Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Megan Friday is the end of our special edition Pro newsletter during the transition. If you liked this newsletter and want to continue receiving content like this, subscribe to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook. DONALD TRUMP spent his entire campaign pledging to do, well, everything. Throughout the 2024 race, he raged against what he described as the failures of JOE BIDEN and KAMALA HARRIS — and said he’ll come to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Jan. 20 to get things back in order. But not even a month after he won in dominant fashion, he walked back many of these promises. Whether it's improving the price of groceries or ending the war in Ukraine, Trump is setting expectations low, and still placing the blame at Biden’s feet. Trump transition spokesperson ANNA KELLY told West Wing Playbook that the claim is “fake news.” Still, it’s a reminder: Being a president, not a campaigner, is hard work. Here are some of the biggest examples of Trump campaigning in Truth Social and governing in legislative text. The war in Ukraine In his September debate with Harris, he told viewers that he would end the war in Ukraine — which has been raging since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022 — before Inauguration Day. “That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president,” Trump said. In 2023, he said that he would end the conflict within “24 hours” of taking office. As of Thursday, Russian forces continue to seize settlements throughout Ukrainian cities. At Mar-a-Lago last week, Trump said the war would have never happened if he was president, but walked back past promises that he would end it on Day One, calling it “much more complicated” as he moved the goal post to “long before six months.” The cost of groceries Throughout the race, he vowed to bring down the prices of groceries “on Day One,” as he said over the summer. But in December, weeks after being elected, he admitted: “I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard.” Illegal immigration Trump has said he’d move immediately to stop the flow of illegal migrants into the U.S. “On Day One of my new administration, the invasion of savage criminals ends. And on that same day, the largest deportation in American history begins,” he proclaimed in October. “We will seal the border. We will stop the invasion immediately,” he said in September. In 2019, Trump unleashed some of the largest, most widely publicized workplace raids in the last several decades, targeting undocumented workers at agriculture farms. And advisers to Trump have indicated you can expect large-scale raids similar to the ones seen six years ago. But earlier this month, Trump’s “border czar” TOM HOMAN was asked on CBS News whether industries can expect the mass deportation of hired undocumented workers and whether, on Day One, the administration will continue these mass raids on worksites. “President Trump has been clear, as I’ve been clear, from Day One, the president is going to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats,” Homan said vaguely. Government spending Trump’s allies have also lowered expectations on cutting government spending. ELON MUSK, the tech-billionaire-turned-Trump-confidant who has been tasked with heading up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, partially walked back his own ambitions. During the height of the campaign, Musk said he could cut $2 trillion from the government budget. In an interview last week, he said the $2 trillion number is “best case scenario” and said that there was only a “good shot” at cutting close to $1 trillion. And then there’s drill, baby, drill. Although Trump hasn’t backed off on this promise, this one may face an uphill battle. “Your energy bill, within 12 months, will be cut in half,” Trump pledged in September. “Air conditioning, heating, we’ll have it down by 50 percent.” He’s cited more energy production by drilling more oil and natural gas as central to bringing prices down. But it’s a pledge sure to run into roadblocks. The price of oil is largely dictated by the global market, as well as certain world events. In short, energy costs are largely outside of a president’s control. Kelly insisted that Trump is already coming through with results. “President Trump is already delivering on his campaign promises before taking office, including securing the release of American and Israeli hostages and correcting the egregious trade imbalance with Canada,” she said. MESSAGE US — Are you KAROLINE LEAVITT? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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