Breaking down the 2024 GOP platform

And: How does it compare to Project 2025?

The 1860 Republican Party platform

Donald Trump has not typically been known for getting out of his own way.

And yet, since his debate last month with President Joe Biden, Trump has remained relatively quiet, content to sit back and watch as Democrats bicker amongst themselves about the future of their ticket.

Trump has held just one post-debate event, otherwise speaking through a handful of interviews and a steady stream of Truth Social missives (including a re-post calling for Liz Cheney to be prosecuted in a televised military tribunal). He was also caught on camera from his golf club, crowing that he had pushed Biden out of the race with his debate performance. “He’s quitting the race,” Trump can be seen saying. (Last night, calling into Hannity, Trump updated his analysis: “It looks to me like he may very well stay in. He’s got an ego, and he doesn’t want to quit.”)

The ex-president will return to the campaign trail tonight, with a rally at his golf club in Doral, Florida. But, this morning, I want to zero in on an interesting document that was released by the Trump campaign last night, during its candidate’s period of relative silence: the 2024 Republican Party platform.

The platform can be found here if you want to read along — it’s a mere 16 pages, much shorter than typical platforms in the modern era. (The 2016 Republican platform, for comparison, ran 58 pages long.)

Trump reportedly wrote parts of the platform himself — and, stylistically, it bears all the trappings of a Trump communiqué: from his unique system of capitalization (“Like the Heroes who built and defended this Nation before us…”) to its dedication to the “Forgotten Men and Women of America.” (The 2016 GOP platform was dedicated to military servicemembers, law enforcement officers, and first responders.)

The platform begins with 20 principles — in all-caps — promising to “MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AGAIN” and “PREVENT WORLD WAR THREE,” among other commitments.

Digging further into the policy details, Trump’s imprint on the GOP can also be seen, in ways that moderate the party on same issues and hardens its stances on others.

In the latter category, the party’s 2016 promise to “expedite expulsion of criminal aliens” has become a call for the “largest deportation operation in American history” in 2024. (The GOP’s 2020 platform was merely a resolution declaring the “strong support of the RNC for President Trump” pasted on top of the previous cycle’s platform, which is why the 2016 document is the most recent point of comparison.)

While the 2016 platform endorses “state efforts to ensure ballot access for the elderly, the handicapped, military personnel, and all legitimate voters,” the 2024 document calls for elections to be held only through “highly sophisticated paper ballots” and “same day voting,” a visible trace of Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the 2020 election.

Although the new platform commits to dissolving the Education Department, it also sketches out an expansion of federal intervention in school curricula, pledging to fire “Radical Left accreditors” for universities and to “defund schools that engage in inappropriate political indoctrination of our children.” Those promises are a marked change from the 2016 platform’s emphasis that the Constitution gives the federal government “no role” in education.

However, the 2024 platform also softens party orthodoxies in several areas, consistent with Trump’s efforts to distance himself from potential vulnerabilities for the GOP. Unlike the 2016 platform, which endorsed a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks, the 2024 platform doesn’t explicitly call for any federal action on abortion, leaving the issue to the states. (Social conservatives were not pleased with that development.)

In 2016, the GOP platform promised the party would “preserve Medicare and Medicaid,” but opened the door to changes to Social Security. “We reject the old maxim that Social Security is the ‘Third Rail’ of American politics, deadly for anyone who would change it,” the 2016 platform said. “The Democratic Party still treats it that way, even though everyone knows that its current course will lead to a financial and social disaster.”

The 2024 platform seems to embrace that “third rail,” however: “President Trump has made absolutely clear that he will not cut one penny from Medicare or Social Security,” it declares. (Similarly, the GOP’s former promise to balance the federal budget has been stricken from the platform.)

For decades, Republican platforms have defined marriage as a union “between one man and one woman” and opposed legalizing same-sex marriage; the 2024 platform promises that “Republicans will promote a Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage,” but does not mention same-sex marriage one way or another. Conversely, while transgender issues make no appearance in the 2016 platform, the 2024 document promises to “keep men out of women’s sports, ban Taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop Taxpayer-funded Schools from promoting gender transition.”

Above all — just as Trump has refused to answer policy questions throughout his campaign — the 2024 platform mostly avoids specifics. The document includes vague promises to “drive down” college tuition costs, without explaining how, and to slash “wasteful Government spending,” without explaining what. The platform includes a blanket promise to “stop illegal immigration,” despite the fact that all modern presidents — Trump included — have tried and failed to do so. It pledges to build a missile defense system for the U.S. in the mold of Israel’s Iron Dome, without explaining further.

Looking beyond America’s borders, the platform promises “a Foreign Policy centered on the most essential American Interests” and calls on allies to “meet their obligations to invest in our Common Defense,” but offers few other details about the future of NATO or other alliances (beyond a promise to “stand with Israel” and to “champion Strong, Sovereign, and Independent Nations in the Indo-Pacific.”) Ukraine goes entirely unmentioned.

What about Project 2025?

The Biden campaign had a stock response to the GOP platform: “Trump Loyalists Turn Project 2025 Into Republican Party Platform,” an email to reporters declared.

“Project 2025” is essentially an alternative — much more detailed — platform for a future Republican administration, put together by the Heritage Foundation and a collection of top conservatives. Although many of its authors are close Trump allies, the former president has sought to distance himself from the nearly 900-page document.

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump recently posted on Truth Social. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Despite the Biden campaign’s claims, the Republican platform bears little resemblance to Project 2025. The Heritage blueprint’s contemplated changes to Medicare and Social Security are absent; so are its calls to ban the abortion pill mifepristone, fire thousands of civil servants, establish a “biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family,” and exit the Paris climate accords. (In fact, climate change is another issue unmentioned by the party platform, although it does call for withdrawing the Biden administration’s support for electric vehicles.)

So, which guidebook will Trump follow: the frequently vague Republican platform, which seeks to moderate the party on many issues, or the searingly specific Project 2025, which envisions a much more extremist administration?

Ultimately, as I’ve written before, the answer will come down to the staff Trump hires if he’s returned to the White House. The former president has few consistent, strongly-held policy views — his hardline stance on immigration is one, as can be seen in the party platform — which means his second administration, like his first, would likely be a battle between various forces in the GOP seeking to persuade him.

There is a reason Project 2025 is half policy platform, half personnel network. (Heritage is building an online database, which it calls a “conservative LinkedIn,” of thousands of potential Republican executive branch staffers, ready to join a new administration.) These former Trump staffers know that if the people around Trump are Russell Vought types, it will make for a very different presidency than if he is surrounded more by aides in the mold of Susie Wiles, the more pragmatic strategist who has steered his 2024 campaign towards safer political ground.

However, there is no guarantee that the Project 2025 types win that tug-of-war. Trump resents the image — quietly being projected by Heritage and others — that outside forces are pushing him into a corner. Reportedly, Trump’s disavowal of the project came after Heritage was attempting to give away Cabinet and sub-Cabinet posts to various Republicans. Their efforts to seize too much control could backfire if Trump perceives that they are trying to puppetmaster him or make decisions for him, especially if he thinks those decisions could be politically toxic.

Project 2025 may be more MAGA than the Republican platform, in the way that Democrats like to use the term. But the all-caps GOP platform is more authentically Trump, representative of a candidate who was formerly a pro-choice Democrat and is much more concerned with winning than with advancing a specific policy agenda. Trump often compares policymaking to negotiating, and says a negotiator should never tip his hand ahead of time; the Republican platform, largely vague except for on a few select issues, typifies this perfectly.

The GOP platform and Project 2025 manual are both useful as guidelines of where Trump could go in a second term — more moderate than a typical Republican presidency, or much more radical — but ultimately the personnel around him and his difficult-to-predict whims and impulses will dictate which direction he might opt for.

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Meanwhile…

🔵 President Biden had his best day in weeks yesterday, as leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and other top Democrats rallied behind him. Several Democratic senators, including Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) — the chamber’s longest-serving Democrat — expressed concerns about Biden, but stopped short of calling on him to exit the presidential race, instead saying (in Murary’s words) that he “must do more to demonstrate he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump.”

🤝 Biden will deliver remarks this afternoon about NATO, as the alliance’s leaders descend on Washington for a 75th anniversary meeting. It will be a key opportunity for him to reassure the country — and world leaders — of his ability to carry out his presidential duties, amid discussions on Ukraine and other issues.

🧠 Yesterday’s White House press briefing was dominated by questions over Dr. Kevin Cannard, an expert on Parkinson’s disease who visited the White House eight times in eight months, according to vistor logs. Although White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions about Cannard — leading to several testy exchanges — the White House doctor later released a letter saying that Biden had only been seen by Cannard for routine neurological exams during his three annual physicals (examinations which had been previously disclosed). Cannard’s other White House visits were not explained.

❓A new Wall Street Journal story raises fresh questions about Biden’s age, including these key anecdotes (denied by the White House):

German officials, aware of Biden’s fatigue at night, sought to accommodate the president by planning a June 2022 event with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the early evening.

The informal event, a soiree at the Alpine resort Schloss Elmau during the Group of Seven summit, was arranged as a confidential meeting on Ukraine in a relaxed setting. Biden didn’t show, surprising the chancellor and his aides, officials said. Instead, Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived and announced that Biden had to go to bed, according to two people who were there.

At a fundraiser in New York around the time of the United Nations General Assembly last fall, Biden seemed at a loss trying to answer questions about the Middle East from people in a photo line, according to a person there. An aide whispered in Biden’s ear, the person said, and the president then answered.

During a fundraiser at the Four Seasons in New York in June 2023, Biden spoke for five to 10 minutes and then took a few questions, said attendees who bought a ticket. They were struck by how fragile he seemed. At one point, Biden couldn’t recall the word for “veteran.” The president asked the group to help him find the word, saying he wanted to refer to a person who had served in the Army or Navy.

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A few more reads

• Reuters: Biden is now deporting more people than Trump

• Inside Climate News: Average Global Temperature Has Warmed 1.5 Degrees Celsius Above Pre-industrial Levels for 12 Months in a Row

• NYT: U.S. Officials Say Russia Is Unlikely to Take Much More Ukrainian Territory

• The Bulwark: J.D. Vance Has a Problem on His Face