A viral compilation on YouTube has stitched together over 30 instances since 2015 where former President Trump promised to “fix X in two weeks,” only to see weeks roll into months—and sometimes years—with no action. The video, posted by political satirist @TwoWeekWatch on YouTube, has already garnered over 2 million views, sparking outrage and amusement in equal measure.
@TwoWeekWatch “From the border wall to healthcare reform, two weeks turned into two years—watch the full timeline here.” View on X
One of the earliest clips dates back to 2015, when Trump vowed to “build a great trade deal with China in two weeks” after being sworn in. As documented in a Reuters report, negotiations dragged on for nearly three years before any major agreement was reached.
In 2017, during a Rose Garden ceremony, he proclaimed, “We’ll have our Supreme Court pick picked out in two weeks,” referring to Justice Neil Gorsuch. While the nomination did proceed swiftly, the confirmation took nearly six months—an eternity in Washington time.
@Axios “Court fights and Senate hold-ups meant ‘two weeks’ became half a year—confirmation only came in April 2017.” via X
Fast-forward to 2018, when Trump declared on CNN that a major tax-code overhaul would be completed in two weeks. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act wasn’t signed into law until December—over eight months later.
Then there was the promise to eliminate the national debt in two weeks, made on live TV in 2019. According to the U.S. Treasury’s own data, the debt rose by more than $2 trillion in that timeframe instead.
@FactCheck “Debt-cutting in two weeks? The national debt climbed by $285 billion in just one week of April 2019.” via X
In 2020 he pledges—again—for a two-week victory over COVID-19 “and the virus will be gone,” echoing a tweet by @CDCgov that urged continued vigilance: “This pandemic requires sustained public health measures”—advice that stands in stark contrast to the two-week promise.
His 2021 assertion that he’d finish the border wall “in two weeks” went unfulfilled, even after Congress allocated over $15 billion in CRS funding. Today, large sections remain incomplete, as verified by the DHS Border Wall Progress Report.
@BorderReport “Despite repeated two-week targets, wall construction still lags—just 350 miles completed of the planned 2,000.” via X
Earlier this year, Trump asserted he’d secure a peace deal in Ukraine “within two weeks” of his return to office. Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace warn such timelines are “unrealistic given the conflict’s complexity.”
Even more recent are his two-week pledges on climate change, student-loan forgiveness, and the Southern border surge—none of which have shown meaningful progress, according to data from White House progress reports and the Department of Education’s loan forgiveness dashboard.
@Greenpeace “Climate action in two weeks? Emissions have risen 3% since the pledge.” via X
Psychologists suggest the two-week trope serves as a rhetorical device to convey urgency. Dr. Karen Lee of Johns Hopkins told NPR that “short deadlines can galvanize attention, but chronic underdelivery erodes public trust.”
As the compilation continues to rack up shares under #TwoWeekPromises, observers note one pattern: rarely, if ever, do those two weeks ever end as promised—and often, there’s no follow-up timeline offered. The results, as one viewer commented, are “baffling, frustrating—and a masterclass in political theater.”
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