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It has been leaked for a while that Donald Trump is trying to soften the Republican stance on abortion, which is, more or less, no abortions ever. But now it has come out that Trump wants to do much more than that. He wants the platform to read like the transcript of one of his campaign rallies. Not only does he want to finesse abortion (because he knows it is a losing issue) but he also wants to end the Dept. of Education, end the weaponization of the DoJ (Read: make it take orders from him), stop supporting electric vehicles, and deport pro-Hamas radicals and undocumented immigrants. The platform also opposes early voting and voting machines. Everyone should vote on Election Day using paper ballots.
In 2016, the platform was more of a normal Republican platform. It was 54 pages long. In 2020, there was no platform. The "platform" just said: "We want whatever Donald Trump wants." It looks like this year's platform will be in between the two. Not so long as 2016, but still something. It shows Trump's power over the Republican Party. It will do whatever he tells it to do. There is no give and take and no negotiation among factions anymore. He just gives orders and everyone salutes and says "Yes, sir."
The 2024 platform breaks with the 2016 one on a number of points. It drops support for free trade and argues for tariffs. Free trade is something Republicans have supported for decades because big business likes it. Now big business counts for zilch with Republicans, although Trump does want their campaign donations. Only they don't get anything in return.
Another break with 2016 is that the language condemning the Supreme Court for allowing same-sex marriage is gone. The platform doesn't take a stand on same-sex marriage. Many evangelicals won't like this if they find out, but who reads the platform anyway?
A new issue not present before is transgenderism. It says the government should not fund gender confirmation surgery for anyone. It doesn't call for an outright ban on it for minors, but it does say parents should determine what is best for their children. The platform says men should be banned from participating in women's sports in order to protect women.
The platform committee consists of 112 delegates to the convention. There are two from each state and territory. Trump played a large role in selecting them. In fact, some of the selectees were surprised since they are not party activists, but all are strong Trump supporters. Three of them are Steve Nagel, who believes vaccines harm children, Demi Kousounas, who believes discussing nonbinary genders in school is child sexual abuse, and David Barton, who says the separation of church and state is a myth. They will help write the platform, so don't be surprised with whatever comes out the meat grinder. The final text will be finished next Tuesday and then voted on by the convention. In contrast with previous conventions, the media will be excluded from watching the platform committee in action.
Not all Republicans are enamored of Trump's complete takeover of the Party and the platform committee. Marc Raciot, a former RNC chairman, said: "This isn't about the triumph of ideas. It's about the triumph of Donald Trump. It's frankly an embarrassment." Michael Steele, another former RNC chairman, seconded Raciot's comment about Trump's complete takeover. He said: "If Trump suddenly announced he's pro-choice, they [anti-abortion activists] would say: 'I wish you wouldn't say it so loudly, but OK, sir.'" (V)