In summer 2025, President Donald Trump discussed distributing $2,000 dividend checks funded by tariff revenue, but in a Jan. 7 New York Times interview, he did not recall proposing the checks.

At a Dec. 2 live cabinet meeting, the president stated, “Next year is projected to be the largest tax refund season ever, and we’re going to be giving back refunds out of the tariffs because we’ve taken in literally trillions of dollars, and were going to be giving a nice dividend to the people.” 

After such a comment, he now does not remember the proposal and awkwardly  extended the date of payment to “the end of the year.”

When the president publicly discusses major proposals and later claims to not recall them, it is challenging to treat his words as credible. And trying to separate truth from Trump’s claims and promises he’s made to Americans has become a game of its own, and I do not like playing it.

Unfortunately, the dividend checks are not an isolated case with the president. He’s made numerous unfulfilled promises and claims like:

• In February 2025, he stated in a Fox News interview that Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security programs “would not be touched.” He later led a budget plan that would cut around $880 billion from these services.
• In Trump’s first term, he frequently promised tax plans to better serve the average American family. He then ordered the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, this significantly benefited high-income earners and corporations.
• In December, Trump stated he would have “no problem” releasing footage from the military strike on the Venezuela boat that killed two survivors. Despite saying this on camera, he later denied ever saying so, and even shifted the blame onto his administration.

That’s only a small sample from a long record I could make about the president’s false claims. And honestly, it’s embarrassing and disappointing.

Everyone should be proud to hear the words of their nation’s leader, and sadly many Americans like myself do not feel that way. We’ve accustomed ourselves to the trail of contradictions and broken promises that follow the president’s statements.

I take less than half of what Trump says at face value. And I suspect many Americans reached that point long ago as well.