President that he will decide whether the U.S. will take military action in the growing Israel-Iran conflict "within two weeks."
It's a timeline he's used many times before, dating back to his first term.
Over the years, Trump has promised action on policy issues from to to within two weeks. He's hinted at conspiracy theories to be resolved and policy decisions to be revealed within a fortnight 鈥� only for his announcements to materialize months later or not at all.
Trump has used the timeframe several times in recent weeks alone, priming reporters for updates that have yet to materialize on geopolitical conflicts and global tariffs.
Take Russia's war in Ukraine. In his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised he could 鈥� but it has since stretched into its . Over the last two months, Trump has said repeatedly that various answers to questions about the war, including U.S. assistance to Ukraine, would be just two weeks away.
On , he told a reporter who asked about continued military assistance for Ukraine: "You can ask that question in two weeks, and we'll see." He gave a similar answer days later when asked if he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he had in recent months.
Those weeks came and went. And on , when asked if Ukraine was doing enough to support U.S.-led cease-fire negotiations, , "I'd rather tell you in about two weeks from now because I can't say yes or no."
Over a month ago, , Trump gave Putin another two-week deadline when a reporter asked whether he believed the Russian leader truly wants the war to end.
"I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know within two weeks," Trump said. "We're going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not. And if he is, we'll respond a bit differently, but it will take about a week and a half, two weeks."
On Thursday, after Trump postponed his decision on Iran strikes, a reporter pointed out the pattern of delayed two-week deadlines and asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt "how we can be sure that he's going to stick to this one."
Leavitt acknowledged the deadlines but said the fighting in Ukraine and the Middle East "are two very different, complicated global conflicts" that Trump inherited from the previous administration and has spent "a tremendous amount of time and effort cleaning up."
Meanwhile, the world has also been waiting on Trump's decisions about tariffs on 鈥� which he unveiled in April before abruptly of them to allow for negotiations, with a deadline of July 9.
Trump on May 5 that he would make a determination about pharmaceutical tariff rates "in the next two weeks," though he didn't comment publicly on the topic again until , when he said tariffs on pharmaceutical imports would be coming "very soon."
And he that he would notify trading partners about unilateral tariff rates within 鈥� you guessed it.
"We're going to be sending letters out in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries, telling them what the deal is," Trump said.
It's been a pattern since at least 2017
, a former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden, called the two-week deadline "one of Donald Trump's absolute favorite tactics" in her MSNBC show on Thursday.
"And most of the time, in fact almost every time, when two weeks rolls around, Trump has either completely forgotten about whatever it was he promised in the first place, or 鈥� he's hoping people have just moved on," Psaki said.
Here's how some of Trump's other two-week deadlines have played out over the years:
Tax plan
On Feb. 9, 2017, Trump said a would be announced "over the next two or three weeks."
His administration unveiled its over two months later on April 26, and Trump signed it into law after in late December.
Trump has since promised to extend those tax cuts 鈥� the majority of which are due to expire at the end of 2025 鈥� through a bill that in late May and is under .
Paris Agreement
During his first presidential campaign, Trump said he would remove the U.S. from the climate accord. And after he took office, he said at rally that he would decide its fate during the following two weeks.
On June 1 of that year, he announced that the 鈥� which, under the terms of the agreement, didn't take effect until .
One of Biden's first acts after taking office in 2021 was to in the agreement, a by executive order at the start of his second term.
Health care
The first Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to end the Affordable Care Act, even asking the Supreme Court to overturn it in late 2020. (It in 2021.)
Trump in July 2020 that he would be replacing Obamacare and "signing a health care plan within two weeks," which did not happen.
According to the health policy , while Trump did propose the idea of an Affordable Care Act replacement in his 2020 budget, it didn't get much attention. And when Trump was asked about his Obamacare replacement plan at a September debate during the 2024 presidential campaign, he infamously replied that he had "."
Infrastructure
As president-elect in 2016, a $1 trillion infrastructure spending program 鈥� which took years to become a reality.
He on May 1, 2017 that his administration's infrastructure plan would be coming in "the next two or three weeks, maybe sooner."
But he didn't unveil the until February 2018, after a series of false starts that turned "Infrastructure Week" into a .
While Trump and Democrats tentatively in the spring of 2019, the bill ultimately failed due to disagreements over how to fund it and a number of , from Trump's impeachment to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conspiracy theories
More than once, Trump has said that evidence to back up his various claims would appear in exactly a fortnight.
In March 2017, after that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped his Trump Tower phone ahead of the 2016 election, Trump : "I think you're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks."
Within days, congressional leaders from both parties to support Trump's claim. Years later, in a , Trump admitted he had made the accusations based only on "a little bit of a hunch."
Separately, days after losing the 2020 election to Biden, Trump alleged election fraud, and immediately challenged the results in several key states. He told the that he expected to succeed in "probably two weeks, three weeks." Numerous lawsuits, investigations and audits 鈥� including ones led by Republicans 鈥� found that Trump alleged.
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