U.S. President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, hold very different views on key foreign and domestic issues. Here’s an overview of where each nominee stands on domestic policy.
Reproductive rights
Biden: The Biden administration has protected access to abortion, including: FDA-approved medication abortion; defended access to emergency medical care; supported the ability to travel for reproductive health care; strengthened access to high-quality, affordable contraception; safeguarded the privacy of patients and health care providers and ensured access to accurate information and legal resources, according to a March 7, 2024 White House fact sheet.
On March 26, 2024, Biden said, “If America sends me a Congress that are Democrats, I promise you, Kamala and I will restore Roe vs. Wade is the law of the land again." He also warned on March 8, 2024, that “states are passing bans criminalizing doctors, forcing rape and incest victims to leave their state to get care. And now MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump want to pass a national ban on the right to choose, period. Well. Take it seriously, folks, because that's what they're heading for. Hear me loud and clear. This will not happen on my watch.”
Trump: Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees during his presidency shifted the balance of the court, resulting in an overturning of Roe vs. Wade, sending the decision to legalize abortion back to the states.
Trump announced on April 8, 2024, that he believed abortion legislation should be left up to each state. Previously, he suggested a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks, saying, “Fifteen weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at.”
Economy
Biden: In a December 5, 2023, speech in Boston, Biden said the economy had created 14 million new jobs — more jobs than any president has created in a four-year term; record economic growth — over 5% just the last quarter; unemployment under 4% for 20 months in a row, and the lowest inflation rate of any of the world’s major economies. Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which authorized $550 billion in new spending.
Trump: According to his campaign website, during his presidency, “President Donald J. Trump passed record-setting tax relief for the middle class, doubled the child tax credit, and slashed more job-killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. Real wages quickly increased as a result, and median household income reached the highest level in the history of our country, while poverty reached a record low.”
Immigration/border security
Biden: President Biden supported the bipartisan Senate Border Security Act that would have provided billions of dollars in additional funding for security and enabled him to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border if daily and weekly border encounters surpassed certain metrics. Former President Trump pressured Republican lawmakers to reject the border security deal, resulting in its failure to pass in the U.S. Congress. On March 9, 2024, Biden said, “On my first day in office as president, I introduced a comprehensive, comprehensive plan to fix our immigration system, secure our border, provide a pathway for citizenship for dreamers and their families, farmworkers, essential workers who helped us through the pandemic and are part of the fabric of our community.”
Trump: On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump has pledged to conduct the largest deportation in U.S. history, shift “massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement” and terminate the visas of Hamas sympathizers on college campuses.
On his campaign website, Trump said that in cooperative states, he will deputize the National Guard and local law enforcement to assist with rapidly removing illegal alien gang members and criminals. He also pledged to deliver a merit-based immigration system that protects American labor and promotes American values.
During his presidency, Trump issued an executive order suspending entry into the United States for everyone from Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and indefinitely for Syrian refugees. He began construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Criminal justice
Biden: In multiple executive orders, the president has directed the Justice Department not to renew contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities; directed billions of dollars in public funds to community safety initiatives; and expanded community grants to keep guns off the streets.
During his State of the Union speech on March 7, 2024, Biden said, “I'm demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Pass universal background checks. None of this. None of this. I taught the Second Amendment for 12 years. None of this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun owners."
Trump: During his presidency, Trump launched Operation Legend to combat a surge of violent crime in cities, resulting in more than 5,500 arrests and signed the Safe Policing for Safe Communities executive order to incentivize local police department reforms in line with law and order.
The former president made hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of surplus military equipment available to local law enforcement, signed an executive order to help prevent violence against law enforcement officers and signed the bipartisan First Step Act into law, the first landmark criminal justice reform legislation ever passed to reduce recidivism and help former inmates successfully rejoin society.
On the campaign trail this year, Trump has made the case he will combat crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
“I do great with the suburban housewives because they want to remain safe. But they [undocumented immigrants] loot the jewelry, they take their purses, electronics, watches, all of their cash. And the people come back and they say, what happened? If you don't want illegal alien criminals crawling through your windows and ransacking your drawers, then you must vote for the fact that we have to throw Crooked Joe Biden out as fast as possible,” he said on April 2, 2024.
Climate/energy production
Biden: The Democratic president rejoined the Paris climate agreement and signed the Inflation Reduction Act, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy, electric vehicles and environmental justice. His administration also met goals of cutting emissions by at least 50% by 2030 and was among the leaders who launched the Global Methane Pledge, tackling super polluters.
Trump: During his presidency, Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement and claimed that Earth’s temperatures “will start getting cooler.” Trump appointees dismantled fossil fuel agreements, kept coal-burning power plants open and launched an anti-trust probe of automakers who agreed to clean air standards.
“President Trump will unleash the production of domestic energy resources, reduce the soaring price of gasoline, diesel and natural gas, promote energy security for our friends around the world, eliminate the socialist Green New Deal and ensure the United States is never again at the mercy of a foreign supplier of energy,” according to his campaign website.
