Seven Key Campaign Promises Donald Trump Publicly Made for a Second Term

US President Donald Trump smiles during a phone conversation with Mexico's President
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Former President Donald Trump is pointing to his record when appealing to voters as he vies first for the Republican nomination and, ultimately, the presidential election — the main event.

While he is looking to build on what he established during his first four years, Trump has also recognized that America now has additional challenges that must be addressed should he win back the White House in 2024.

Here are some of the key campaign promises Trump has publicly made thus far.

1. End Woke Gender Ideology

While it did not stand as an issue as pressing as the current day during his first term, Trump has promised to tackle the “left-wing gender insanity” pushed on children by the radical left, promising to end what he described as “chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth on day one” in office.

He said he would start by ending President Joe Biden’s “gender-affirming care” — leftist speak for hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sex changes on children — by “instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.”

“I will declare that any hospital or healthcare provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth will no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare and will be terminated from the program immediately,” he said, emphasizing that he will ask Congress to stop tax dollars from going to places that complete these procedures:

2. Address Rampant Crime

Trump plans to address rising crime by signing “a record investment in hiring, retention, and training for police officers,” per his campaign website, which states that the bill will “increase vital liability protections for America’s law enforcement officers.” Further, Trump is vowing to take on what his campaign described as “radical Marxist prosecutors who have abolished cash bail and refuse to charge criminals.”

Under his leadership, Trump will instruct the Department of Justice to “open civil rights investigations into radical leftist prosecutor’s officers, such as those in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, to determine whether they have illegally engaged in race-based law enforcement.”

3. Protect Women

In 2023, Trump signed a “Presidential Promise to American Women” from the Concerned Women for America, vowing to “uphold the truth that women are exclusively female.”

“Only women can be pregnant and bear children. Only women can be mothers,” the pledge reads in part, adding, “Under my Administration, the status and dignity of women and girls will not be compromised in law or policy.”

4. Champion Parental Rights

At the launch of his campaign, Trump made it clear that it is Biden who has “committed to indoctrinating our children, even using the Department of Justice against parents who object,” referencing the infamous letter solicited by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona from National School Boards Association (NSBA) officials, equating concerned parents to “domestic terrorists.”

“It’s a terrible thing. That’s why it’s so sad what’s happening. When I’m in the White House, schools will cease pushing Critical Race Theory as they were,” he promised, once again outlining his plan to use federal funding as a way to punish institutions that continue the woke ideology.

Trump has also stated on the campaign trail that “no teacher should ever be allowed to teach transgender [sic] without parental consent”:

5. Fire Warmongers and Globalists

Trump has vowed to take on the globalists, determining that “World War III has never been closer than it is right now.”

“We need to clean house of all of the warmongers and America-Last globalists in the Deep State, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the national security industrial complex,” he said in a campaign video, promising to “complete the mission” of restoring peace and cleaning house, should he make it to the White House again:

Over our four years in the White House, we made incredible progress in putting the America-Last contingent aside and bringing the world to peace — and now, we’re going to complete the mission. The State Department, Pentagon, and National Security Establishment will be a very different place by the end of my administration.

In fact, just into my administration it’ll be a very different place, and it’ll get things done just like I did four years ago. We never had it so good. We’ll also stop the lobbyists and the big defense contractors from going in and pushing our senior military and national security officials toward conflict, only to reward them when they retire with lucrative jobs—getting paid millions and millions of dollars.

6. Go After Drug Cartels

Trump promised to go after drug cartels in the same way that he went after the Islamic State (ISIS) during his first term, pointing to the absurdity of Biden’s open border policies, which he described as a “deadly betrayal of our nation.”

Outlining his plan to order a naval blockade of the cartels, Trump said:

When I am president, it will be the policy of the United States to take down the cartels, just as we took down ISIS and the ISIS caliphate, and just as — unlike the situation we’re in today, we had a very, very strong border, the strongest border, in fact, in the history of our country, and drugs were at a low of 45 years. There’s been nothing like what we did, just two years ago.

Additionally, Trump said he would seek to deem cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and use U.S. Special Forces to inflict “maximum damage” on the entities:

7. Protect the Second Amendment

In 2023, Trump promised that he would “take Biden’s executive order directing the federal government to target the firearms industry, and I will rip it up and throw it out on day one.” Furthermore, Trump said he would “ask Congress to send a bill to my desk…[for] national concealed carry reciprocity.”

“Just like your driver’s license or your marriage license, your Second Amendment must apply across state lines. It will. We’ll get it done pretty quickly, too,” he promised.

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