Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, August 17, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump is countering the opening of the Democratic National Convention and Vice President Kamala Harris’ recently unveiled economic agenda by laying out his own plan to stimulate the US economy, the Republican’s campaign said Monday.
The announcement is just the latest sign of the Trump campaign’s efforts to refocus its message on politics after Harris became the Democratic nominee, neutralizing many of Trump’s lines of attack against his former rival, President Joe Biden.
Trump will announce a plan “to free up American energy and lower costs for American families,” the campaign said in a news release Monday morning.
That agenda includes maintaining the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, the release said. These reforms are due to expire after 2025.
More recently, Trump has supported a number of tax-cutting measures, including eliminating taxes on tips for service workers and ending Social Security taxes on seniors.
He has also promised to cut Americans’ energy prices in half and recently proposed implementing it sweeping invoices up to 20% on imported products.
It has not specified how these policy goals will be implemented or how they will be paid for. The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy taxes, meaning any plan to overhaul the tax code would have to go through the legislative branch.
Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally focused on the economy and energy at an equipment maker in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday at 3 p.m. ET.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, will also speak on energy and the economy earlier Monday afternoon in Philadelphia, the Trump campaign said.
Most of Monday’s press release focused on attacking Harris, rather than outlining Trump’s economic agenda.
Among other claims, the campaign accused Harris of wanting to let Trump-era tax cuts expire and seeking to ban gas-powered cars.
Both categories included links to articles from 2019, when Harris was the Democratic presidential candidate. The Biden administration is not seeking to ban the sale or ownership of cars with traditional gas engines.
The Trump and Harris campaigns each claimed the other’s plans would raise costs for average Americans.
“Donald Trump may hope no one notices his plan to raise costs for middle- and working-class Americans while lying about Vice President Harris’ agenda, but he needs to be held accountable,” said Brian Nelson, senior Harris campaign official. policy adviser, in a statement to CNBC.
Nelson’s statement cited a recent study by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a progressive advocacy group, that Trump tariff plans it would equate to a $3,900 tax increase on middle-income families.
Trump delivered a speech in North Carolina last week characterized as remarks about how he would handle the economy if given a second term in the White House. But his attention often drifted and he spoke at length about immigration and other issues while hurling personal insults at Harris.
At a press event at his New Jersey golf club a few days later, Trump spoke in front of tables filled with grocery items on display to show how prices had risen during the Biden years. But once again he drifted off topic.