Donald Trump

Abortion

“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade. … Without me, there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to.” (2023)

  • Trump is responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade — the landmark decades-old Supreme Court case protecting abortion rights — through his appointment of three anti-abortion justices. He brags about restricting American women’s freedoms, while millions can no longer access the abortion care they need.

  • When asked repeatedly whether he would sign a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks, Trump said, “It could be state or it could be federal, I don't frankly care.” Trump knows his position is unpopular, so he dodges the question to avoid accountability.

  • Abortion pills account for the majority of U.S. abortions. But leading anti-abortion groups have high hopes that Trump would move to ban the mailing of abortion pills — or even ban abortion pills entirely, according to his former vice president. This plan, which includes no exceptions for rape or incest, could likely take place on day one of a second Trump term.

  • Trump reinstated and expanded a policy blocking foreign organizations that receive U.S. global health assistance funding from providing legal abortion services or advocating for abortion access. He forced groups to choose between funding and providing comprehensive reproductive health information, threatening the health and rights of millions of people both here and abroad.

  • Trump gutted Title X, the only federal program dedicated to providing family planning services for low-income patients, which serves about four million patients each year — more than half of whom are women of color. A lack of funding directly threatens their access to vital health care services such as breast cancer screenings, HIV testing, and birth control.

Economy

“How smart can they be? They’re morons.” (Referring to poor people, 1999)

  • Trump stated that he hopes the economy crashes in 2024, which he believes would help him politically. He cares more about his career than the survival of working families.

  • Trump provided major tax breaks for corporations, reducing the corporate income tax from 35% to 21%. Contrary to what he suggested, the tax breaks did not benefit everyday Americans. In fact, Trump’s tax cuts allowed billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than the working class in 2018 — for the first time in American history.

  • Under Trump, the national debt increased by over $7 trillion, and growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-largest increase in U.S. history, endangering our economic strength.

  • Trump was the first president in 80 years to leave the White House with fewer jobs in the country than when he took office. Trump is the one that should remain unemployed — not millions of hard-working Americans.

  • Experts say that it was Trump’s failed leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic that worsened the financial downturn.

Health Care

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.” (Referring to toxic disinfectants as a potential COVID-19 cure, 2020)

  • Trump promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without any clear plan to replace it, which could leave around 20 million more Americans uninsured. The ACA often guarantees that young adults can remain insured through their parents’ plan until age 26. Therefore, repealing the ACA would be devastating for young adults, who are already less likely to be insured than any other age group. We need to expand coverage, not take it away from vulnerable groups.

  • During his presidency, Trump increased the cost of health care for Americans. His policies led to higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs — all while insurance companies' profits increased.

  • Trump’s actions on health care increased the number of uninsured Americans by 2.3 million, including 726,000 children — many of whom lost their health insurance coverage before the pandemic.

  • Trump’s reluctance to listen to science during the COVID-19 pandemic cost more American lives than World War I. Trump had the power to save lives — but instead, he prioritized politics.

Climate Change

“It will start getting cooler, just you watch… I don’t think science knows, actually.” (Following historic wildfires that were fueled by global warming, 2020)

  • Trump doesn’t understand the science behind climate change, a devastating crisis that our generation will be forced to manage. He has expressed that because it is still snowy and cold in certain places, climate change must be a hoax.

  • Trump rolled back over 100 environmental rules meant to protect our health and our planet. Trump’s actions set us further down the dangerous path of irreversible climate damage, and his allies vow that he would be even more forcefully anti-environment in a second term.

  • Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords undermined global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and isolated the U.S. from the international community.

  • Trump took away California’s decades-old ability to set its own higher standards for automobile emissions.

  • Trump allowed and expedited the construction of controversial fossil fuel infrastructure for projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline. In addition to their harmful effects on our planet, the Dakota Access pipeline in particular violated the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, destroyed sacred sites of the tribe, and endangered the drinking water of 18 million people.

Education

“You would not trust these people to babysit your children for 20 minutes and why should we then let them educate millions of American students six hours a day, year after year.” (Referring to teachers, 2022)

  • Trump cares more about culture wars than student success. Trump called anti-racism education programs “child abuse” and said he wants to introduce prayer in public schools. In 2020, he created a national commission to exert control over civic education, in part by funding a “pro-American curriculum.” Indoctrination is never acceptable, no matter whom it’s coming from — Trump is no exception.

  • Trump is proposing “funding preferences and favorable treatment” for states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure, even as our country faces historic teacher shortages nationwide.

  • Trump threatened that if federal bureaucrats don’t go along with his plans, he’s going to “abolish the Department of Education.” This would be a reckless, unprecedented change that would leave schools and students nationwide without critical funding and guidance.

  • Trump appointed Betsy DeVos — a billionaire GOP donor who tried to defund public schools and privatize education — as his Secretary of Education. DeVos stripped critical Title IX protections against gender discrimination and failed to enforce the civil rights of LGBTQ+ students. She was the first to hold that position who had not been a public school student or parent.

Democracy

“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing.… We will never concede.… You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.” (As he incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021)

  • At an Iowa town hall in December 2023, Trump promised to be a dictator on “day one.” He also declined to sign a pledge asking candidates to swear they would not participate in the overthrowing of the government.

  • Trump incited a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn the 2020 election results. As the rioters attacked, Trump refused to call for an end to the violence — even as members of Congress and his vice president hid for their lives.

  • Despite a complete lack of evidence and numerous unsuccessful lawsuits, Trump continues to insist that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him and tout that lie to supporters. His power-grabbing tendencies jeopardize people’s safety and the future of our democracy.

  • Trump’s lies empowered far-right state officials to pass restrictive voting laws, suppressing voting access for young people and Black and brown communities. Judges appointed by Trump have also attempted to challenge aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in the voting process.

Gun Violence

“We have to get over it.” (A day after a deadly school shooting in Iowa, 2024)

  • Trump threatened to veto legislation that would require universal background checks for most gun purchases or transfers, a measure supported by nearly 90% of Americans.

  • Trump’s Department of Justice gave 500,000 fugitives the ability to buy guns in 2017. Trump also rolled back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase guns — a policy even 88% of Republicans support.

  • After the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida, the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history, instead of proposing common sense gun control, he decided to give teachers guns, further endangering students.

  • Trump says he would shift the attention of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), which is responsible for keeping Americans safe from guns and other threats, and other agencies to addressing immigration instead. Gun violence is the number one cause of death for American children, but Trump doesn’t care about saving our lives.

Immigration

“It’s poisoning the blood of our country.” (Referring to immigrants and echoing Hitler, on multiple occasions in 2023)

  • The impacts of Trump’s immigration policies included families being ripped apart and immigrants living in detention camps under cruel conditions. Trump does not agree immigrants are vital to our country’s prosperity — instead, he says, “these aren’t people. These are animals.”

  • Trump plans to round up and detain undocumented immigrants in large camps and deport millions of them — all without the due process guaranteed by the Constitution.

  • In 2017, Trump enacted a “total and complete shutdown” of people from Muslim-majority countries from entering our nation. Families were separated and visas were canceled. Trump wants to bring back his Muslim Ban and expand it.

  • As president, Trump tried to repeal DACA, the program that provides certain protections for “Dreamer” children brought to the U.S. without documentation. He would try again, and with his appointments to the Supreme Court, he would succeed. On top of that, Trump wants to end birthright citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, going against established interpretations of the Constitution.