Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he would decide within two weeks whether the United States will strike Iran's nuclear facilities. On June 21 local time, NBC pointed out that "within two weeks" has been a repeatedly used deadline by Trump since his first term.
"Since his first term, Trump has repeatedly boasted that he would take action and make decisions within 'two weeks,' some of which have never been realized," NBC wrote.
Reportedly, Trump said on February 9, 2017, regarding the tax reform plan: "In the next two to three weeks, we will announce some extraordinary things in terms of taxation and developing our aviation infrastructure." According to Bloomberg's report at that time, 11 weeks later, he released a one-page outline of the plan.
The report pointed out that recently, on a series of issues ranging from trade agreements, tariffs to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Trump has more frequently used the time limit of "two weeks." However, most of them have not been realized, and the questions he said he would answer still remain unanswered.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
NBC listed some of the "two-week" deadlines mentioned by Trump since taking office:
Two weeks to set tariff rates
On April 23, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the United States would reach "great agreements" in trade, "and if we do not reach an agreement with a company or a country, we will set tariffs. We just set the tariffs. We think this will happen." "We will set tariffs in the next two or three weeks."
Two weeks to decide whether to continue aid to Ukraine
On April 24, when asked by Norwegian Prime Minister Solberg if he would continue providing military intelligence and aid to Ukraine if no peace agreement was reached with Russia, Trump replied: "I think we will reach an agreement, and if we do, it will be great. We won't have to worry about your question. You can ask this question in two weeks, and we will see. But I think we are very close."
Within the next two weeks, Trump will reveal whether he trusts Putin
On April 27, when asked if he trusted Russian President Putin, Trump said: "We will let you know within about two weeks."
Two weeks to determine Putin's path in Ukraine
In a program aired by NBC on May 4, the host asked Trump if he had misread Putin's stance in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Trump replied: "No, I will tell you in one month or two weeks. I don't know. I can tell you that his ambitions have been largely contained when he sees me leading this operation."
Two weeks to announce tariffs on pharmaceutical companies
On May 5, when asked if any decisions had been made regarding the rate and timing of tariffs on pharmaceutical companies, Trump said: "I've made the decision and will announce it in the next two weeks."
The next day, Trump said: "We will soon impose tariffs on medicines."
Two weeks to sign trade agreements
On May 6, Trump met with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and said that multiple trade agreements were imminent.
Trump said: "Our situation is - everyone asks, 'When? When will you sign the agreement?' We don't need to sign agreements. We could sign 25 agreements right now if we wanted. But we don't need to; they have to sign with us. They want our market, and we don't want theirs. So we just sit down, and I will do this at some point in the next two weeks."
Two weeks to meet Putin and end the conflict
On May 16, when asked by Trump about when he would meet with Putin and discuss ending the conflict in Abu Dhabi, he replied: "I think we can make this place safer in two to three weeks."
Two weeks to determine if Zelensky is doing well
On May 19, when asked if Ukrainian President Zelensky had done enough to help end the conflict, Trump said: "I'd rather wait about two weeks before telling you because I can't say yes or no now."
"Zelensky is a strong person, and he is not easy to deal with, but I think he wants to end this conflict. What happens there is very bad. I think he wants to stop it, but I can answer this question better in two or four weeks."
Two weeks to determine if Putin wants to end the conflict
On May 28, when questioned again by journalists about whether he believed Putin wanted to end the conflict, Trump said: "I can't tell you, but I will tell you in about two weeks. We will find out soon. We will figure out if he is fooling us. If so, our response will be different. This will take about one and a half to two weeks."
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