What are Donald Trump’s stances on major issues to voters?

(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump has maintained steady support in the 2024 election as the presumptive Republican nominee, leading President Joe Biden 47% to 45% across seven key states following the first presidential debate of 2024, according to a recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll.

Despite his widely criticized debate performance and calls from within his own party to step out of the race, this is the closest Biden has come to closing the gap between him and Trump.

More than 100 members of the House and almost 20 GOP senators also have thrown their support behind Trump, while only a handful endorsed any of his opponents. 

Ahead of the 2024 election, NewsNation is committed to covering the issues that matter most to voters so they can make the most informed choices possible at the polls. 

Here’s a look at Trump’s policy positions and political views as he competes for your vote:

• Border crisis and the wall
• Crime
• Guns
• Israel and Palestine
• Russia and Ukraine
• Economy and inflation
• Department of Education showdown
• Child care crisis
• Rural development
• China and Taiwan
• Fentanyl
• Climate change
• Social Security
• Abortion

Who is Donald Trump?

A businessman entangled in legal troubles, Trump lost his reelection bid in 2020 to President Joe Biden. His campaigning and leadership have reshaped the GOP and, in some cases, have redefined conservative values, with his signature attacks on political opponents, skepticism toward mainstream media and his effort to create doubt about election results.

The former president has falsely declared the 2020 election was stolen, but there is no evidence supporting that claim.

A jury in May found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges for falsifying business records in an effort to keep information from voters ahead of the 2016 election. The sentencing in his case was delayed until Septemeber. The delay announcement came just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he has immunity from prosecution for official acts.

If Trump wins the presidency in November, conservative groups aim to implement a wide-ranging plan to dismantle federal government agencies called “Project 2025.”  Trump has sought to distance himself from the conservative Heritage Foundation’s project, saying he has “nothing to do” with the initiative and disagrees with some of its aspects.

Border crisis and immigration

• Would launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, paid for with redirected military funds, Reuters reported
• Would restore his 2019 “Remain in Mexico” program, which required asylum seekers at the U.S. border to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed
• End what he called “catch-and-release” and instead detain all migrants who are caught entering the United States without authorization or violating other immigration laws
• Deputize the U.S. National Guard and local law enforcement to help with rapid deportations, according to Reuters
• Enact travel bans denying entry to people from the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and “anywhere else that threatens our security”
• Block Communists, Marxists and socialists from entering the U.S. and send deportation officers to “pro-Hamas” protests
• End “birthright” citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents
• End Biden’s immigration parole program and roll back Temporary Protected Status designations
• Try again to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly referred to as DACA
• While he was president, about 450 miles of barriers were built along the Southwest border, according to the Associated Press

Trump’s policies on crime

• Move homeless encampments out of cities
• Give police more authority, deploy the military to fight the nation’s drug problem and impose the death penalty for convicted drug dealers
• Deliver record funding to hire and retrain police officers, strengthen qualified immunity and increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement
• Send federal prosecutors and the National Guard into high-crime communities, according to his campaign website
• As president, Trump granted pardons to 73 people and commuted the sentences of another 70. That includes former staff members and advisers such as Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Stephen K. Bannon and George Papadopoulos

Guns

• During his first presidential campaign, Trump positioned himself as a defender of the Second Amendment.
• A Trump-era ban on bump stocks was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2024, which said the Trump administration overstepped when it banned the rapid-fire gun accessories.
• After the May 24, 2022, Uvalde, Texas, shooting at Robb Elementary School, Trump called for “drastically” changing the nation’s approach to mental health and “a top-to-bottom security overhaul. at schools across this country” but dismissed calls for further firearm restrictions, the AP reported
• Trump vowed at an event sponsored by the National Rifle Association (NRA) in February to undo Biden-era gun restrictions if reelected.

Stance on Israel and Palestine

• Hasn’t announced plans regarding the Israel-Hamas war if reelected in 2024
• Suggested the war will just have to “play out”
• Said during an October Fox News interview, “We need to protect Israel, there is no choice”
• Has positioned himself as a strong ally to Israel while being critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
• Told Israel’s intelligence agencies to “step up their game”

Russia-Ukraine stance

• Called for a cease-fire in an official campaign statement
• Said he could “solve the conflict in a single day”
• Trump: “Every day this proxy battle in Ukraine continues, we risk global war”
• More generally suggests overhauling the State Department, the “defense bureaucracy” and intelligence services to fire who he called members of a “deep state”

Trump on economy, interest rates and inflation

• Promised “lower taxes, bigger paychecks, and more jobs for American workers” by enacting universal baseline tariffs that “reward domestic production” and tax foreign companies
• Said he will lower interest rates
• Claimed to have achieved the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years — 3.5% with 6.4 million added jobs before the pandemic
• During his presidency, federal debt held by the public rose from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion, influenced by Trump’s tax cuts, particularly his slashes to the corporate tax rate, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s FactCheck project

Department of Education shutdown, parental rights, ‘critical race theory’

• Said he would shut down the Department of Education and send education-related decision-making back to the states. Curricula, enrollment and other standards already lie with state and local agencies.
• Promotes allowing prayer in public schools
• Wants to adopt merit-based pay for teachers
• Allow parents to directly elect school principals
• Push the federal government to give funding preference to states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure
• Said students would receive a “patriotic education” that would “teach students to love their country, not to hate their country like they’re taught right now”
• Promote “the nuclear family” including “the roles of mothers and fathers” and the “things that make men and women different and unique”
• Provide federal funding so schools can hire trained gun owners to act as armed guards at schools
• Cut federal funding to schools teaching what he calls “critical race theory”
• Open civil rights investigations into school districts that engage in race-based discrimination

Child care crisis

• Hasn’t announced plans to alleviate child care crisis if reelected in 2024
• Previously proposed cutting the Child Care and Development Block Grant for low-income families by $95 million
• Ultimately signed a $2.37 billion increase into law instead, PolitiFact noted

Rural development

• Hasn’t outlined how he would improve rural infrastructure if reelected in 2024
• His administration’s 2018 federal budget was criticized by Democrats and the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry for cuts to rural housing subsidies and other programs
• He announced in 2020 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would invest $871 million to improve critical community facilities for rural residents in 43 states and Guam

China and Taiwan foreign policy

• “Completely eliminate” U.S. trade dependence on China
• Impose universal baseline tariffs on most foreign goods
• Adopt a four-year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods
• Establish rules to stop U.S. companies from investing in China
• Ban federal contracts for any company that outsources to China
• Last year, Trump said he believed a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would happen sooner rather than later because of “how stupid the United States is run“

Fentanyl crisis and opioid epidemic

• “Impose a total naval embargo on cartels” 
• Designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
• Order the Department of Defense to “inflict maximum damage” on cartel leadership and operations
• Seek death penalty eligibility for cartel members and traffickers
• Permanently designate fentanyl as a federally controlled substance
• Threaten China with “a steep price” unless they work to end the export of fentanyl’s chemical precursors
• Create partnerships to encourage companies to provide job opportunities and skills training to people recovering from addiction
• Expand federal support for faith-based counseling, treatment and recovery programs
• Promised family leave to care for relatives trying to overcome addiction

Climate change stance

• Claimed he will end the “Green New Deal atrocities” on his first day if reelected. The measure was never signed into law
• Said he would free up stores of liquid gold for energy development
• Speed up approval of natural gas pipelines into the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York
• Exit the Paris Climate Agreement again. Trump previously pulled the U.S. from the agreement, but Biden rejoined upon taking office
• Fight litigation from environmentalists

Social security, retirement and benefits for seniors

• Told Republicans in Congress not to cut “a single penny” from Medicare or Social Security
• Later made comments suggesting he was open to cuts to Medicare and Social Security; his team walked these back, and claimed the remarks were taken out of context
• Encouraged Republicans to focus their funding cuts on areas of “waste, fraud and abuse” in addition to programs dealing with foreign aid, immigration, climate change and LGBTQ rights, Reuters reported
• Said in a campaign statement he would reduce the cost of prescription drugs and health insurance premiums

Abortion

• Wouldn’t initially say during a recent town hall whether he supports a federal abortion ban
• Called the overturning of the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade “a great victory” during a CNN town hall
• In April 2024, said on his social media platform Truth Social that it’d be best if states handled abortion the way their constituents want, adding he’s in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother
• Also said on Truth Social that he “strongly” supports fertility treatments and that he “has never and will never” advocate for restricting birth control and other contraceptives

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