Mary Trump Mocks Donald Trump Claim He Kept More Promises Than He Made

Mary Trump says her uncle, President Donald Trump, "doesn't seem to understand this very simple concept that you cannot keep more promises than you make," after he used a speech on the eve of the midterms to claim he had done exactly that.

The president made the claim Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the day before an election that cost Republicans control of Congress. On "Trump Trolls Trump," her weekly show on her Mary Trump Media YouTube channel, his niece tied the line to the pool behind him, a renovation she says ran far over budget.

What Donald Trump Said at the Reflecting Pool

Trump spent much of his Monday remarks on the pool's repairs. Later, he turned to his record. "We've achieved more in less than two years than any administration in American history, and I've kept every single promise I made, except far more," he said, according to a Roll Call Factba.se transcript. "I've actually kept far more promises than I made. We've done much more than I promised."

Mary Trump, a psychologist and author who has long been one of the president's most vocal family critics, played the clip on the show's post-midterm episode.

"He doesn't understand what a promise is or maybe more to the point he doesn't think he has to keep them," she said. She added that by speaking at the pool, he had "decided to remind all of us how spectacularly he mismanaged a pool renovation."

Reflecting Pool Renovation Cost and Deadline

Mary Trump said the pool was promised to be finished by July 4, and that four months later it had cost "nearly 11 times its original 1.5 million dollar budget." PolitiKool could not independently confirm the $1.5 million baseline. She also noted that it is still the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, adding, "it is not the Trump reflecting pool."

Federal contracting records show two no-bid awards for the project: a $14.7 million contract to Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings to seal the pool floor and a $1.7 million contract to Ohio-based Green Water Solutions for a filtration system, CBS News reported. Together they come to $16.4 million. The government justified the Green Water Solutions filtration contract as a matter of "unusual and compelling urgency" because it wanted the pool fixed in time for the nation's 250th birthday on July 4.

Trump's own account on Monday was narrower than a finished job by the holiday. He told the crowd the goal was "to open it temporarily for the July 4th weekend," and said the pipes were replaced "after July 4th."

What PolitiFact's MAGA-Meter Shows

PolitiFact has disputed this claim before. Its MAGA-Meter, which tracks 75 of Trump's 2024 campaign pledges, rates 15 as kept, three as compromises and five as broken. It lists 21 as stalled and 31 as in the works.

PolitiFact's notes on several of his central economic promises show the gap between pledge and result. PolitiFact found that gasoline costs more than twice the under-$2-a-gallon price Trump promised. The national average now stands at $4.15, according to PolitiKool's gas price tracker. PolitiFact also found that energy costs were not cut in half in his first year, and a Supreme Court ruling in February set back his across-the-board tariffs.

Voters have taken a dim view of his economic record. PolitiKool's polling average puts his approval on the economy at 29.7 percent, with 67.5 percent disapproving.

Midterm Losses Follow the Claim

The next day, Democrats won control of the Senate after upsets in Texas, South Carolina and Kansas, and they also took the House. On election night, Trump told Politico "I wasn't on the ballot", even though he had urged supporters to "pretend I'm on the ballot."

Mary Trump called the result "a resounding repudiation of Donald and his co-conspirators." She also mocked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Energy Secretary Chris Wright over their election-week comments on prices, and House Speaker Mike Johnson over his prediction that he would keep the gavel.

She made clear that the show will continue now that Democrats hold Congress. "Mockery is our superpower," she said.