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Trump doesn't have a second-term economic plan

26 October 2020
Dan Ackermann

President Trump has not laid out an economic agenda for his second term, despite the election being just eight days away.

Why it matters: This is unprecedented in modern presidential campaigns, and makes it harder for undecided voters to make an informed choice.

Trump's campaign websitedoesn't include a section on forward-looking policies, including the economy. Instead, it only lists first-term accomplishments.

  • Trump's 2016 campaign website had a "positions" section that included economic priorities like boosting GDP to 3.5% per year and a "penny plan" to reduce annual spending. He also made several speeches focused on the economy.
  • Joe Biden's campaign site has a section on economic policy. So did the campaign sites of Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, John McCain, George W. Bush, and John Kerry.
  • The Trump campaign did send an August email with a few top-line economic agenda items, including the expansion of opportunity zones, but with precious few specifics. The Tax Foundation called it "light on details" and noted that Trump and his advisers "vaguely called for several other policies."

Many economists have analyzed Biden's economic plans, including on taxes and spending, to predict how it would impact everything from GDP to jobs. But they've been unable to do the same with Trump's plan, because there is none.

  • The conservative-learning American Enterprise Institute recently published a 12-page analysis of Biden's tax plan, finding that it "would increase taxes, on average, for the top 5% of households and reduce taxes on households in the bottom 95 percent."
  • That report's author, Kyle Pomerleau, told the Axios Re:Cap podcast: "I will release an analysis of Trump's proposals once he releases proposals. So far the Trump administration has not put forth detailed tax policy proposals for a second term so we really don't know exactly what he would do."
  • The Trump campaigndid not respond to requests for comment.

The bottom line: Trump talks a lot about regaining economic momentum lost due to the pandemic, so it's reasonable to assume he'd seek to maintain the status quo on things like taxes and regulation. And he has occasionally mentioned his desire for a "big middle-class tax cut." What such cuts would look like, however, is unclear without a plan.

Go deeper: Where Trump stands on his economic promises

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.