Donald Trump’s Policy Positions
During the first presidency of Donald Trump, U.S. foreign policy was unconventional and differed from previous approaches to diplomacy. His official foreign policy doctrine, “America First”, focused on the reduction of U.S. trade deficits and readjusting load distribution within alliances. We’ve collected President Donald Trump’s stances on tax policy, defense spending, trade, and more.
Tax Policy:
For his second term, Trump’s stance on tax policy largely builds on his commitment to extending and expanding the tax cuts from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The rate used to be 35%, but the new law permanently created a single flat corporate tax rate of 21%, meaning that businesses will continue to benefit in the long term. The TCJA is considered useful by many for stimulating economic growth by lowering individual and corporate tax rates, especially for businesses, but it is also widely criticized for its costly corporate tax cuts that provided the largest tax cuts to wealthy corporations. The TCJA reduced income taxes for most Americans, but the cuts were more modest for the middle class compared to the wealthy. According to estimates from the Tax Policy Center, the top 1% of earners received more than 20% of the total benefits from the TCJA, with some experiencing tax cuts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
The TCJA expanded the child tax credit from $1,000 per child to $2,000, with $1,400 refundable. The law further doubled the standard deduction, benefiting households that don’t itemize deductions. In 2017, the standard deduction was $12,700 for single filers, and by 2018 it was $12,000 for singles and $24,000 for married couples, simplifying tax filings and resulting in smaller tax bills. Middle-class Americans benefited the most through the doubling of the standard deduction and expanded child tax credits, but these individual cuts are currently set to expire at the end of 2025. However, Trump has advocated for making them permanent.
Defense Spending:
Trump has supported increasing defense spending to ensure that the U.S. military remains the strongest globally, consistently backing substantial annual increases in the defense budget. Trump’s future defense spending priorities are likely to focus on modernizing military assets, including aircrafts, missiles, and the expansion of missile defense systems. He has previously called to increase spending on the Air Force and Navy, as well as to modernize the nuclear arsenal.
With an emphasis on “America First”, Trump has demonstrated his interest in reducing U.S. involvement in conflicts around the world, advocating for allies to take on more of the responsibility. During his first term, he stressed that NATO allies should increase their defense spending to meet the 2% GDP target. He emphasizes the importance of a strong military, but prefers to prioritize defensive military needs rather than interventions abroad, criticizing U.S. military aid to countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2019, Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria, a controversial move that aligned with his “America First” philosophy and aimed to reduce U.S. military footprint abroad.
Trade:
Trump has consistently advocated for using tariffs as a tool to protect American interests. In his first term, he imposed tariffs on aluminum, steel, and other goods from countries such as China, Canada, and the EU. He has currently implemented a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico in an attempt to halt illegal immigration and contraband drugs. Trade accounts for 67% of Canada’s GDP and 73% of Mexico’s GDP, while it only accounts for 24% of U.S. GDP. However, these new tariffs have violated the basic terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is a free trade agreement supporting mutually beneficial trade among the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
China has also been a primary target for Trump, often seen as an economic adversary that poses a threat to the United States. During his first term, he initiated a trade war with China and imposed tariffs of approximately $370 billion worth of Chinese goods in an effort to curb their trading policies. After this prolonged trading war, Trump signed a partial trade agreement with China, where China agreed to purchase more American goods, but many of the underlying issues remain unresolved.