Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, but he shares many differences with the party he now represents.
Just take a look at the official GOP platform.
1. Trade
“The Free Trade Agreements negotiated with friendly democracies since President Reagan’s trailblazing pact with Israel in 1985 facilitated the creation of nearly ten million jobs supported by our exports. That record makes all the more deplorable the current Administration’s slowness in completing agreements begun by its predecessor and its failure to pursue.” This is what the 2012 Republican platform says about trade.
Trump on the other hand has said, “[NAFTA is] a disaster… We will either renegotiate it, or we will break it. Because, you know, every agreement has an end. … Every agreement has to be fair. Every agreement has a defraud clause. We’re being defrauded by all these countries.”
The New York real estate developer has also heavily criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). “It’s a horrible trade agreement,” Trump said in March.
The GOP platform says, “A Republican President will complete negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership to open rapidly developing Asian markets to U.S. products.”
2. Nuclear Weapons
Trump has stated his belief that other countries should be free to pursue obtainment of nuclear weapons, specifically Japan and South Korea. “It’s only a question of time. … You have so many [nuclear] countries already,” Trump has said.
The Republican platform sharply disagrees. “We recognize that the gravest terror threat we face—a nuclear attack made possible by nuclear proliferation—requires a comprehensive strategy for reducing the world’s nuclear stockpiles and preventing the spread of those armaments.”
3. Entitlement Reform
Trump has been fairly transparent about the differences he has with most Republicans when it comes to entitlement. “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump said last year.
He added, “every other Republican is going to cut, and even if they wouldn’t, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know where the money is. I do.”
The platform endorses cutting entitlements, however it words the position in a politically expedient manner. “We must restructure the twentieth century entitlement state so the missions of important programs can succeed in the twenty-first century.”
