Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree to presidential debate on September 10
After it was unclear whether there would be a presidential debate, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agreed to meet on September 10.
Former President Donald Trump unveiled a list of 20 campaign promises in a post on Truth Social and a takeover of his website’s landing page on Tuesday.
While Vice President Kamala Harris only began announcing details of her agenda on Friday, Trump has been linked to multiple platforms in the current election cycle alone.
In 2022, he began releasing videos and statements under the title “Agenda47.” As Democrats began to stoke fear about Project 2025, the Republican National Committee released its official program, which Trump presented along with “20 core promises to make America great again.” It does not include the campaign digressions, such as the hint of a 20 percent general tariff that he mentioned this week in North Carolina.
Changes in political platforms and messages often occur during a presidential election, said Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University. He explained that platforms today are more of a blueprint for the things the party wants to do, but they should be taken with a grain of salt.
“I think the stripped-down form of the Republican platform reflects in part the fact that Donald Trump himself seems to think these documents are essentially toothless and voters may not be so interested in the finer points of policy substance. So in many ways the message has been distilled and simplified,” he said.
Here’s what you should know about the development of Trump’s election programs:
More: More than Donald Trump’s opponent: These are some of Kamala Harris’ campaign promises
Agenda47
Trump began releasing videos and statements outlining his political plans for 2022, facing quickly defeated challengers in the primary, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
The plans include many proposals in the form of executive actions to combat crime, education, health care, immigration, the economy and more.
Some of these ideas attracted a lot of attention, such as the death penalty for drug dealers or the creation of a certification body for patriotic teachers. But in several areas, such as health care, comprehensive coverage was still lacking.
Agenda47’s landing pages on Trump’s campaign websites were later replaced by the RNC platform, but remain online.
Project 2025
Project 2025, also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, was released in April 2023 by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.
While Democrats raised alarm about some of the extreme policy proposals contained in the document, Trump sought to distance himself from it. Yet many of the people involved in the script’s creation have ties to Trump and his first administration.
While the 900-page proposal goes into much more detail than the other platforms, it does share some similar themes, including border security, restrictions on transgender rights and energy dominance.
RNC: “Make America Great Again”
In the run-up to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, the committee endorsed a program that fundamentally reflected Trump’s popular campaign themes and whose title was based on the slogan “Make America Great Again.”
The preamble was strongly based on the “America First” policy and advocated securing the southern border, relocating production back to the USA, increasing domestic energy production and a strong military.
Notably, the document largely left out the issue of abortion, suggesting that policy decisions should be left to the states after Trump avoided calling for a national abortion ban earlier this year.
President Trump’s 20 KEY PROMISES TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Trump’s 20 core promises are part of the larger RNC program “Make America Great Again.” Republicans present the program as “a forward-looking agenda that begins with the following twenty promises that we will fulfill very quickly if we win the White House and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.”
Trump promoted this list after an interview with Elon Musk on Monday.
- Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion
- Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history
- End inflation and make America affordable again
- Make America by far the largest energy producer in the world!
- Stop outsourcing and make the US a manufacturing superpower
- Big tax cuts for employees and no tax on tips
- Defend our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms.
- Prevent World War III, restore peace to Europe and the Middle East, and build a massive iron-domed missile defense shield over our entire country – all Made in America.
- Stop using the government as a weapon against the American people
- Stop the migrant crime epidemic, dismantle foreign drug cartels, end gang violence, and lock up violent criminals.
- Rebuild our cities, including Washington DC, and make them safe, clean and beautiful again.
- Strengthening and modernizing our military to make it undoubtedly the strongest and most powerful in the world
- Keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency
- Fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare without cuts, including changing the retirement age.
- Repeal of the electric car requirement and removal of costly and burdensome regulations
- Cut federal funding to any school that pushes critical race theory, radical gender ideology, or other inappropriate racist, sexual, or political content on our children.
- Keeping men out of women’s sports
- Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.
- Secure our elections, including same-day voting, voter identification, ballots and proof of citizenship
- Unite our country by leading it to new and record-breaking successes
Kamala Harris begins rollout of platform with economic plan
Trump has used many of his political speeches to criticize the Biden administration and launch personal attacks on Harris, while some top Republican politicians have sought to put their policies in the spotlight.
Harris began outlining her policy agenda, opening with an economic plan before a rally in North Carolina on Friday. She proposed a federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries, up to $25,000 in assistance for first-time homebuyers and tax incentives for builders to build more entry-level homes.
Panagopoulos said the rest of the Democratic platform had not yet been finalized, as it would normally be adopted at the party convention (although the Republicans had already approved their platforms before the convention).
The Democratic Party Convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago from Monday, August 19 to Thursday, August 22.
