US isolated.

13. Separating families

During his campaign, Trump promised a hardline approach when it comes to reducing undocumented immigration into the US. His efforts to uphold that promise was met with international criticism and accusations of violating international law set by the UN and human rights abuses. His zero-tolerance approach on illegal border crossing caused at least 5,000 families to be separated, with children being placed in cages. Despite an executive order to stop family separation in June 2018, the fallout from the incident is still ongoing.

14. Death of children in US custody

One such fallout was the widespread condemnation of the conditions inside the detention facilities which led to the death of six migrant children. Children were forced to sleep on the floor in very crowded facilities, no adequate access to food or adequate health care, and extremely poor sanitation conditions.

15. Corporate investments

Trump said that corporations are going to invest their tax-cut savings. Instead, they spent a lot more money trying to buy back their shares of their own stock than they invested in facilities and new equipment. The stock buybacks didn’t do much to boost the economy but it did increase bonuses to executives and payouts to rich investors.

16. Tax cut for middle America

The tax cut that Trump promised to middle-class American families never materialized. In fact, a preliminary analysis of the effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act predicted that by 2027 most Americans will end up paying more.

17. Outsourcing jobs

Trump promised to crack down on companies who were outsourcing jobs abroad and to keep jobs in the country. But because of his new tax law, it gave companies the incentives to expand their operations overseas. The resulting trade wars also helped to encourage companies to move their productions abroad.

18. Increasing wages

A lot of Trump supporters were promised an increase in wages up to $4,000 for the average American family. What happened instead was wages remained flat, adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, corporate profits continue to soar high and the wealthy become even richer.

19. Approach to foreign policy

When it comes to dealings with other nations, Trump has a decidedly peculiar, almost reckless, approach. Most of his foreign policy strategies do more harm than good to American alliances. This is clearly evident in how he tackled state relations with Iran and his decision to pull out US troops in Syria.

20. Nuclear deal and Iran

The administration’s decision to withdraw the country from the 2015 nuclear deal resulted in chaos throughout the Middle East. US allies heavily who signed the deal condemned the decision. Trump has failed to curtail Iran’s aggression within the region. A series of incidents in the Persian Gulf resulted in escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington and helped sparked fears of an all-out war.

21. Pulling out US troops in Syria

Trump also made the decision to pull the troops out of Northern Syria, effectively abandoning US-allied Kurdish forces who took most of the brunt during the US-led campaign to fight ISIS. It resulted in a humanitarian crisis and left a security vacuum that Iran, Russian, and Syrian president and accused war criminal Bashar al-Assad benefited from.

22. Impeachment

On December 18, President Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives. The House approved two articles of impeachment against Trump. One was for abuse of power, the other was for obstruction of Congress. He urged Ukraine to conduct investigations on his political rivals by withholding $400 million of congressionally-approved military aid from the country, which was in the midst of fighting an ongoing war against pro-Russian separatists.

23. Response to the coronavirus pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, every time Trump speaks, he only adds to the fear and chaos happening all around. He initially told Americans the virus was not serious. Then, he asserted his hunches about the available data. After which, he gave an assurance that a vaccine would be available within 12 to 18 months. Plus, he even forbade Europeans from entering the country. And he wrongly announced that Google was working on a website to help with testing. After every statement made by Trump, there was a need to clarify everything he said.

24. Mass testing

The administration’s incompetence was highlighted once again during Trump’s actions (or inactions) during the pandemic. The biggest glaring failure of the administration was in failing to have enough tests available to determine the infected and to screen others for possible exposure. In contrast, South Korea was conducting thousands of more tests per day than the US. The lack of tests led to authorities failing to understand the scope of the pandemic and to take necessary steps to curb its spread.

25. Numerous embarrassing gaffes

Trump once confused 9/11 with 7 Eleven during a campaign rally back in 2016. He mistook the Virgin Islands as a separate nation and not part of US territory. During a press briefing, he inaccurately stated that the 1918 Spanish Flu helped end World War II. And to celebrate his wife’s return to the White House after a stint in the hospital for a kidney condition, Trump misspelled Melania, referring to her as Melanie. These and many more helped erode the credibility of Trump’s position.