What you need to know about its policy platforms

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday presented a list of 20 campaign promises in a post on Truth Social, taking over the homepage of his website.

Although Vice President Kamala Harris only announced details of her agenda on Friday, Trump has already tied to several platforms this election campaign.

In 2022, he began publishing videos and statements titled Agenda47. As Democrats began fear-mongering about Project 2025, the Republican National Committee released its official platform, which Trump laid out along with “20 Core Promises to Make America Great Again.” That doesn’t include campaign sideshows like teasing a universal 20% tariff, which he mentioned this week in North Carolina.

Policy platform and messaging changes are common during presidential elections, said Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University. He explained that platforms today often serve as a blueprint for what the party wants to do, but they should be taken with a grain of salt.

“I think part of the narrow nature of the Republican platform is that Donald Trump himself thinks these documents are essentially powerless and voters may not be as interested in the details of policy, so the message has been condensed and simplified in many ways,” he said.

Here’s what you need to know about the evolution of Trump’s platforms:

More: More Than Donald Trump’s Opponent: Here Are Some of Kamala Harris’ Campaign Promises

Agenda47

Trump began releasing videos and statements outlining his policy plans in 2022, during a primary season that saw him face quickly defeated challengers including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The plans include many proposals in the form of executive actions to tackle crime, education, health care, immigration, the economy and more.

Some of those ideas were attention-grabbers, like making drug dealers liable for the death penalty or creating an accrediting body to certify teachers in patriotism. Yet, several issues like health care were still not comprehensive.

The Agenda47 landing pages on Trump’s campaign websites were later replaced by the RNC platform, but are still online.

Project2025

Project 2025, also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, was published in April 2023 by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.

While Democrats raised alarm over some of the document’s extreme policy proposals, Trump has sought to distance himself from it. Yet many people involved in developing the playbook have ties to Trump and his first administration.

While the 900-page proposal is much more detailed than the other platforms, it touches on a number of similar themes, including border security, restricting transgender rights and energy dominance.

RNC ‘Make America Great Again’

Ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, the committee endorsed a platform that reflected Trump’s popular campaign points from top to bottom, with the slogan “Make America Great Again” turned into a title.

The introduction leaned heavily on the “America First” policy, advocating securing the southern border, bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., increasing domestic energy production and building a strong military.

Notably, abortion was largely omitted from the document, suggesting that policy decisions should be left up to the states themselves, given that Trump earlier this year avoided calling for a national ban on abortion.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S 20 MOST IMPORTANT PROMISES TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Trump’s 20 core promises are incorporated into the larger RNC “Make America Great Again” platform. The GOP introduces the platform as “a progressive agenda that starts with the following 20 promises that we will deliver on very quickly if we win the White House and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.”

Trump presented this list after an interview with Elon Musk on Monday.

Close 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 the world’s largest energy producer by far!
Stop outsourcing and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower
Big tax cuts for workers, 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 great ironclad missile defense shield across our entire country – all made in America
End the arming of the government against the American people
End the migrant crime epidemic, destroy the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence and lock up violent criminals
Rebuild our cities, including Washington DC, and make them safe, clean and beautiful again.
Strengthen and modernize our military so that it becomes without a doubt the strongest and most powerful in the world
Keep the US dollar as the world reserve currency
Fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.
Eliminate the electric vehicle mandate and reduce costly and burdensome regulations
Cut federal funding to any school that forces critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.
Keep men out of women’s sports
Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again
Take care of our elections, including same-day voting, voter identification, paper ballots and proof of citizenship
Unite our country by taking it to new and record levels of success

Kamala Harris begins rolling out platform with economic plan

Trump has criticized the Biden administration and made personal attacks on Harris in many of his political speeches, even as some GOP leaders try to focus on her policies.

Harris began laying out her policy agenda, starting with an economic plan ahead of a rally in North Carolina on Friday. She proposed a federal ban on overpricing for food and groceries, up to $25,000 in assistance for first-time homebuyers and a tax break for builders to build more starter homes.

Panagopoulos said the rest of the Democratic platform is not yet known, as it is typically adopted at the convention (although Republicans had already approved their platforms before the convention).

The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago from Monday, August 19, through Thursday, August 22.