Donald Trump goes into the Republican National Convention with some bold promises about the U.S. economy, but he has sketched out notably few details about how his plans would actually work
Donald Trump goes into the Republican National Convention with bold promises about the U.S. economy, but he has sketched out notably few details about how his plans would actually work.
The convention’s first day is still expected to focus on the economy even after Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania in which the former president was injured.
If the program goes ahead as planned, expect speakers to argue that Trump’s agenda of sweeping tariffs and lower taxes would jump-start the economy.
The former president says he wants tariffs on trade partners and no taxes on tips and would like to knock the corporate tax rate down a tick. The Republican platform also promises to “defeat” inflation and “quickly bring down all prices,” in addition to pumping out more oil, natural gas and coal.
The platform would address illegal immigration in part with the “largest deportation program in American history.” And Trump would also scrap President Joe Biden’s policies to develop the market for electric vehicles and renewable energy.
Democrats and several leading economists say the math shows that Trump’s ideas would cause an explosive bout of inflation, wallop the middle class and — by his extending his soon-to-expire tax cuts — heap another $5 trillion-plus onto the national debt.
Trump has released few hard numbers and no real policy language or legislative blueprints. Instead, his campaign is betting that voters care more about attitude than policy specifics.
The Associated Press sent the Trump campaign 20 basic questions in June to clarify his economic views and the campaign declined to answer any of them. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt insisted that Trump best speaks for himself and directed the AP to video clips of him.
By contrast, Biden has an exhaustive 188-page budget proposal that lays out his economic vision, even as his campaign had increasingly devolved before Saturday’s rally shooting into questions about his age and whether he should remain the nominee after a self-defeating June 27 debate.
