From consumer prices at home to the war in Ukraine abroad, Trump has become less bombastic with less than 40 days until Inauguration Day and his return to the White House next year.

Most politicians tinker with their talking points after elections before approval polling starts during their respective administrations, according to George Mason University political science professor Jeremy Mayer.

“The reduction of expectations we see in Trump’s rhetoric is normal,” Mayer told the Washington Examiner. “What’s not normal is the wild promises during the election.”
 
Mayer cited Trump’s promises that he would “easily” solve several international crises, in particular, contending “everyone who knows anything” about foreign policy “knew that they would not be easy to solve” and “probably most voters did, too.”

“Trump has always been careless with his promises and with the truth,” the professor said. “He will never face the electorate again, so he didn’t worry even slightly about overpromising. His promises in 2024 were more unhinged and unrealistic than his promises in 2016 and 2020 for that reason, I think.”

This is not the first time that Trump has dealt with the difference between campaign promises and the reality of governing, according to Claremont McKenna College politics professor John Pitney.

“In 2016, he promised to repeal Obamacare and bring about better healthcare ‘at a tiny fraction of the cost — and it’s going to be so easy,’” Pitney told the Washington Examiner. “In 2017,” after the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain tanked Trump’s attempts at healthcare reform, “he said ‘nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated.’ Pretty much everybody knew it.”

For Mayer, Mexico paying for the border wall was another example of Trump overpromising, though he “has paid very little price” for underdelivering.

“The wall was only partially built, and none of it was paid for by Mexico, and he almost won in 2020,” Mayer said. “So he learned that the voters don’t care much about truth or delivering on promises.”

Four years later, Trump “has little choice but to manage expectations about prices,” Pitney added, quipping that “apparently, somebody explained to him that deflation means recession.” However, the professor noted that Vice President Kamala Harris made a similar promise as part of her campaign against Trump and would have encountered “the same constraints” had she won last month.

Pitney also described Trump’s promise that “the Middle East is going to get solved” as “a nice aspiration, but it’s a goal that has eluded presidents since 1948.”

Trump managed expectations during his extended interview with Time that was published Thursday to coincide with the magazine’s Person of the Year awards.

Regarding inflation, Trump conceded that “it’s hard to bring [prices] down once they’re up,” repeating that “it’s very hard” before expressing confidence that “they will.”

“I think that energy is going to bring them down,” he told Time. “I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken. It’s broken.”

Then regarding Ukraine, Trump compared the war with Russia with the Middle East conflict, asserting the latter “is an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”

“I think the Middle East is going to get solved,” he reiterated. “I think it’s more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine, but I think it’s, it’s, it’s easier to solve.”

But during the same interview, Trump additionally underscored his campaign promises regarding mass deportations, pardoning Jan. 6 convicted felons and defendants, and “virtually” closing the Department of Education.

Of his Jan. 6 clemency, Trump said, “We’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. And a vast majority of them should not be in jail. A vast majority should not be in jail, and they’ve suffered gravely.”

To that end, Trump’s transition, including announcing all his Cabinet officials, except for his White House Council of Economic Advisers chair, before the end of December, has proceeded with alacrity. Many of his nominees are already in Washington, D.C., to meet with the senators who will or will not confirm them.

“I’m not sure if it’s going well but it’s certainly going quickly by any standard,” presidential historian David Pietrusza told the Washington Examiner. “One of the inevitable historical comparisons with Trump at this point in time is, of course, to Grover Cleveland and his two nonconsecutive terms. But there are other parallels as well.”

Pietrusza continued, “Both Trump and Cleveland feature different vice presidents in their second terms. And, as Trump has avoided holdovers from his first term in his second Cabinet, so also did Cleveland.”

Two of Trump’s nominees have withdrawn themselves from consideration, most prominently former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was replaced by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as Trump’s nominee to become U.S. attorney general after it became apparent the unpopular congressman did not have enough support in the Senate.

Trump has been more supportive of his defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, abusing alcohol, and financially mismanaging veterans advocacy organizations that he directed, after he was reportedly advised to project strength to Republican senators and defend Hegseth. Hegseth has denied the allegations.

More generally, Trump’s election win last month has been met with a warmer reception than in 2016, demonstrated by Time awarding him its Person of the Year award this week and the applause he received at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Trump last won Person of the Year in 2016.

Another example is a CNN poll published this week that found a majority of its respondents are confident Trump will “do a good job upon his return to the White House next month” and 55% approve “of how he’s handling the presidential transition so far.”

Simultaneously, challenges for Trump are already emerging, such as inflation, with last month’s annualized rate of 2.7% higher than expected. There is disagreement, too, between Republican congressional leadership about how to fund the government next year, which could create problems for Trump, despite GOP control of Congress.