By Lily Bourne
On November 5, 2024, American voters elected Donald Trump as president of the United States. The choice was finally made after months of campaigning and many promises made by both parties. The two candidates proposed different methods of tackling America’s most pressing issues including the economy, immigration, reproductive rights, and foreign policy. Based solely on their official platform documents, each candidate’s statements are compared below.*
Economy:
Harris: Harris’s 82-page economic policy book describes that she hoped to create an “opportunity economy” with the goal of building up the middle class. She planned to restore the expanded Child Tax Credit, which was originally passed by Harris’s vote, giving credit of up to $3,600 per child for the middle class. The plan would include $6,000 of tax relief for middle and low-income families for the first year of their child’s life. She also wanted to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits middle-to-low income workers with no children. She wanted to invest in diversifying the food supply chain and expanding to small farms and new suppliers to keep grocery prices down. In addition, she claimed she would crack down on mergers and acquisitions that give food corporations a monopoly to raise prices for customers. She also would call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging that would stop corporations from profiting off of times of crisis, a bipartisan solution that has been supported by both parties. She aimed to lower health care and prescription drug costs as other methods of lowering the cost of living (policies discussed in Healthcare). In addition, she would build on the Inflation Reduction Act to provide tax credits for working families to lower home energy costs. Her platform also included protecting consumers from junk fees and financial fraud. She focused on investing in innovation and industrial strength with an “America Forward” strategy. This strategy would focus on clean iron and steel and emerging technologies such as AI, aerospace, and clean energy. Her America Forward tax credit would be targeted at providing benefits to investments made in manufacturing, farming and energy communities and would reward companies that work with workers and communities to protect jobs. The platform also described a plan to make permanent the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource to strengthen America’s competitiveness in the AI field in accordance with Biden’s executive order.
Trump: Trump’s 16-page platform booklet describes that he supports an “America First” economic agenda. He claims his administration will stop regulations that stifle jobs, freedom, and innovation. He will attempt to make permanent the provisions of the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that doubled the standard deduction and expanded the Child Tax Credit. In addition, he would fight to eliminate the tax on tips and pursue additional tax cuts. His platform also focuses on prioritizing American producers over foreign outsourcers and bringing supply chains back home through an American First Trade Policy (discussed in Foreign Policy). He also focuses on innovation, claiming that he will end the crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank of Digital Currency. He will defend the right to self-custody of digital assets, to mine Bitcoin, and to transact free without government surveillance. In addition, he hopes to repeal Biden’s executive order on the development and use of AI and will instead support AI development. He also focuses on expanding into space and creating a robust manufacturing industry with the goal of getting astronauts back on the Moon and toward Mars. To combat inflation, Trump aims to reinstate the Deregulation Policies while also cutting federal spending.
Civil Rights and Reproductive Freedoms:
Harris: Harris’s platform on reproductive rights revolved around her trust in women to make decisions about their own bodies. She claimed that she would never allow a national abortion ban to become law, and would sign a bill passed by Congress to restore reproductive freedom nationwide. She also aimed to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights and Freedom to Vote Acts, which would expand vote-by-mail and early voting, among other voting rights protections. In addition, she would fight to pass the Equality Act, which would include anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Americans.
Trump: Trump’s platform focuses on empowering families and stopping woke government. He describes plans to defund institutions engaged in censorship and protect free speech online. The platform focuses on defending the right to worship for every faith and creating a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias. On reproductive rights, Trump believes that the power to make laws on the topic should be given to the states. He opposes late term abortion, but supports prenatal care, birth control, and IVF. The platform also claims that he will keep men out of women’s sports, ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, stop public schools from promoting gender transition, and reverse Biden’s Title IX Education regulations.
Education:
Harris: Harris’s platform focused on ensuring high quality public education for the middle class. She wanted to continue ending the burden of student loan debt to make higher education more affordable. In addition, she aimed to scale up programs for apprentices and non-college graduates. Harris’s platform also mentioned she would ensure working families can afford high-quality child care.
Trump: Trump focuses on restoring parental rights in education and promoting American values. He aims to close the Department of Education and turn education back to the States. He supports ending teacher tenure and adopting merit pay. He wants to see universal school choice in all states, expand 529 Education Savings Accounts, and support homeschool families. He also mentions overhauling standards on school discipline to stop violence. His platform aims to remove Critical Race Theory, and promises to defund schools that engage in political indoctrination while supporting schools that teach about America’s founding principles and western civilization. In addition, Trump wants to reinstate the 1776 Commission, veto efforts to nationalize civics education, and protect the right to pray and read the Bible in school.
Climate and Energy:
Harris: Harris aimed to tackle the climate crisis and lower energy costs for consumers. She claimed she would invest in a clean energy economy and cut red tape so projects could be completed more efficiently. She aimed to continue supporting tax credits for home energy technologies that would help families save money on heat pumps, solar, and insulation, among other things. She also focused on constructing lower-cost, more resilient electrical grids to distribute cheaper energy and provide resilience to climate disasters. She wanted to advance environmental justice, protect public lands and public health, and hold polluters accountable. She acknowledged the necessity of global cooperation and building upon the United States’ international leadership to tackle climate change.
Trump: Trump focuses on establishing energy dominance over foreign suppliers. He aims to end restrictions on oil, natural gas, and coal in order to bring America back to being the number one producer in the world. He claims he will terminate the Green New Deal and will unleash energy production from all sources, including nuclear.
Immigration:
Harris: Harris promised to bring back the bipartisan border security bill and sign it into law, which would deploy technology to intercept fentanyl and other drugs, as well as add 1,500 border security agents. Additionally, she acknowledged the need for reform in the immigration system to create an earned pathway to citizenship.
Trump: Trump claims he will secure the southern border by completing the border wall effectively and inexpensively. He hopes to shift massive amounts of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement, and to deploy the US Navy to impose a fentanyl blockade on the water. He also focuses on strengthening ICE, increasing penalties for illegal entry and overstaying visas, and reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Along that line, he wants to invoke the Alien Enemies Act which will allow the government to remove known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, and cartel members, as well as the Travel Ban and Title 42 to end child trafficking by returning trafficked children to their families in home countries. His platform claims he will use federal law to keep Christian-hating communists, marxists, and socialists out of the country, as well as cut funding to sanctuary cities. Overall, his plan includes the “largest deportation program in American history”.
Foreign Policy:
Harris: Harris focused on her experience negotiating with American allies and adversaries. She supported Israel’s right to defend itself, but wanted to end the war in Gaza so that hostages were released, suffering would end, and Palestinian people would realize their right to dignity and freedom. She aimed to make America, not China, emerge as the global leader by investing in American workers, innovation, and industry. She claimed she would ensure NATO’s strength while keeping America at the forefront of industry, from semiconductors to clean energy to artificial intelligence.
Trump: Trump hopes to protect American workers from unfair foreign competition by instituting baseline tariffs and Passing the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act. He claims he will remove China’s “Most Favored Nation” status and stop them from purchasing American real estate and industries. To support the auto industry, Trump will cancel Biden’s electric vehicle and other mandates, and prevent the importation of Chinese vehicles. In addition, he hopes to strengthen Buy American, Hire American Policies which would ban companies that outsource jobs from doing business with the federal government. To keep the nation’s safety, Trump hopes to ensure the military will be the most modern, lethal, and powerful force in the world, including the creation of the Iron Missile Defense Shield and higher pay for troops. He supports Israel and hopes to rebuild an alliance network in the Middle East, while pushing our current allies to meet their obligations in common defense and restoring peace to Europe. To support American industry, his policy will mandate that equipment critical to American security must be made in the US.
Supporting Veterans:
Harris: Harris aimed to fight veteran homelessness by investing in mental health and suicide prevention efforts. She focused on eliminating barriers to employment and expanding opportunities for military and veteran’s families. She would continue the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT), which provides screenings, health care, and benefits for veterans.
Trump: Trump focuses on reallocating taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants to provide shelter and treat homeless veterans. He hopes to restore his own previous reforms that expanded veterans’ healthcare choices, protect whistleblowers, and hold poorly performing employees accountable for not supporting veterans.
Seniors and Social Security:
Harris: Harris hoped to protect seniors by strengthening social security and Medicare, while lowering prescription drug costs and protecting seniors from fraud and scams. She aimed to expand the high-quality home care services provided by the American Rescue Plan. Harris focused on defending the prescription drug cost caps, accelerating price negotiations to cover more drugs, and extending monthly caps on insulin and prescription drugs to all Americans. She would follow through on the Butch Lewis Act that protects pensions of millions of union members.
Trump: Trump focuses on protecting social security through restoring economic stability. He also claims he will protect Medicare’s finances by preventing illegal immigrants from using those funds. Trump supports increased focus on chronic disease prevention and management, long-term care, and benefit flexibility. He hopes to expand access to primary care and help seniors remain in their homes with financial security, by shifting resources to at-home senior care and supporting unpaid family caregivers through tax credits.
Supreme Court and Equality Under the Law:
Harris: Harris supported Supreme Court reforms, including requiring justices to comply with ethics rules that other federal judges are bound by. She also hoped to impose term limits, which would address the crisis of American confidence in the Supreme Court. Harris also focused on ensuring that no one is above the law, and would fight to remove immunity for crimes committed while in the White House.
Trump: Trump claims he will maintain the Supreme Court as “it was always meant to be”, and block any attempt at increasing the number of justices. His platform also claims that he will ensure the equal application of law to all, regardless of political affiliation or personal beliefs.
*I have chosen to include the candidate’s claims of what they will do in office. I have excluded most mentions of each candidate’s previous actions and their remarks about each other’s policies, as I want to provide an unbiased look at specifically what they planned to do for the country in the future.