President Donald Trump pledged to reduce federal spending by enacting the "penny plan," which would reduce non-defense and non-entitlement spending by 1% a year.

But even before the coronavirus pandemic forced the government to unexpectedly pass the $1.7 trillion CARES Act, the president signed spending bills that broke this promise by increasing that category of spending. Non-defense discretionary spending includes programs at a wide range of federal agencies, from Agriculture and Education to Transportation and Health and Human Services.

This chart shows the amount of federal spending excluding defense outlays and mandatory spending. The latter category includes such programs as Social Security and Medicare as well as interest on the debt.

If the penny plan had been enacted, the red bars, showing Trump's tenure, would be falling, rather than rising.

"You don't have to look any further than that Trump signed spending bills in 2018 and 2019 that dramatically increased discretionary spending across the board without any offsets," said Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

"Both defense and non-defense spending have increased substantially since Trump took office, thanks largely to the expansive and unpaid for Bipartisan Budget Acts he signed," said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "No major part of the budget has been cut nominally by 1% or 2% per year as under the penny plan or two penny plan."

We rate this a Promise Broken.