To the editor:

A letter by Michalene King appearing in the Feb. 15 edition began with the words, “Promises made, promises kept.” She went on to list campaign promises she feels Donald Trump has supposedly honored in his first month back in office. Let’s explore those promises.

The list began by parroting White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who earlier that month provided the press with a DOGE-advanced list of wasteful programs all supposedly funded by USAID. The intent of this list was to gain support for Elon Musk’s decision to close that department. Thing is, only one item on the whole list was a legitimate USAID initiative. Yet Musk eagerly shuttered the office under the pretext of eliminating wasteful spending, resulting in the immediate cessation of all USAID programs, even those not included in the list of wasteful projects — which again — were mostly not USAID programs.

Was this a promise kept? Well, when campaigning, Trump said of DOGE that it would serve an advisory function. That promise has not been kept. It was broken on day two.

Next, the writer quoted a tweet where Musk claimed that “FEMA paid $59 million to house illegal migrants in New York luxury hotels.” Not true. You can look it up.

She went on, “There are veterans living on the street, people with mental illnesses who are not being adequately treated, and people who have suffered disasters who are homeless. Many North Carolinians are still living in tents and people in Los Angeles have lost everything in the wildfires.” Etcetera. This is mostly true (and mostly because of rules FEMA has to follow that Congress passed under Republicans), but Trump is president now. Solution? Kill FEMA. Sounds like another broken Trump promise to me.

What about his other campaign promises? He promised not to cut social services such as Medicare, but the budget he just squeezed through Congress will result in exactly that. He also promised not to go after Social Security, but Musk and Leavitt both publicly charged that there were 150-year-old ghosts cashing Social Security checks, a claim which proved false in two ways: First, the 150-years claim was based on a COBOL programming placeholder that the genius coders of DOGE misinterpreted, and second, because no such checks are being issued. It feels to me as though they’re fishing for an excuse to dismantle Social Security. That’s a broken promise no matter how you slice it.

Trump promised to lower the cost of eggs. That price is higher. He promised to bring inflation down. It’s up. He promised to end taxes on tips. That could’ve been part of the budget bill. It wasn’t. He also promised:

• He’d not pardon violent Jan 6 insurrectionists.

• Release list of names of his Supreme Court justice picks.

• Lower interest rates.

• Work to lower drug costs (He actually raised the cost for diabetics.)

• Eliminate the national debt.

• Not implement Project 2025.

Oh, and not start a war. He hasn’t yet, but it’s still early.

J. David Core

Toronto