Key Point: “Most economists think inflation, interest rates and deficits would be higher under the policies former President Donald Trump would pursue in a second administration than under those proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal.”
Wall Street Journal: Economists Say Inflation, Deficits Will Be Higher Under Trump Than Harris
By: Paul Kiernan and Anthony DeBarros
Most economists think inflation, interest rates and deficits would be higher under the policies former President Donald Trump would pursue in a second administration than under those proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal.
The upshot: Economists still say Trump’s policies are more likely to add to inflation, deficits and interest rates. If anything, the margin has grown since July.
Of the 50 economists who responded to the survey’s question on inflation, 68% said prices would rise faster under Trump than under Harris. That was up from 56% in July.
Since July, Trump has pledged across-the-board tariffs of 10% to 20% on imported goods, up from his earlier plan to impose 10% tariffs. He has also proposed a 60% or higher tariff on imports from China.
Studies of tariffs imposed in his first term found they were often passed through to importers or consumers as higher costs or prices and hurt industries that depend on imported inputs.
“If the tariffs work the way economists think they work, I think people are in for a very nasty surprise,” said Philip Marey, senior U.S. strategist at Rabobank.
The Journal’s survey asked economists how Trump’s proposed broad-based tariffs would affect domestic manufacturing employment within three to five years, relative to a scenario with no such policy. Of the 44 economists who responded, 59% said employment would be lower, while only 16% said it would be higher. The remainder said employment would be the same.
As a result, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Trump’s plans would widen federal budget deficits by $7.5 trillion over the next decade, more than twice the expected increase under Harris.
A likely consequence of higher deficits and inflation is higher interest rates. The Journal’s survey showed 61% of economists saw rates being higher under a hypothetical President Trump than under Harris.
Particularly reassuring, several economists said, was a large upward revision by government statisticians to the estimated share of personal incomes that are being saved. The revision showed U.S. households squirreled away $454 billion more in July than previously believed. Since consumer spending drives about two-thirds of economic output, a higher saving rate suggests the expansion has legs to run further.
“The U.S. economy is showing surprising resilience,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board.
Reminder: JD Vance made clear a Trump-Vance administration would defund reproductive health care services if given the chance
As the Trump-Vance ticket seeks to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides hundreds of thousands of primary, preventive, and telehealth care visits annually, DNC Spokesperson Aida Rossreleased the following statement:
“From check-ups to flu vaccines to diabetes treatments, Planned Parenthood provides thousands of Americans with access to affordable primary and preventive care — but the Trump-Vance ticket wants to defund it all. Through their dangerous Project 2025 agenda, Donald Trump and JD Vance would slash funding to Planned Parenthood and leave thousands of people out in the cold, unable to access the basic care they need. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have made it clear: under their administration, our freedoms and our health care will always be protected.”
Nearly 8 in 10 Americans support Planned Parenthood, which provides hundreds of thousands of primary, preventive, and telehealth care appointments for Americans across the country every year.
Planned Parenthood: “More than three-fourths of Americans (77%) have a favorable view of Planned Parenthood, with the strongest support among women, adults under 35, and Black, Latino, and AAPI communities.”
Donald Trump and JD Vance’s Project 2025 agenda would gut these services by defunding Planned Parenthood — something Vance himself confirmed last week.
Vance: “On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood…our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around, it will remain a consistent view.”
Project 2025, page 471: “Prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds…Policymakers should end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.”
Project 2025, page 472: “HHS should… 1) Issue guidance reemphasizing that states are free to defund Planned Parenthood in their state Medicaid plans. 2) Propose rulemaking to interpret the Medicaid statute to disqualify providers of elective abortion from the Medicaid program. Congress should pass the Protecting Life and Taxpayers Act, which would accomplish the goal of defunding abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.”
Project 2025, page 491: “Congress should complement these efforts by passing legislation such as the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act,78 which would prohibit family planning grants from going to entities that perform abortions or provide funding to other entities that perform abortions.”
Nearly four million Americans access health care through Title X clinics. The Trump administration’s “gag rule” defunded hundreds of Title X clinics, disqualifying providers like Planned Parenthood from providing health care under the program — including for about 1.6 million low-income women.
HHS: “Title X services are voluntary, confidential, and provided regardless of one’s ability to pay.For many clients, Title X clinics are their only ongoing source of health care and health education.”
Columbia Mailman School of Public Health: “Since 1970 [Title X] has supported the provision of comprehensive family planning and preventive health services for low-income individuals who are uninsured or underinsured. Title X funding benefits some of the most marginalized communities: women, low-income individuals, young people, LGBTQIA+.”
Politico: “Planned Parenthood serves about 1.6 million of the roughly 4 million low-income women who depend on Title X clinics for free and subsidized care.”
Guttmacher Institute: “[T]he Trump administration’s domestic ‘gag rule’ has slashed the Title X national family planning network’s patient capacity in half, jeopardizing care for 1.6 million female patients nationwide […] roughly one in every four Title X service sites left the network in 2019 because of the domestic gag rule, shorthand for restrictive regulations that prohibit—among other things—referrals for abortion care. In 2019, an estimated 981 U.S. clinics receiving Title X funding—approximately one-quarter of all sites that received Title X funding as of June 2019—likely left the Title X network because of the gag rule […]”
KFF: “While in office, Trump’s Administration rewrote the rules governing the federal Title X program, the federal family planning program that supports contraceptive access for people with lower incomes. Title X funds have never been used to pay for abortion services, but Trump’s Administration rewrote the regulations to disqualify family planning clinics from participating in the program if they also offered abortion services (with separate funding) […] These changes resulted in a reduction of about 1,300 of the 4,000 sites participating in the network of clinics receiving federal support from the Title X program.”
REALITY CHECK: Attacks on reproductive freedoms, like Trump and Vance’s anti-choice Project 2025 agenda to defund Planned Parenthood, are wildly unpopular.
Planned Parenthood: “Three-fourths of Americans (74%) would be concerned about the loss of affordable reproductive health and preventive care services if Planned Parenthood no longer existed.”
USA Today: “Americans overwhelmingly oppose the next goal of many anti-abortion activists, to enact a federal law banning abortion nationwide. By 80%-14%, those surveyed opposed that idea, including 65% of Republicans and 83% of independents.”
Axios: “Record share of U.S. voters back abortion rights and will vote on it: Gallup”
NBC News: “Abortion rights have won in every election since Roe v. Wade was overturned”
Axios: “There’s widespread support for letting women obtain drugs for medication abortion from their doctor or a clinic, with 72% supporting — including half of Republicans.”
The Trump-Vance ticket and their Project 2025 allies are pushing a dangerous Project 2025 agenda that would ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to IVF and contraception, and rip away reproductive freedoms.
Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”
CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”
“During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he ‘certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally’ and was ‘sympathetic’ to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion.”
Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”
New Republic: “On January 20, 2025, conservatives plan to resurrect a 150-year-old defunct law to ban abortion across the nation. This is not a secret plan—far from it. It’s part of the 180-Day Playbook produced by Project 2025, detailing priorities for an incoming conservative president on day one.”
Politico: “Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.
“Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed.”
The 19th: “RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF”
“Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted. Fetal personhood bestows the same rights currently reserved for people to embryos from the moment of fertilization.”
Reproductive Freedom for All: “The extensive mandate calls to gut reproductive freedom, including effectively banning medication abortion, ending access to emergency abortion care, attacking contraception, deploying fetal personhood, and undermining IVF in federal policy…
“Project 2025 includes personhood language and policies that propagate the belief that life begins at conception—which could have devastating impacts should it be put into law. This so-called “personhood” language could ban not only abortion but also some forms of birth control and assisted fertility treatments like IVF.”
The Nation: “Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS”
“And by declaring that life begins at conception, his manifesto appears to commit HHS to finding ways to outlaw IVF, which relies on generating multiple embryos, most of which are not implanted.”
Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”
Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”
Axios: “[Project 2025] is undeniably a Trump-driven operation.”
While Donald Trump and JD Vance continue to spread dangerous conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene, Republicans are praising the Biden administrations’ relief efforts – and being forced to shut down Trump’s reckless rhetoric about disaster response.
Here are just a few examples of what (Republicans) are saying about the Biden administration’s disaster response – and Trump’s dangerous lies and misinformation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “So, everybody’s pitching in. This is an incredible experience for me. So, to President Biden, thank you for coming. Thank you for paying attention to our needs. I think we’ve had a good working relationship between the federal government.”
Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC): “[The federal assistance for South Carolina] has been superb. […] [President Biden] said whatever we need, to let him know. And we’re doing that. Also Secretary Buttigieg called yesterday and said the same thing. And also Deanne Criswell from FEMA has also called. So we’re getting assistance, and we’re asking for everything we need.”
Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA): “[President Biden] just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, ‘We got what we need. We’ll work through the federal process.’ He offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which — I appreciate that. But we’ve had FEMA embedded with us since a day or two before the storm hit in our state operations center in Atlanta; we’ve got a great relationship with them.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA): “Immediately, we went to work to request additional federal assistance on top of the state and local assistance that we are already providing. Thank you to President Biden, Senator Warner, Senator Kaine and Congressman Griffith for their support and continued coordination to provide assistance to Virginians in need.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): “The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort.”
State Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-NC), who represents some of the areas hit the hardest: “Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in [Western North Carolina?] […] It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job. […] Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you or have you continually contact your elected officials to see if they are true.”
Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN): “There’s a lot of misinformation […] There’s no confiscation of supplies or of products coming in by FEMA or TEMA. Look, these people are in tears. The TEMA director [got] emotional yesterday about the people that we are serving. I saw a county mayor every single mayor with tears in their eyes, emotional, serving the people alongside their FEMA and TEMA counterparts and their EOCs. There’s nothing but commitment to serving the people in this state. And those who spread that kind misinformation, it’s deeply unfortunate what’s happening.”
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC): “I demanded the White House immediately get three pallets of water and two pallets of meals, ready to eat (MREs) delivered to each of our seven, hardest hit counties, and 20 pallets of MREs and 20 pallets of water for Buncombe County to hold them over until state resources were finally delivered. All 75 pallets were delivered same day.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA): “I’m incredibly appreciative of the rapid response and the cooperation from the federal team at FEMA. I’ve been on the phone over the weekend with the senior FEMA administrator. […] I just want to thank our partners at FEMA for advancing resources before these [requests] were even made yesterday.” Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN): “And you see this rush of local officials, TEMA, FEMA, from the federal to the state to the local, the local emergency management agencies, local county mayors with tears in their eyes out there serving their people. There is a great deal of hope when you see what is behind the effort, the coordinated effort, in this community to begin to rebuild.”
The DNC today released a television ad in battleground states across the country about Green Party candidate Jill Stein and the threat that her spoiler candidacy poses in this election.
The ad, titled “Crucial,” will run in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and on cable across the country. It features an image of Jill Stein that morphs into an image of Donald Trump, reminding voters that a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump. In 2016, Stein handed the White House to Trump, and she has no regrets about it. In fact, she wants to do it again. It’s no wonder that Trump and MAGA operatives are boosting Jill Stein.
DNC Senior Advisor Mary Beth Cahill released the following statement:
“Just like in 2016, Jill Stein can’t win the presidency, but she will help decide who does. Donald Trump knows that she’s his key to the White House — that’s why he praises her spoiler candidacy and why his MAGA allies are working to prop up her campaign. The stakes of this election are too high to allow Stein to spoil it. The DNC will make sure voters know that a vote for anyone other than Kamala Harris is a vote for Donald Trump.”
Stein was key to Trump’s 2016 wins in battleground states.
She’s not sorry she helped Trump win.
That’s why a vote for Stein… is really a vote for Trump.
DONALD TRUMP: “Jill Stein. I like her very much, you know why? She takes 100% from them.”
KAMALA HARRIS: I’m Kamala Harris and I approve this message.
BACKGROUND:
In 2016, Jill Stein helped Trump win the election. She won 132,000 votes in the decisive swing states — Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — while Trump’s margin of victory was just 77,000 votes in those same states.
Stein has echoed MAGA talking points on issues like January 6 and Trump’s criminal trials. She admitted she is open to pardoning January 6 protesters and thinks January 6 was “blown up for political reasons.” Stein has also indicated that she’d consider pardoning Trump.
Reporting from The Wall Street Journal and Salon revealed how the Stein campaign used a Republican consulting firm to help her get on the ballot, and in a recent court case in Nevada, Stein was represented by Trump’s former personal attorney.
NEW: The latest CPI report shows inflation continues to tick down while we see the 45th consecutive month of job growth under the Biden-Harris administration as unemployment remains low.
Heather Long, Washington Post: “Wages have grown faster than inflation for 17 months now. That’s helping people get ahead now.”
Associated Press: “The improving inflation picture follows a mostly healthy jobs report released last week, which showed that hiring accelerated in September and that the unemployment rate dropped from 4.2% to 4.1%. The government has also reported that the economy expanded at a solid 3% annual rate in the April-June quarter. Growth likely continued at roughly that pace in the just-completed July-September quarter.”
Scripps News: “US inflation rate down to lowest levels since early 2021 in final report before election”
Axios: “Inflation falls to 2.4%, lowest in three years”
New York Times: “Despite all the hand-wringing, the U.S. labor market remains impressively strong.
“Businesses reported adding 254,000 jobs in September, the government reported on Friday. The number far surpassed forecasts and was the strongest monthly gain since March.”
The Harris-Walz administration will chart a New Way Forward by creating an opportunity economy with lower costs, tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses, increased support for caregivers, a permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit, and historic action giving Americans a shot to compete, succeed, and build generational wealth.
Huffpost: “Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday will propose a major new initiative: expanding Medicare to cover the cost of long-term care at home.
“If the proposed legislation is enacted, such a program would represent a substantial boost in federal support for caregiving and, by any measure, one of the largest one-time increases in American history.”
“‘The bill will set rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers during times of crisis to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.’”
Washington Post: “More than one-third of mothers who are registered to vote said they worry “a lot” about affording child care, according to a recent KFF poll […] Vice President Kamala Harris has made the ‘care economy’ a cornerstone of her platform, vowing to permanently increase the child tax credit, add a one-time $6,000 credit for newborns and cap child-care costs at 7 percent of a working family’s income.”
Politico: “In her speech, Harris reiterated her support for several other major economic efforts, including a federal ban on corporate price-gouging, expanding tax credits for new small businesses, extending the child tax credit and pledging to build 3 million new homes to address the housing shortage.”
Washington Post: “Harris proposed increasing the tax deduction for start-up businesses from $5,000 to $50,000, and she recapped specifics of her previous policy plans, including $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and a $6,000 tax benefit for parents with newborns.”
Trump’s Project 2025 economic agenda would cause an “inflation bomb,” driving us into a recession by mid-2025 while raising costs for typical middle-class families by nearly $4,000 a year, and raising taxes on all but the richest 5% of Americans.
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: “Former President Donald Trump has proposed a wide variety of tax policy changes. Taken together, these proposals would, on average, lead to a tax cut for the richest 5 percent of Americans and a tax increase for all other income groups.
“If these proposals were in effect in 2026, the richest 1 percent would receive an average tax cut of about $36,300 and the next richest 4 percent would receive an average tax cut of about $7,200. All other groups would see a tax increase with the hike on the middle 20 percent at about $1,500 and the increase on the lowest-income 20 percent of Americans at about $800.”
Center for American Progress: “Former President Trump Proposes an Up to $3,900 Tax Increase for a Typical Family”
Center for American Progress: “Project 2025’s tax plan includes an ‘intermediate tax reform’ that includes changes to tax brackets and corporate tax cuts that would shift the tax burden toward middle-income households. And the ‘fundamental tax reform’ it proposes would replace all individual income and corporate taxes with consumption taxes.”
Axios: “Trump’s inflation bomb: How his second-term plans could make it worse”
Center for American Progress: “Not only does Project 2025 ensure drug companies are put back in control of access to medication; it calls for a complete repeal of the IRA, which would put an estimated 18.5 million Medicare Part D enrollees at risk of losing out on $7.4 billion in direct savings from the IRA’s drug-related provisions, including its out-of-pocket cost caps.”
Center for American Progress: “In [Project 2025], far-right extremist plans are outlined that raise taxes on low- and middle-income households to finance tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations. Project 2025’s tax plan includes an ‘intermediate tax reform’ that includes changes to tax brackets and corporate tax cuts that would shift the tax burden toward middle-income households…
“The shift toward a flat consumption tax while eliminating income taxes would lead to an average $5,900 tax increase for the middle 20 percent of households and an average $2 million tax cut for the top 0.1 percent.”
Polls show that Americans believe Democratic policies are fighting for the middle class, while MAGA Republicans policies favor the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.
Navigator: “Three in Five Believe Republican Tax Policies Favor the Wealthy”
“The Democratic Party now holds a narrow advantage on handling taxes in general (net +4; 46 percent trust Democratic Party – 42 percent trust Republican Party) and the cost of living (net +3; 46 percent trust Democratic Party – 43 percent trust Republican Party).”
“A majority of Americans believe Democratic tax policies favor the middle class and working people (net +27; 56 percent favor middle class – 29 percent favor wealthy and corporations), while over three in five believe Republican tax policies most favor the wealthy and corporations.”
As Donald Trump visits Michigan today to cover for his economic failures and broken promises, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:
“Donald Trump’s own running mate JD Vance made it abundantly clear last week: if Michiganders send them to the White House, the Trump-Vance ticket would let manufacturing plants close – just like Trump did the last time around. As if the MAGAnomics failures and broken promises of Trump’s first term weren’t enough, Vance’s attacks on funding for manufacturing jobs that the Biden-Harris administration delivered are the latest proof that a second term would be even worse. Voters in Michigan and across the country aren’t falling for Trump’s failed agenda and empty words, and they’ll send him packing once again this November.”
Donald Trump is visiting Michigan today after his running mate JD Vance confirmed last week that a Trump-Vance administration would let Michigan manufacturing plants close (again).
Detroit News: “Vance won’t commit to $500M federal grant for building EVs at Michigan auto plant”
“Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance would not commit a second Trump administration to honoring the Biden administration’s $500 million federal grant to General Motors Co. to convert a Cadillac sedan assembly plant in Michigan into a future electric vehicle plant.
“The Biden administration has said the conversion of GM’s Lansing Grand River Plant to assembling EVs would save 650 jobs and create 50 new positions. The Detroit automaker has signaled the assembled battery packs for the Lansing plant would come from the new battery plant it is constructing in nearby Delta Township, west of Lansing. …
“Vance’s comments on EVs while in Michigan on Wednesday tracked with Trump’s criticism of the Biden administration’s incentives for automakers to produce more electric vehicles.
“The Biden administration has not imposed a ban on gas-powered vehicle or required consumers to purchase EVs. But it has put in place numerous incentives and restrictions on future tailpipe emissions that incentivized automakers to build and sell more EVs.”
REMINDER: Trump’s disastrous record includes offshored jobs, shuttered factories, and manufacturing job losses in Michigan and across the country.
Federal Economic Data: “Michiganders lost 31,000 manufacturing jobs over the course of Trump’s presidency.”
MLive: “On the 2016 campaign trail in Warren, Trump pledged ‘you won’t lose one plant’ if he were elected. GM announced last year it would end production at five North American plants.”
CNN: “Trump told GM workers he could save their plant, but it’s gone for good”
“Manufacturing activity in September [of 2019] fell to its lowest point in a decade. The Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which Trump flipped, have all lost manufacturing jobs since June. Many of those jobs have moved overseas.”
Wall Street Journal: “President Trump’s trade war against China didn’t achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data show, despite tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to discourage imports.”
Detroit Free Press: “Trump, tweets couldn’t save U.S. auto jobs in 2017”
New York Times: “After Years of Growth, Automakers Are Cutting U.S. Jobs”
Bloomberg: “The Offshoring of U.S. Jobs Increased on Trump’s Watch”
Washington Post: “Trump promised ‘America First’ would keep jobs here. But the tax plan might push them overseas.”
Bureau of Labor Statistics: “When Trump left office, there were over 170,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than when he started.”
Trump’s MAGAnomics tax scam rigged the economy for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations while leaving working families behind and skyrocketing the deficit.
The Guardian: “Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”
CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”
Washington Post Analysis: “One of President Donald Trump’s lesser-known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office.
“The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. …
“The combination of Trump’s 2017 tax cut and the lack of any serious spending restraint helped both the deficit and the debt soar.”
Vance: “The left attacked Donald Trump for those tax cuts and said they would make the deficit worse when in reality we took in more revenue because the government got out of the way on the regulatory side and the tax cuts spurred a lot of growth which means more people working, which meant more economic production which meant the entire economy was healthier … I think we have a pretty common sense regulatory and tax agenda.”
New York Times: “The 2017 corporate tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump have not increased government revenue … In fact, they have had the opposite effect.”
The Trump-Vance ticket now wants to enact their extreme, unpopular, and unaffordable Project 2025 agenda that would rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy again and risk supercharging inflation.
Axios: “Trump’s inflation bomb: How his second-term plans could make it worse”
The Atlantic: “Trump’s Plan to Supercharge Inflation”
Wall Street Journal: “A drumbeat of reports from Wall Street economists have warned that Trump’s plans could substantially slow economic growth while driving up consumer prices.”
CNBC: “Trump budget would spike deficits by nearly 5 times Harris proposal, says Penn Wharton”
Washington Post: “Trump and his advisers have discussed deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates that would build on his controversial 2017 tax law … Further cutting corporate taxes … would primarily benefit large firms.”
Trump: “You’re all people that have a lot of money … You’re rich as hell. … We’re gonna give you tax cuts.”
Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”
Vance on Trump’s plan that would raise tariffs and raise costs for hardworking Americans: “This is a fascinating proposal and we could talk for a while about it.”
Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There’s some good ideas in there.”
New York Times: “Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, denied in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that tariffs had caused higher costs for Americans, as economists have documented.”
Trump was one of the most anti-worker and anti-union presidents in American history — and a Trump-Vance White House would stand against working people.
Trump: “I know the unions. They’re dues-sucking people. They just want their dues and they couldn’t care less.”
New York Times: “Does [Trump] support unions? He has had ‘great success’ in New York building with unions and also in Florida without unions. ‘If I had my choice,’ he said, ‘I think I’d take it without.’”
Associated Press: “During Trump’s presidency, the National Labor Relations Board reversed several key rulings that made it easier for small unions to organize, strengthened the bargaining rights of franchise workers and provided protection against anti-union measures for employees.
“The Supreme Court’s conservative majority — including three justices that Trump nominated — overturned a decades-old pro-union decision in 2018 involving fees paid by government workers. The justices in 2021 rejected a California regulation giving unions access to farm property so they could organize workers.”
Politico: “Vance has consistently opposed the PRO Act, the ‘holy grail of pro-union labor reform’ that organized labor and its allies on the Hill have been fighting for over two years to get passed. … Vance’s skepticism of the PRO Act is part of a more fundamental skepticism that he harbors toward organized labor.”
Fast Company: “Vance also voted in favor of a resolution to strike down the NLRB’s updated joint-employer rule, which would have given workers more leverage when organizing at companies—like Amazon—that rely heavily on third-party contractors, by forcing both employers to participate in labor negotiations.”
As JD Vance and the Trump campaign bring their anti-democratic, extremist circus to Arizona today, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“JD Vance is cozying up to election deniers and bringing the Trump-Vance ticket’s anti-democratic Project 2025 agenda on the road today after refusing to say Donald Trump lost the 2020 election just last week. As he campaigns in Arizona, voters will see once again that Vance is an extreme MAGA loyalist who will always put the rule of Trump over the rule of law. In less than four weeks, voters will say loud and clear that they won’t stand for the Trump-Vance ticket’s dangerous attacks on our democracy.”
After spewing lies last week about the 2020 election and declining to commit to accepting this year’s results, JD Vance is in Arizona today as part of Trump’s anti-democratic, extremist campaign.
Arizona Republic: “JD Vance to rally at Tucson racetrack on 1st day of early voting in Arizona”
“For years, Trump and his allies falsely claimed Arizona’s presidential election was rigged after his narrow 2020 loss here, and Vance dodged a question about whether Trump lost during last week’s vice presidential debate. There was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.”
NBC News: “‘Damning non-answer’: Vance refuses to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election”
“JD Vance refused to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election during the vice presidential debate Tuesday and downplayed the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which injured more than 140 law enforcement officers. He also declined to say whether he would seek to challenge the results of this year’s election.”
ABC News: “JD Vance refuses to say Trump lost in 2020, downplays events of Jan. 6”
Politico: “Vance refuses to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election”
“Vance omitted Trump’s attacks on his then-Vice President Mike Pence while a violent riot raged, as well as his months of fomenting false claims that the election was stolen and urging his supporters to ‘stop the steal.’ … Vance has previously said in interviews that he would have done in 2020 what Pence refused to do: facilitate challenges to the election at the Jan. 6 session of Congress, despite constitutional and legal restraints meant to prevent it.”
NBC News: “When asked if he would challenge this year’s election results, Ohio Sen. JD Vance avoided a direct answer, instead defending Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Daily Beast: “Video Shows JD Vance Saying Trump Won the 2020 Election”
“JD Vance claimed Donald Trump won the 2020 election in an unearthed clip from 2022. The video… comes days after Vance refused to outright admit that Trump lost the race against Joe Biden during the CBS News vice presidential debate.”
Last week, Donald Trump also refused to commit to accepting this November’s election results (again).
Washington Post: “Donald Trump continued to stir doubt Tuesday about whether he will accept the outcome of the November presidential election. Asked in Milwaukee whether he trusts the election process, the former president told reporters, ‘I’ll let you know in about 33 days.’
“Trump, who has repeatedly denied his 2020 reelection loss, made the comment after saying in response to a previous question that he wants a ‘fair, honest election.’”
REMINDER: Vance is an extreme election denier who won’t commit to accepting this November’s election results, said he would not have certified the 2020 election, and continues to whitewash the violent January 6 insurrection.
HuffPost: “[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.”
New York Times: “J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat”
Spectrum News: “Vance again says he wouldn’t have certified 2020 election if he was vice president”
ABC News: “JD Vance says [he] wouldn’t have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors”
New York Times: “[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters.”
Bloomberg: “[Vance] has asserted that the 2020 presidential race was stolen from Donald Trump.”
Vance: “I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would’ve been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion.
“I think it would’ve been extraordinarily disappointing to a whole host of people that I care a lot about if Trump had just taken it [and conceded the 2020 election before January 6].”
Vance: “No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming [Trump for January 6].”
The Hill: “JD Vance says he is ‘skeptical’ Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6”
Politico: “[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging.”
Trump is still pushing baseless lies about his loss by over 7 million votes in the 2020 election.
Associated Press: “[Trump] is flooding the airwaves and his social media platform with distortions, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about his defeat.”
NBC News: “Re-litigating the 2020 election, repeating false claims it was stolen and casting aspersions on the security of mail voting remain major fixtures for [Trump] on the stump. … He regularly refers to the 2020 election as ‘rigged’ on his social media channels.”
Trump continues to praise and promise pardons for the violent insurrectionists he rallied to storm the Capitol on January 6, calling them “hostages” and “patriots.”
Washington Post: “Trump vows pardons, government apology to Capitol rioters if elected”
Rachel Scott, ABC News: “140 police officers were assaulted [on January 6]. Their injuries included broken bones, at least one officer lost an eye, one had two cracked ribs, two smashed spinal discs, another had a stroke. Were the people who assaulted those 140 officers, including those I just mentioned, ‘patriots’ who deserve pardons?”
[Trump refuses to answer]
Scott: “But sir, my question is on those rioters who assaulted officers. Would you pardon those people?”
Donald Trump: “Oh absolutely I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.”
Scott: “They’ve been convicted.”
Trump: “Those people were treated very harshly… nobody was killed on January 6. But I think that the people of January 6 were treated very unfairly… they were there to complain about an election, and you know it’s very interesting, the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to.”
The Hill: “Trump describes imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters as ‘hostages’”
TIME: “Trump has sought to recast the insurrectionist riot as an act of patriotism. ‘I call them the J-6 patriots,’ Trump tells TIME. When asked whether he would consider pardoning every one of them, he says: ‘Yes, absolutely.’”
NBC News: “Former President Donald Trump promised Wednesday night that if he is elected he will pardon a ‘large portion’ of the people convicted of federal offenses for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
Trump: “January 6, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. And they were there proud, they were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”
Trump has threatened political violence and warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses in November, and he is vowing to be a dictator on “day one” if he wins.
Associated Press: “Trump threatens to jail adversaries in escalating rhetoric ahead of pivotal debate”
TIME: “Exclusive: Donald Trump Says Political Violence ‘Depends’ on ‘Fairness’ of 2024 Election”
Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN: “Many people have lost American presidential elections over the last 230 years – Trump is the only one to say about violence if he loses ‘it depends.’”
Rolling Stone: “Trump Reiterates He Wants To Be a ‘Dictator’ for ‘One Day’ at Wisconsin Rally”
The Atlantic: “Trump Says He’ll Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’”
NBC News: “Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election”
Reminder: JD Vance made clear a Trump-Vance administration would defund reproductive health care services if given the chance
As the Trump-Vance ticket seeks to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides about 450,000 cancer screenings annually, DNC Spokesperson Aida Rossreleased the following statement:
“For hundreds of thousands of Americans, Planned Parenthood’s cancer screenings are potentially life saving — but Donald Trump and JD Vance would put that all at risk if they get a chance to implement their Project 2025 plans to defund Planned Parenthood and rip away access to health care. The Trump-Vance agenda is dangerous and will raise health care costs for millions of women who rely on free and low cost health care services. The 3 in 4 Americans who support Planned Parenthood will make clear in November that they won’t stand for this extreme assault on our health care and our reproductive freedoms.”
3 in 4 Americans support Planned Parenthood, which provides cancer screenings and prevention services for hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country.
Planned Parenthood: “More than three-fourths of Americans (77%) have a favorable view of Planned Parenthood, with the strongest support among women, adults under 35, and Black, Latino, and AAPI communities.”
“Cancer Screenings & Prevention: 464,021 [over the year]”
Donald Trump and JD Vance’s Project 2025 agenda would defund Planned Parenthood and rip away reproductive health care services — something Vance himself confirmed last week.
Vance: “On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood […] our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around, it will remain a consistent view.”
Project 2025, page 471: “Prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds… Policymakers should end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.”
Project 2025, page 472: “HHS should… 1) Issue guidance reemphasizing that states are free to defund Planned Parenthood in their state Medicaid plans. 2) Propose rulemaking to interpret the Medicaid statute to disqualify providers of elective abortion from the Medicaid program. Congress should pass the Protecting Life and Taxpayers Act, which would accomplish the goal of defunding abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.”
Project 2025, page 491: “Congress should complement these efforts by passing legislation such as the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would prohibit family planning grants from going to entities that perform abortions or provide funding to other entities that perform abortions.”
Nearly four million Americans access health care through Title X clinics. The Trump administration’s “gag rule” defunded hundreds of these clinics, disqualifying providers like Planned Parenthood from providing care under the program.
HHS: “Title X services are voluntary, confidential, and provided regardless of one’s ability to pay. For many clients, Title X clinics are their only ongoing source of health care and health education.
“Title X projects may also provide other reproductive health and related preventive health services that are considered beneficial to reproductive health such as HPV vaccination, provision of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), breast and cervical cancer screening, and screening for obesity, smoking, drug and alcohol use, mental health, and intimate partner violence.”
Politico: “Planned Parenthood serves about 1.6 million of the roughly 4 million low-income women who depend on Title X clinics for free and subsidized care.”
Guttmacher Institute: “[T]he Trump administration’s domestic ‘gag rule’ has slashed the Title X national family planning network’s patient capacity in half, jeopardizing care for 1.6 million female patients nationwide […] roughly one in every four Title X service sites left the network in 2019 because of the domestic gag rule, shorthand for restrictive regulations that prohibit—among other things—referrals for abortion care. In 2019, an estimated 981 U.S. clinics receiving Title X funding—approximately one-quarter of all sites that received Title X funding as of June 2019—likely left the Title X network because of the gag rule […]”
KFF: “While in office, Trump’s Administration rewrote the rules governing the federal Title X program, the federal family planning program that supports contraceptive access for people with lower incomes. Title X funds have never been used to pay for abortion services, but Trump’s Administration rewrote the regulations to disqualify family planning clinics from participating in the program if they also offered abortion services (with separate funding) […] These changes resulted in a reduction of about 1,300 of the 4,000 sites participating in the network of clinics receiving federal support from the Title X program.”
REALITY CHECK: Attacks on reproductive freedoms, like Trump and Vance’s anti-choice Project 2025 agenda to defund Planned Parenthood, are wildly unpopular.
Planned Parenthood: “Three-fourths of Americans (74%) would be concerned about the loss of affordable reproductive health and preventive care services if Planned Parenthood no longer existed.”
USA Today: “Americans overwhelmingly oppose the next goal of many anti-abortion activists, to enact a federal law banning abortion nationwide. By 80%-14%, those surveyed opposed that idea, including 65% of Republicans and 83% of independents.”
Axios: “Record share of U.S. voters back abortion rights and will vote on it: Gallup”
NBC News: “Abortion rights have won in every election since Roe v. Wade was overturned”
Axios: “There’s widespread support for letting women obtain drugs for medication abortion from their doctor or a clinic, with 72% supporting — including half of Republicans.”
The Trump-Vance ticket and their Project 2025 allies are pushing a dangerous Project 2025 agenda that would ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to IVF and contraception, and rip away reproductive freedoms.
Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”
Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.”
CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”
“During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he ‘certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally’ and was ‘sympathetic’ to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion.”
Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”
New Republic: “On January 20, 2025, conservatives plan to resurrect a 150-year-old defunct law to ban abortion across the nation. This is not a secret plan—far from it. It’s part of the 180-Day Playbook produced by Project 2025, detailing priorities for an incoming conservative president on day one.”
Politico: “Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.
“Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed.”
Media Matters: “The Heritage Foundation quietly released draconian new IVF policy recommendations for the next GOP president”
“Heritage has been a staunchly anti-IVF voice, supporting Alabama’s controversial Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos cultivated through IVF treatment have the same rights as living children, and that a person can be held liable for destroying embryos.”
The 19th: “RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF”
“Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted. Fetal personhood bestows the same rights currently reserved for people to embryos from the moment of fertilization.”
Reproductive Freedom for All: “The extensive mandate calls to gut reproductive freedom, including effectively banning medication abortion, ending access to emergency abortion care, attacking contraception, deploying fetal personhood, and undermining IVF in federal policy…
“Project 2025 includes personhood language and policies that propagate the belief that life begins at conception—which could have devastating impacts should it be put into law. This so-called “personhood” language could ban not only abortion but also some forms of birth control and assisted fertility treatments like IVF.”
The Nation: “Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS”
“And by declaring that life begins at conception, his manifesto appears to commit HHS to finding ways to outlaw IVF, which relies on generating multiple embryos, most of which are not implanted.”
Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”
Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”
Axios: “[Project 2025] is undeniably a Trump-driven operation.”
In response to Donald Trump claiming that Mike Pence “couldn’t cross the line” to stop the certification of the 2020 election, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Donald Trump picked his current far-right MAGA running mate because he knows JD Vance would ‘cross the line’ that Mike Pence wouldn’t – and put our entire democracy at risk for Trump’s selfish unchecked ego. Let’s be clear: Trump lost by over 7 million votes in 2020, and voters are ready to give him the same experience again this November.”
NEW: Donald Trump claimed that Mike Pence “couldn’t cross the line” to stop the certification of the 2020 election – which he lost.
Donald Trump: “[Mike Pence] couldn’t cross the line of doing what was right, in my opinion, some people would disagree with that […] I wish he would have had the stamina, maybe courage, maybe both, to go further.”
Trump has continued to promise to be a dictator on “day one,” won’t stop echoing dictators, and has warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses in November.
New York Times: “The book includes at least one menacing threat. Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, is shown sitting across the Resolute Desk from Mr. Trump, a tall glass of soda in front of him. ‘He told me that there was nobody like Trump on Facebook,’ the former president writes. ‘But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison.’”
Washington Post: “Trump pledges to jail opponents, baselessly suggests election will be stolen from him”
Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN: “Many people have lost American presidential elections over the last 230 years – Trump is the only one to say about violence if he loses ‘it depends.’”
NBC News: “Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election”
The Atlantic: “Trump Says He’ll Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’”
Trump: “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what – it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.”
Vance: “I think what Donald Trump is simply saying is we ought to investigate the prior administration.”
Associated Press: “Trump declines to rule out abusing power to seek retribution if he returns to the White House”
Washington Post: “Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini”
The Guardian: “Donald Trump says he will lock up his political enemies if he is president again.”
Trump continues to celebrate and promise pardons for January 6 insurrectionists, who he calls “hostages” and “patriots”…
MSNBC: “Trump vows to pardon Jan. 6 defendants on ‘Day One’ if he wins the presidential election”
Washington Post: “Trump vows pardons, government apology to Capitol rioters if elected”
Rachel Scott, ABC News: “140 police officers were assaulted [on January 6]. Their injuries included broken bones, at least one officer lost an eye, one had two cracked ribs, two smashed spinal discs, another had a stroke. Were the people who assaulted those 140 officers, including those I just mentioned, ‘patriots’ who deserve pardons?”
[Trump refuses to answer]
Scott: “But sir, my question is on those rioters who assaulted officers. Would you pardon those people?”
Donald Trump: “Oh absolutely I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.”
Scott: “They’ve been convicted.”
Trump: “Those people were treated very harshly… nobody was killed on January 6. But I think that the people of January 6 were treated very unfairly… they were there to complain about an election, and you know it’s very interesting, the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to.”
The Hill: “Trump describes imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters as ‘hostages’”
TIME: “Trump has sought to recast the insurrectionist riot as an act of patriotism. ‘I call them the J-6 patriots,’ Trump tells TIME. When asked whether he would consider pardoning every one of them, he says: ‘Yes, absolutely.’”
NBC News: “Former President Donald Trump promised Wednesday night that if he is elected he will pardon a ‘large portion’ of the people convicted of federal offenses for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
Trump: “January 6, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. And they were there proud, they were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”
…while his running mate JD Vance downplays the violence on January 6.
The Hill: “JD Vance says he is ‘skeptical’ Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6”
Politico: “[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging.”
Trump is still pushing lies about his loss by over 7 million votes in the 2020 election. Vance is right there with him – they are both casting doubt on this November’s results.
New York Times: “[Trump] has baselessly and publicly cast doubt about the fairness of the 2024 election about once a day, on average, since he announced his candidacy for president.”
Associated Press: “[Trump] is flooding the airwaves and his social media platform with distortions, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about his defeat.”
NBC News: “Re-litigating the 2020 election, repeating false claims it was stolen and casting aspersions on the security of mail voting remain major fixtures for [Trump] on the stump. … He regularly refers to the 2020 election as ‘rigged’ on his social media channels.”
HuffPost: “[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.”
New York Times: “J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat”
Vance: “I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would’ve been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion.
“I think it would’ve been extraordinarily disappointing to a whole host of people that I care a lot about if Trump had just taken it [and conceded the 2020 election before January 6].”
Vance: “No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming [Trump for January 6].”
ABC News: “JD Vance says [he] wouldn’t have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors”
New York Times: “[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters.”
In response to the rank hypocrisy of Donald Trump’s MAGA Republicans, who voted against FEMA funding, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“While Hurricane Helene was barreling towards the Southeast, dozens of Donald Trump’s cronies in the House voted against extending FEMA funding – and are now spending their time spouting dangerous misinformation in the aftermath. As president, Trump showed us how he’d respond to natural disasters: he spread reckless conspiracy theories and tried to personally withhold aid from disaster-stricken communities for his own selfish political priorities. Now, he’s pushing a Project 2025 agenda that would gut funding for weather preparedness and restrict disaster response efforts. Time and time again, Trump and his MAGA allies have proven that in times of crisis, they can’t be trusted to lead, and will put politics over American lives.”
Not even two weeks ago, as Hurricane Helene was barreling towards the Southeast, dozens of Donald Trump’s MAGA Republicans in the House voted AGAINSTextending FEMA funding.
