Former President Donald Trump spoke at a rally at Greenbriar Farm in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Friday, the day after the first presidential debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
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Former President Donald Trump's campaign plans to release a “simplified” campaign platform ahead of the Republican National Convention later this month, according to a memo obtained by NPR.
“This platform is an opportunity to articulate our vision and provide a framework for policymaking that will reject any special interest influence that would steer public policy away from our clear and forthright purpose,” said the memo, signed by Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Suzie Wiles.
They said the policy platform should reflect Trump's vision for America and not provide an opening for attacks on his opponents.
The big question is what the platform will say about abortion, a hot political issue for Republicans because their toughest abortion policies are out of sync with most Americans. The platform committee has not yet met to decide what to include in the final document.
The discussions won't be public as they have been in the past: This year's platform committee will meet a week before the convention and will be closed to reporters, said a person familiar with the decision, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the party's internal plans.
While the Trump campaign is trying to avoid drama and unnecessary controversy, as outlined in the memo, it believes Trump has a good chance of winning. They argue that an unwieldy campaign platform could be weaponized by Democrats and the media.
But closing platform committee meetings to the press marks a break from tradition.
Party platforms can be lengthy, as lobbyists and allies try to fit their issues into them — the 2016 Republican platform was long and not particularly clear or cohesive — and Trump came under fire for making changes to it related to Ukraine.
In 2020, President Trump and the Republican National Committee did not even relaunch the platform, instead sticking with the one they had in 2016.
