Bloomberg’s Toluse Olorunnipa has noticed something peculiar. In President Donald Trump’s world, everything is about to happen in two or three weeks. “The president has used two-week timelines to sidestep questions from reporters or brag to CEOs at the White House,” Olorunnipa wrote. “But his pronouncements have also flummoxed investors, Congress and occasionally even members of his staff.” A few examples:
Feb. 9: Trump says his tax overhaul plan will be announced in “the next two or three weeks.” A one-page outline was published 11 weeks later.
March 15: Trump tells Fox News’s Tucker Carlson that “some very interesting items” will come out “over the next two weeks” to support his claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, but no evidence has come out.
- April 5: Trump tells the New York Times he’ll announce “in two weeks” something about workers’ wages on federally funded infrastructure projects. Nothing has come out.
- April 29: Trump says he will file a $1 trillion infrastructure program “over the next two or three weeks—maybe sooner.” Nothing yet.
- May 21: Trump promises a news conference “in about two weeks” about progress fighting ISIS. Nothing yet.
“You can’t con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole,” Trump wrote in his 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal.” “But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.”