Immigration
On the topic of immigration, Harris has said she plans to fix the U.S. immigration system and secure the country’s borders.
According to the Kamala Harris campaign website, Harris supports a “comprehensive reform” to the immigration system “that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.”
Harris has said she will bring back the bipartisan border security bill, also called the Border Act of 2024, which would have added “more than 1,500 new Customs and Border Protection personnel” and more asylum officers, immigration judges and inspection devices to detect fentanyl, according to a fact sheet from the White House.
The border security bill failed to pass through the Senate in May 2024. Harris has said that Trump “killed” the bill by telling Republicans not to vote in favor of it.
Harris also said that border crossings are the lowest they’ve been in four years under the Biden administration; a claim found to be true, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s monthly update in June 2024. This update said that border patrol encounters were lower than numbers compared to June 2019.
Trump’s campaign website claims to have created the most secure U.S. border in the country’s history during his presidency between 2016 and 2020. A claim called a “significant exaggeration” by the fact-checking source PolitiFact.
The former U.S. president has said he plans to use the National Guard and local law enforcement in states to “assist with rapidly removing illegal alien gang members and criminals” which he said came into the country under the Biden administration.
Trump has called the movement of migrants across the southern border an “invasion” and said in an interview with TIME Magazine that about 15-20 million people were living in the country illegally.
While the U.S. National Guard has been used in the past to aid immigration personnel; the use of them to directly deport migrants would be unprecedented, according to the Associated Press.
Along with claiming that people living in the country illegally pose a threat to public safety, Trump has spread false rumors regarding the Haitian immigrant population in Ohio during the presidential debate in September.
Economy
The Trump 2024 campaign has laid out an economic plan involving a myriad of tax-related proposals.
The campaign states that they plan on extending previous provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) as it will expire after 2025. The campaign also proposes eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits and proposing a cut to the corporate tax rate to hit 15 percent.
The Harris campaign plans to build on the Biden Fiscal Year 2025 budget, while stating that they plan to expand existing benefits for low and middle income households in the tax code.
The campaign has stated that it will partially pay for its new subsidies and programs through raising the income tax rate to 28%.
It is also reported that the Harris campaign supports some of the tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act relating to annual household incomes below $400,000.
Trump
Individual Income Tax of TCJA
Extending the TCJA would keep seven ordinary tax brackets with TCJA rates. The Child Tax Credit (CTC) would remain at $2,000, the amount refundable at $1,400 and begin to phase out at $400,000 of income. Married filers would be able to deduct 20% of the first $315,000 in income from pass-through business. As well as leaving estate tax exemptions at higher post TCJA levels.
Social Security Tax
Currently, Social Security recipients are required to pay taxes on 50-85% of their benefits. Lower income retirees pay taxes on a lower share than high-income retirees. The Trump campaign proposes the elimination of taxation on all Social Security benefits for individuals.
Extend the business tax provisions of TCJA
The Trump campaign proposal is to return the TCJA business provisions back to the generous levels they hit when the law was enacted. These being that at the time of the law’s enactment, businesses could deduct from their taxable income 100% of most tangible investment cost. This is known as “bonus depreciation.” Along with this, they could deduct 100% of research and experimentation expenditures.
Corporate Tax Cuts
The 2017 TCJA permanently reduced the corporate tax rate from a statutory tax rate of 35% to 21%. This proposal would lower the rate to 15%.
Trade
The Trump campaign in recent weeks has stated that they plan to propose a 60% tariff on goods from China, and a 20% tariff on everything else the United States imports. Economists say this price could be passed onto consumers.
Harris
Expanding the Child Tax Credit
The Harris campaign proposes raising the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to $6,000 for newborns, $3,600 for children under 5 years old, and $3,000 for children above 5 years old. These numbers would be returned to the temporary provisions laid out in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Expanding Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
The Harris campaign proposes adjusting the credit structure to be more generous towards workers without children. This would fall back in line with the temporary EITC expansion under the ARPA. The campaign also wants to expand eligibility beyond the 25–64-year-old range.
Down Payment for Qualified First-Time Buyers
The Harris campaign proposed an average of $25,000 in assistance to first-time home buyers. This is a slight continuation of a Biden-Harris plan to assist first-time home buyers from earlier in the year. This would act similarly to other programs dedicated to home buying for certain groups.
Abortion
During Donald Trump’s presidency, he moved abortion to the decision of the states.
“But what I did is something, for 52 years, they’ve been trying to get Roe v. Wade into the states, and through the genius and heart and strength of six Supreme Court justices, we were able to do that,” Trump said.
Trump said he believes strongly in exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.
“I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it, and the Supreme Court had great courage in doing it, and I give tremendous credit to those six justices,” Trump said.
Kamala Harris criticized what Trump did to Roe v. Wade during the debate.
“Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did exactly as he intended,” Harris said. “And now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans, which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care.”
Harris spoke about her stance on abortion at the presidential debate, saying that when Congress passes a bill to reinstate Roe v. Wade, she will sign it.
“I absolutely support reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade, and as you rightly mentioned, nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion, that is not happening,” Harris said.
Harris said that Trump would sign a ban on abortion, but Trump denied this.
“I did something that nobody thought was possible, the states are now voting. What she says is an absolute lie. And as far as the abortion ban, no, I’m not in favor of abortion ban, but it doesn’t matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states,” Trump said.
Trump said that his decision has kept Democrats, Republicans and everybody in between happy, saying that legal scholars wanted it to be a decision of the states.
When asked if Trump would veto a national abortion ban, he said that he won’t have to because she (Harris) won’t get the vote, because it’s “impossible for her to get the vote.”
Foreign Policy
Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump propose vastly differing approaches to addressing foreign policy issues involving Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Palestine. As Election Day approaches, both candidates have sought to solidify and communicate their stances to earn voters’ support.
Israel and Palestine
Harris and Trump both intend on maintaining support for Israel. However, their solutions and attitudes toward the war strongly differ.
Donald Trump stated in an interview that if he were president instead of Biden, the Oct. 7, 2023 attack against Israel would never have occurred.
“What I said very plainly is to get it over with, and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people,” Trump said, referring to Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“(Harris) hates Israel. She wouldn’t even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there ‘cause she was at a sorority party…if she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now,” Trump said.
However, Harris did meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon after his joint address in a private meeting, according to Politico.
Harris advocates for a two-state solution and a ceasefire in Gaza. However, she has provided no clear plan for how her administration would accomplish this goal. Furthermore, her ability to influence Netanyahu’s decisions remains debatable. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored Biden-Harris requests by refusing to support a ceasefire and raiding Lebanon.
Harris said in a 60 Minutes interview that she remains a committed supporter of Israel and the nation’s right to defend itself following the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. However, she also said that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
Ukraine and Russia
During the presidential debate, both political candidates offered their support for Ukraine—with differing explanations of what their support entails.
Harris has pledged unwavering support for Ukraine until they claim victory in their ongoing conflict against Russia. She remarked on her record of bringing countries together to support Ukraine, and the large supply of weaponry the Biden administration supplied to the small nation.
Trump said he intends to resolve the war quickly, remarking on his “good relationship” with both Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin and the respect they hold for him. He affirmed that he wants to “win the war.”
“I will get (the war) settled before I even become president if I win, when I’m president-elect,” Trump said.
His plan to accomplish that goal remains unclear.
