The Republican National Committee has released its 2024 platform, which is reflective of party candidate and presumed presidential nominee Donald Trump’s political policies and agenda.
The document is reported to have been drafted by Trump’s aides, with mentions of the former president throughout the document. It is the first time since 2016 that the committee has released a platform, opting against creating one in 2020.
The platform, approved Monday, is titled “2024 GOP Platform Make America Great Again,” referring to the party's nickname of "Grand Old Party" and pulling from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, which has been used in his presidential campaigns since 2015.
Platform promises
The platform lists 20 goals the committee intends to accomplish. Some key policies include: conducting the “largest deportation operation in American history”; making the U.S. military “without question the strongest in the world”; and deporting "pro-Hamas radicals" and "making our college campuses safe and patriotic again." The “pro-Hamas radicals” are thought to be in reference to the pro-Palestinian encampments that began assembling on college campuses in April.
Other platform issues include lowering inflation, which the committee plans on doing by “terminating the Socialist Green New Deal,” among other things, and keeping “men out of women’s sports."
The committee also wants to build a “great iron dome missile defense shield” over the United States.
Platform changes
The platform didn’t make any promises regarding abortion, which historically has been a hot button issue for the Republican Party. For the last 40 years the platform has supported a national abortion ban but is now shifting its position, saying, “we will oppose late term abortion.”
That would be in line with Trump’s current position on abortion, which favors leaving abortion laws up to the states, a change from his 2016 campaign that supported a national abortion ban.
There also have been changes to the platform position on same-sex marriage. In 2016, the platform was strongly opposed to same-sex marriage, but the new platform does not address the topic.
The platform was approved by the RNC Platform Committee by a vote of 84-18.
