Republicans v Democrats: How they compare on the key issues

The two candidates have very different ideas on how to tackle everything from immigration to abortion, climate change and the war in Ukraine

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will go head-to-head at the election on November 5. Ms Harris has been vice-president in Joe Biden’s administration since 2021 and is seen as a moderate Democrat, while Trump has reshaped his party in his image and presents more radical change.
Below, The Telegraph compares where the two candidates stand on key issues facing the US.
Trump’s policy on immigration may be among his most famous. He says on “day one” he would close the US-Mexico border and embark on a hard-line position to round-up and deport undocumented immigrants.
“Under the Trump administration, if you came in illegally, you were apprehended immediately and you were deported,” he told the Republican National Convention.
Many in the crowd cheered and waved banners reading: “Mass deportation now!”
Trump continued: “That’s why, to keep our family safe, the Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”
At a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on October 11, he pledged that any migrants who kill American citizens will face the death penalty if he is elected. 
In addition to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Trump has said he will make use of local police, National Guard and potentially the US military.
He told Time magazine: “When we talk military, generally speaking, I talk National Guard. I would have no problem using the military, per se,” he said. “We have to have law and order in our country.”
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Contrary to Trump’s claims, Ms Harris was not Biden’s “border czar”.
She was given the job in the administration in July 2021 to examine the “root causes” of Central American migration to the US, even as it has continued to soar. 
Ms Harris went to Guatemala and other nations and warned would-be migrants: “Do not come.”
She said she opposes family separation and would permit undocumented spouses of US citizens to apply for a green card.
Ms Harris was a strong supporter of the bipartisan border deal that would have been the first meaningful immigration reform since 1986, but the measure was scuttled by Trump who wanted to attack Democrats over the “chaotic border”.
“We are very clear, and I think most Americans are clear, that we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it,” she told an interviewer. “They’re refusing to put it up for a vote, and in large part because we know the former president would prefer to run on a problem instead of fix a problem.”
Trump has officially called for an immediate ceasefire. “Every day this proxy battle in Ukraine continues, we risk global war,” he said in a statement last year. We must be absolutely clear that our objective is to IMMEDIATELY have a total cessation of hostilities.”

He has said he could bring about a ceasefire in “one day” though he has declined to say how.
Trump has said Russia would not have invaded if he had been president rather than Mr Biden, but termed Putin’s move an act of “genius”.
He has said he supports extra aid to Ukraine, albeit possibly in the form of a loan.
This summer after he secured the GOP nomination, he spoke by phone with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. Trump said afterwards: “I appreciate president Zelensky for reaching out because I, as your next president of the United States, will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families.”

Mr Zelensky said of their conversation: “I noted the vital bipartisan and bicameral American support for protecting our nation’s freedom and independence.”
The former president also met Mr Zelensky at Trump Tower in late September where he said: “We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin.”
Ms Harris has been a major part of Mr Biden’s efforts to rally Nato and other countries in support of Ukraine.
Speaking before Russia had invaded but as the US warned it was going to, she told the 2022 Munich security conference the world had reached “a decisive moment in history”.
Ms Harris has met Mr Zelensky seven times.
This summer she travelled to a conference in Switzerland and pledged Washington’s continued support.
She announced $1.5 billion in US assistance through the State Department and the US Agency for International Development.
She has said Putin must be stopped in Ukraine or else he will be further emboldened.
“Russia’s aggression is more than just an attack on the lives and the freedom of the people of Ukraine,” she said, adding it is “also an attack on international rules and norms”.
Trump’s position has shifted during his candidacy. In March, he suggested he would back a national ban at 15 weeks, something that delighted religious and social conservatives; but in April, to the disappointment of those supporters, he said the issue should be left to individual states, which is the current state of affairs since Roe was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022.
“Many states will be different,” he said in a video address. “Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will [be] more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be.”
That means in places such as Florida, where Trump lives, abortion would be illegal after six weeks. Trump has said he supports exceptions for cases such as rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
He has falsely claimed all Democrats support late-term abortions, saying in the June debate with Mr Biden: “They will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month and even after birth.”
Trump has pledged free IVF treatment for all Americans if he wins a second term.
Ms Harris believes every woman should have the right to a legal abortion.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, she became among the most effective campaigners on reproductive rights, saying while Trump boasted about having helped overturn the 1972 ruling, she and Biden were pressing Congress to restore the position to have it as it was before.
She has said falsely that Trump backed a national ban, while, in March, she became the first vice-president or president to ever visit an abortion clinic, saying restricting women’s rights was “immoral”.
Speaking at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St Paul, Minnesota, she said: “How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need. We have to be a nation that trusts women.”
Trump is likely to oversee an America that is confrontational when it came to international trade and he supports large tariffs on China and many other nations. He has suggested he would tax all imports up to 20 per cent of their value, and tax Chinese imports 60 per cent. In all it could apply to $3 trillion worth of US imports.
Ms Harris has claimed this policy could cost American households $4,000 a year, although expert estimates put the figure at around $2,500. Many of Trump’s supporters support the move saying he alone has stood up to China, long accused of intellectual property theft and the “dumping” of goods at artificially low prices.
Economists warn if tariffs are too high they could lead to recession, though Mr Biden continued and extended many of the tariffs on China, in particular targeting electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminium and medical equipment.
In a famous 2018 tweet, Trump wrote: “Trade wars are good, and easy to win.” 
He also supports extending the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017. Large parts are set to expire in 2025. He has said he would lower the corporate income tax rate from 21 per cent to 20 per cent.
When Ms Harris first ran to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020 she promised to overturn Trump’s 2017 tax cut, which she said was only helping America’s rich. The 2025 Biden budget plan calls for extending the level of taxation for businesses to 28 per cent. Ms Harris has also been a strong proponent of forgiving student debt.
Her campaign says she will not raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year, a vow Mr Biden placed central to his vision that wealthy people and businesses should pay more.
“We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead,” Ms Harris said at a campaign rally in Wisconsin in June.
“Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.”
She has backed the majority of Mr Biden’s proposed $5 trillion tax rises, including a capital gains levy that will apply to the unrealised assets of the super wealthy for the first time. She has also proposed a change to inheritance tax rules, ending a “loophole” where children do not pay the capital gains of their parents’ assets when they are sold.
Trump often claims to have been the most pro-Israel president in history. He agreed to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, recognise Israeli sovereignty of the disputed Golan Heights and spearheaded the Abraham Accords, historic agreements that normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and between Israel and Bahrain. There were subsequent agreements involving Sudan, Morocco and Oman.
He has also said the Oct 7 attack by Hamas would not have happened had he been president, and has urged Israel to wipe out the militants without delay.
He has no policy on Palestinian statehood.
Last month, Israeli prime minister visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago where the pair warmly greeted each other. Trump attacked Mr Biden and Ms Harris: “You are closer to a third World War right now than at any time since the Second World War. We’ve never been so close because we have incompetent people running the country.”
As part of Biden administration, Ms Harris has been a major part of a policy hugely supportive of Israel, despite the war in Gaza killing an estimated 40,000 civilians.
In the aftermath of the Oct 7 Hamas attack, Harris visited Israel, earning huge plaudits from Netanyahu and ordinary citizens. Alongside the diplomatic support, the US has provided $12.5 billion in military aid.
Ms Harris has sought to create some space between herself and Mr Biden on the issue, by speaking out more forcefully about the civilians killed. In March, she talked of a “human catastrophe”, while last month she skipped Netanyahu’s address to Congress but did meet with him. She later said she had raised the issue of civilian casualties. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” she said.
Trump once claimed climate change was a “hoax” invented by the Chinese but his position has evolved a little. In a 2020 debate with Mr Biden, he said human factors counted “to an extent”.
He says on his first day in office he will end Mr Biden’s “Green New Deal atrocities” – a measure that was actually never signed into law. He also says on the first day in office he would “drill, baby, drill” and reduce restrictions on drilling imposed by Biden.
Trump has repeatedly mocked electric vehicles but has since softened his stance, in part as his friendship with Elon Musk has grown. In July, he said: “Elon Musk endorsed me and he is a friend of mine … but I am against everybody having an electric car.”
Harris says climate change is real and warned “the clock is not just ticking, it is banging”; when she ran in 2019 she supported the progressive Green New Deal climate change mitigation framework and spoke out against fracking.
Her position has since been moderated and last month said if elected she would not ban fracking. She has pointed out that under Mr Biden’s polices the US now has the “highest ever domestic energy production”, and has backed initiatives including providing billions of dollars in tax credits for renewable energy and electric vehicles, that were part of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump’s instincts as champion of  “America First” could in theory lead to a less global role for the US and one less interested in treaties with other nations. Trump has often criticised Nato, questioning the need for it. His criticism has resulted in other countries increasing their spending. 
Trump often praises dictators such as Putin, Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un. He also often has warm words for authoritarian types such as Viktor Orban of Hungary. This summer, Trump said in an interview Taiwan should pay for US protection and dodged the question of whether he would defend the island from Beijing’s military action.
Ms Harris has said the US would continue its strong support for Nato.
“Imagine if America turned our back on Ukraine and abandoned our Nato allies and abandoned our treaty commitments,” she said earlier this year. “History offers a clue. If we stand by while an aggressor invades its neighbour with impunity, they will keep going.”

As part of the Biden administration, Ms Harris supported the “One China” policy, dating from 1979, which says the US officially recognises the People’s Republic of China as sole legitimate government of China. However, the US has had relations with Taiwan since 1949 and has repeatedly vowed to defend it from Chinese aggression.