made by Barack Obama during his campaigns and found that , to the irritation of his opponents , he has accomplished at least a compromised version of seventy per cent of them . To turn intentions into policy , previous transition teams have produced confidential guides , known as “ promise books , ” that pull from the candidate ’s words in order to shape the priorities of officials across the government . During the 2008 campaign , the Obama transition team distributed a memo to staff members on “ what qualifies as a promise . ” It explained , “ Words like ‘ will , ’ ‘ would , ’ ‘ create , ’ ‘ ensure , ’ ‘ increase , ’ ‘ eliminate ’ are good signals of specific policy commitments . ” When Trump talks about what he will create and what he will eliminate , he does n’t depart from three core principles : in his view , America is doing too much to try to solve the world ’s problems ; trade agreements are damaging the country ; and immigrants are detrimental to it .