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The Trump-O-Meter: PolitiFact rates Donald Trump's first year

 
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One as he leaves Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Friday after his first medical check-up as president. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One as he leaves Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Friday after his first medical check-up as president. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Published Jan. 16, 2018

By Angie Drobnic Holan

PolitiFact Editor

Much of Donald Trump's presidency has been defined by provocative tweets and gloves-off fights. But Trump has used the power of the presidency to move the country toward the overarching vision he ran on as a candidate — build the wall, repeal Obamacare, grow the economy.

Trump has pushed forward with his agenda, fundamentally reshaping immigration policy through his executive power, ending Obamacare's penalty for not having insurance, and signing into law tax cuts for many Americans.

In other cases, Trump has found that changing America is not as easy as rolling out campaign slogans about rebuilding America or starting a trade war with China. There has been no infrastructure bill yet, and Trump has been noticeably more amiable with China than he signaled on the campaign trail.

That's the big picture. PolitiFact does, however, track 101 specific campaign promises Trump made to carry out his vision during the 2016 campaign. Trump has had an active first year on the Trump-O-Meter, though the fate of many initiatives has not been determined.

As it turns out, the man who loves to say he's in control is not in control of a lot of these promises.

Read PolitiFact's project on Trump's first year:

OVERALL: Tracking Trump's record on 101 campaign promises.

IMMIGRATION: Trump has already changed the lives of many immigrants and refugees, and he's intent on keeping more away.

HEALTH CARE: Inaction in Congress leaves Americans largely with a landscape they knew before the election — for now.

DEREGULATION: His aggressive deregulatory push pleases the energy industry but won't happen overnight.