Election 2024: Where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Stand on Key Issues

Israel/Gaza

HARRIS

Harris says Israel has the right to defend itself, and she has repeatedly criticized Hamas as a terrorist organization. But the vice president could also have helped deflect some of the backlash from progressives by being more vocal about the need to better protect civilians in the fighting in Gaza.

More than 40,900 Palestinians have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled area. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children account for slightly more than half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.

Like Biden, Harris supports a proposed hostage-for-an-extended ceasefire deal aimed at bringing home all remaining hostages and Israeli dead. Biden and Harris say the deal could lead to a permanent end to the grueling war, and they have endorsed a two-state solution in which Israel would exist alongside an independent Palestinian state.

TRUMP

The former president has voiced support for Israel’s efforts to “destroy” Hamas, but he has also been critical of some of Israel’s tactics, saying the country must get the job done quickly and return to peace. He has called for a more aggressive response to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses and has applauded police efforts to clear camps. Trump has also proposed revoking the student visas of those who espouse anti-Semitic or anti-American views and deporting those who support Hamas.

LGBTQ+ issues

HARRIS

At her rallies, Harris has accused Trump and his party of rolling back a long list of freedoms, including the ability to “love openly and proudly who you love.” She has led crowds in chants of “We’re not going back.” Though her campaign has yet to share details about her plans, she is part of a Biden administration that has routinely denounced discrimination and attacks against the LGBTQ+ community. Early in Biden’s term, his administration reversed a Trump executive order that had largely banned transgender people from serving in the military, and his Education Department issued a rule saying that Title IX, the 1972 law passed to protect women’s rights, also prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. That rule was silent on the issue of transgender athletes.

TRUMP

The former president has promised to ban transgender women from women’s sports and says he will ask Congress to pass a bill that would establish “only two genders” as determined at birth in the United States. He promises to “defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology.” As part of his crackdown on gender-affirming care, he would declare that any health care provider who engages in the “chemical or physical mutilation of minors” no longer meets federal health and safety standards and ban them from receiving federal funding. He would implement similar punitive measures in schools against any teacher or school official who “suggests to a child that they may be trapped in the wrong body.” Trump would support a nationwide ban on hormonal or surgical procedures for transgender minors and ban transgender people from military service.

NATO/Ukraine

HARRIS

The vice president has yet to indicate how her views on Russia’s war with Ukraine might differ from Biden’s, other than to praise the president’s efforts to rebuild alliances dismantled by Trump, particularly NATO, a key bulwark against Russian aggression. The Biden administration has pledged continued support to Ukraine against the Russian invasion. The administration has sent tens of billions of dollars in military and other aid to Ukraine, including a tranche of aid totaling $61 billion in weapons, munitions and other assistance that is expected to last through the end of the year. The administration has maintained that continued U.S. aid is crucial because Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not stop at invading Ukraine. Harris has previously said it would be foolish to risk global alliances the U.S. has forged and has condemned Putin’s “audacity.”

TRUMP

The former president has repeatedly criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine and says he will “continue to fundamentally rethink” the mission and purpose of the NATO alliance if he returns to office. He has argued, without explanation, that he can end the war before his inauguration by bringing both sides to the negotiating table. (His approach appears to rely on Ukraine giving up at least some of its Russian-occupied territory in exchange for a cease-fire.) As for NATO, he has spent years attacking member states for failing to meet agreed-upon military spending goals. Trump raised alarm bells this year when he said that as president he had warned leaders that he would not only refuse to defend countries that fail to meet those goals, but that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever they want” to countries that are “delinquent.”

Tariffs/Trade

HARRIS

The Biden-Harris administration has sought to boost trade with allies in Europe, Asia and North America, while using tariffs and other tools to target rivals such as China. The Democratic administration kept Trump’s tariffs on China in place, while adding a ban on exports of advanced computer chips to the country and offering incentives to boost U.S. manufacturing. In May, the Biden-Harris administration specifically targeted China, increasing tariffs on electric vehicles and steel and aluminum, among other products.

TRUMP

The former president wants to dramatically expand tariffs on nearly all imported foreign goods, saying “we’re going to have 10% to 20% tariffs on foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years.” He has proposed tariffs as high as 100% on Chinese goods. He sees the taxes as a way to finance other tax cuts, reduce the deficit and potentially fund child care — though the tariffs could raise prices for consumers without generating the revenue Trump promises. He would also push Congress to pass legislation giving the president the authority to impose a reciprocal tariff on any country that imposes one on the U.S. Much of his trade agenda focuses on China. Trump has proposed phasing out Chinese imports of essential goods including electronics, steel and pharmaceuticals, and wants to ban Chinese companies from owning U.S. infrastructure in sectors such as energy, technology and farmland.

Taxes

HARRIS

With much of the 2017 tax overhaul set to expire at the end of next year, Harris is promising tax cuts for more than 100 million working-class and middle-class households. In addition to preserving some of the expiring cuts, she wants to make permanent a tax credit of up to $3,600 per child and offer a special $6,000 tax credit for new parents. Harris says her administration would expand tax credits for first-time homebuyers and push for the construction of 3 million new homes over four years, while eliminating the tip tax and passing tax breaks for business owners. Like Biden, she wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% and the corporate minimum to 21%. The current corporate rate is 21%, and the corporate minimum, raised under the Inflation Reduction Act, is 15% for companies making more than $1 billion a year. But Harris would not raise the capital gains tax as much as Biden proposed for investors with more than $1 million in income.

TRUMP

The former president has promised to extend and even expand all of the 2017 tax cuts he signed into law, while also paying down the debt. He has proposed cutting the headline corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that make their products in the U.S. He would repeal all of the tax increases Biden signed into law. He also wants to gut some of the tax breaks Biden signed into law to encourage the development of renewable energy and electric vehicles. Trump has proposed eliminating taxes on tipped workers, a policy embraced by Harris, who would also raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, and eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits. He also wants to lower the cost of housing by opening up federal lands to development. Outside analysis suggests Trump’s ideas would do far more to widen budget deficits than Harris would, without delivering the growth needed to minimize additional debt.