Donald Trump: On the Issues

Former president Donald Trump maintains a sprawling lead over his Republican challengers, despite having been indicted four times and impeached twice.

Here's where he stands on key issues.

Democracy

Trump refused to accept his defeat during the 2020 election, ultimately speaking at a rally on Jan. 6, which preceded a violent assault on the Capitol

Since launching his campaign for re-election, Trump has also said he is "your retribution," suggesting he would seek revenge for his criminal prosecutions.

"I am your warrior. I am your justice," Trump said in March. "And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution."

When asked during a town hall whether he promised that he would "never abuse power as retribution," he said, "except for Day One."

“I love this guy,” Trump said, referring to Fox News interviewer Sean Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no. Other than Day One.’ We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”

Foreign Policy

Trump has a history of praising authoritarian leaders, sometimes siding with them over U.S. intelligence as he did with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin regarding Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 election.

Trump has praised Putin as "very savvy," called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "a very talented man" and has said that he and China's Xi Jinping "had great chemistry."

He's pushed for an "America First" policy, withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, and left the Paris Agreement on climate change. Biden later rejoined the climate agreement.

While president, Trump repeatedly suggested withdrawing from NATO.

Economy

Trump engaged in a trade war with China, with the two countries imposing additional tariffs on the other before Trump signed phase one of a trade deal at the beginning of 2020.

The former president also signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. which lowered the corporate tax rate.

Health Care

Trump said he wanted to replace Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act. Trump and a Republican-led Congress tried to repeal the health care act in 2017, but failed.

"I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” Trump said on social media in November.

Migration

Trump frequently calls for expanding a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. But as president, he was unable to fulfill his campaign promise of building 1,000 miles of a border wall and having Mexico pay for it.

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The Trump administration also practiced a policy for several months that led to the forced separation of migrant children from their parents at the southern border.

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Trump has defended the family separation policy as recently as November in an interview with Univision.

"We did family separation. A lot of people didn’t come. It stopped people from coming by the hundreds of thousands because when they hear family separation, they say, well, we better not go," he said.

Beyond the southern border, Trump in 2015 called for "a total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the U.S. He eventually used an executive order to ban travel from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, later adding North Korea and Venezuela.