Sugar Coke? Department of War? Where some of Trump’s most jaw-dropping promises stand

U.S. President Donald Trump stands beside photos of Kennedy Center Honors nominees at the Kennedy Center, Aug. 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON — Given just how much U.S. President Donald Trump talks in public, it can sometimes be hard to keep up with all of his promises — even his most outlandish ones.

Once a pledge has been made, though, the president has a way of making notions that once seemed implausible inch toward appearing routine the more he repeats them.

Sometimes he even fully manages to make them happen. Other times, though, what he says goes nowhere at all.

A look at a few of Trump’s especially jaw-dropping recent musings and where they stand:

Bringing back the Department of War

WHERE IT STANDS: Promise kept — but pending congressional approval.

BACKSTORY: Trump spent weeks talking up renaming the Defense Department, saying that, back when the U.S. had a War Department, it “just sounded better.” The War Department was created by George Washington in 1789, but abolished as part of the National Security Act of 1947, which created the National Military Establishment instead. Two years later, Congress amended that and changed the name to the Department of Defense. Trump recently sought to change the name himself via an executive order. Lawmakers will still need to approve making that permanent and official, however.

Renaming Washington’s Kennedy Center the Trump Kennedy Center

WHERE IT STANDS: Still talking about it.

BACKSTORY: Trump posted in August about a list of people he helped choose for the centre’s annual awards: “GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS.” He subsequently said, during an Oval Office event, “Some people refer to it as the Trump Kennedy Center, but we’re not prepared to do that quite yet. Maybe in a week or so.” A GOP-backed congressional effort would rename the centre after Trump and its opera house after first lady Melania Trump. But a full renaming may ultimately prove more likely than Trump’s name simply being added to the existing building alongside Kennedy. The 1964 act that renamed the National Cultural Center in Washington in honor of John F. Kennedy stated that, after Dec. 2, 1983, “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed” — which would seemingly bar just tacking “Trump” up beside the existing namesake in the centre’s public spaces.

Defending daylight saving time — after opposing it

WHERE IT STANDS: Faded away.

BACKSTORY: Trump has been on all sides of the issue. He posted before retaking the White House that the GOP would work to eliminate daylight saving time. In March, he said that setting clocks back and forward was a 50-50 issue, and was therefore too hard for him to take a firm position on. The following month, the president posted online that he actually supported making daylight saving time permanent. The Senate passed a measure do just that in 2022, but it stalled in the House. Legislation reviving that effort has been introduced, but not advanced.

Putting cane sugar back in U.S. Coke

WHERE IT STANDS: Coming soon — though not quite how it was promised.

BACKSTORY: Trump is famously a Diet Coke fan. But that made his sudden announcement in July that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in its flagship product in the U.S. all the more surprising. The company soon confirmed that such a version was indeed coming, but would be a new product added to the company’s line — not a change encompassing all domestic Cokes. Still, the promised change is notable given that U.S. Coke had been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup since the 1980s, even as Coke from Mexico and some other countries continued to use cane sugar. “This will be a very good move,” Trump said. “You’ll see. It’s just better!”

Eliminating the federal income tax

WHERE IT STANDS: Faded away.

BACKGROUND: While threatening to impose steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners around the globe, Trump said in April that such import tariffs “will be enough to cut all of the income tax.” The president has since championed passage of the sweeping tax legislation. It included around US$4.5 trillion in tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the rich, but fell well short of wiping out federal income taxes entirely. That hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing to assert that the country was its wealthiest near the end of the Gilded Age, when the government relied heavily on tariffs for revenue and there was no federal income tax. Still, he’s lately been less quick to suggest the U.S. is on its way back to such policies.

Eliminating taxes on Social Security

WHERE IT STANDS: Still talking about it — but misstating what happened.

BACKGROUND: Trump and top administration officials have repeatedly suggested that the tax package approved by Congress wipes out taxes paid on Social Security benefits. But it doesn’t. The law has a temporary tax deduction for people 65 and older that applies to all income, not just Social Security. And not all Social Security beneficiaries can claim it. Indeed, Republicans used a congressional process known as budget reconciliation to pass the measure without the 60-vote threshold normally needed to block a filibuster from opponents — and the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 restricts budget reconciliation bills from making major changes to Social Security.

Gold cards for buying U.S. visas

WHERE IT STANDS: In limbo.

BACKSTORY: Trump has long talked of offering $5 million “ gold cards ” to give “very high-level people” a “route to citizenship” while granting foreigners visas to live and work in the U.S. In April, the president even held up a gold card featuring his name and picture, and said they would be available in “less than two weeks, probably.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick subsequently bragged about having personally sold 1,000 of them. Despite that hype, there has been no major effort by the administration to overhaul the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which Congress created in 1990 to offer U.S. visas to investors who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.

Making IVF universally covered

WHERE IT STANDS: Political off-ramp found.

BACKGROUND: Trump promised while campaigning for reelection that he’d ensure in vitro fertilization was fully paid for by either the government or insurance companies. In February, Trump signed an executive order that called for studying ways to reduce the cost of IVF treatment. But the order gave no deadline for when such policy recommendations need to be completed and what might happen once they are ready is even murkier.

Ending Russia’s war in Ukraine

WHERE IT STANDS: Still talking about it.

BACKGROUND: Even though Trump boasted while still a candidate that he’d could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in 24 hours, fighting rages on. The president undermined international efforts to isolate Vladimir Putin by hosting him in Alaska on Aug. 15, yet came away with no agreement to ease fighting — and has since been unable to broker a promised meeting between Russia’s leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the meantime, Trump’s face-to-face with Putin appears to have bought Moscow breathing room, since major economic sanctions that Trump had threatened against Russia haven’t materialized. Trump has continued to say since that he’s frustrated with Putin while insisting there may still be “severe consequences” if Russia doesn’t begin showing it’s serious about peace. But, so far, it’s been lots of threats without follow through.

Will Weissert, The Associated Press