As Trump's policy proposals shift, Harris' begin to emerge in 2024 presidential election
Former President Donald Trump touted a list of 20 campaign promises Tuesday, in a Truth Social post and a takeover of his website landing page.
While Vice President Kamala Harris did not start revealing her agenda details until Friday, Trump has been associated with several platforms this election cycle alone.
In 2022, he started releasing videos and statements titled Agenda47. As Democrats started drumming up fear around Project 2025, the Republican National Committee released its official platform, which Trump put forward along with "20 Core Promises to Make America Great Again." That doesn't include the campaign trail tangents, like teasing a 20% universal tariff, which he mentioned in North Carolina this week.
Policy platform and messaging changes are common throughout a presidential election, says Northeastern University political science professor Costas Panagopoulos. He explained that the platforms today tend to be a blueprint for the kinds of things the party may want to do, but should be taken with a grain of salt.
"I think the scaled back nature of the Republican platform reflects in part, the fact that Donald Trump himself seems to think that these documents are essentially toothless and that voters may not be so interested in the intricacies of policy substance, so the message has been distilled and simplified in many ways," he said.
Here is what 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 detailing his policy plans in 2022, throughout a primary season where he faced quickly-defeated challengers including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The plans include many proposals through the form of executive action to tackle crime, education, healthcare immigration, the economy, and more.
Some of those ideas were attention-grabbers, like issuing the death sentence to drug dealers or creating a credentialing body to certify teachers in patriotism. Yet several issue areas such as healthcare were still not comprehensive.
Agenda47 landing pages on Trump's campaign websites were later replaced with the RNC platform, but still remain online.
Project 2025
Project 2025, also known as 2025 Presidential Transition Project, was published by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in April 2023.
As Democrats raised alarm bells about some extreme policy proposals included in the document, Trump attempted to distance himself from it, but many who were involved in the playbook's creations have ties to Trump and his first administration.
While the 900-page proposal goes into much more detail than the other platforms, it includes some similar themes, including border security, curbing 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 mirrored Trump's popular campaign points from the top down with a "Make America Great Again" slogan-turned title.
The preamble leaned heavily into the "America First" policies, arguing to secure the southern border, bring manufacturing back to the U.S., boost domestic energy production, and have a strong military.
Abortion was notably largely left off the document, suggesting policy decisions should be left with the states as Trump avoided calling for a national abortion ban earlier this year.
President Trump’s 20 CORE PROMISES TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Trump's 20 Core Promises are included in the bigger RNC 'Make America Great Again' platform. The GOP introduces the platform as "a forward-looking Agenda that begins with the following twenty promises that we will accomplish very quickly when we win the White House and Republican Majorities in the House and Senate."
Trump touted this list after an interview with Elon Musk on Monday.
Seal 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 dominant energy producer in the world, by far!
Stop outsourcing, and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower
Large 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 Three, restore peace in Europe and in the middle east, and build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country -- all made in America
End the weaponization of government against the American people
Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders
Rebuild our cities, including Washington D.C., making them safe, clean, and beautiful again.
Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world
Keep the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency
Fight for and protect social security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age
Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations
Cut federal funding for any school pushing 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
Secure our elections, including same day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship
Unite our country by bringing it to new and record levels of success
Kamala Harris begins platform rollout with economic plan
Trump has used many of his political speeches criticizing the Biden administration and waging personal attacks on Harris, even as some GOP leaders try to focus on her policies.
Harris started detailing her policy agenda starting with an economic plan ahead of a rally in North Carolina Friday. She proposed a federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries, up to $25,000 in assistance for first-time home buyers, and providing a tax incentive to builders to construct more starter homes.
Panagopoulos said the rest of the Democratic platform is not out yet as they are typically adopted at the convention (though the Republicans endorsed their platforms ahead of their convention).
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago from Monday Aug. 19 until Thursday Aug. 22.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's 20 core promises: What to know about his policy platforms