Agenda 47

Agenda 47 (styled by the Trump campaign as Agenda47) is the campaign manifesto of President Donald Trump, which details policies that would be implemented upon his election as the 47th president of the United States. Agenda 47 is a collection of formal policy plans of Donald Trump, many of which would rely on executive orders and significantly expand executive power.
The platform has been criticized for its approach to climate change and public health; its legality and feasibility; and the risk that it will increase inflation. Some columnists have described it as fascist or authoritarian. In September 2024, Trump's campaign launched a tour called "Team Trump Agenda 47 Policy Tour" to promote Agenda 47.
Agenda 47 is Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign formal policy plans. According to the Trump campaign, it is "the only official comprehensive and detailed look at what President Trump will do if he returns to the White House". It is presented on the campaign's website in a series of videos with Trump outlining each proposal. According to Philip Bump, some Agenda 47 videos appeared scattershot and responsive to current events around early 2023. The proposals appeared to be aimed towards Republican primary voters and slowed down once his primary lead grew in April 2023, to the point where Philip Bump wrote in the Washington Post in June 2024 that neither Trump nor his campaign regularly brings up the plan, although, according to Phil Mattingly from CNN, it is "regularly featured in the scripted portions of his remarks at rallies".
In 2023, Trump campaign officials acknowledged the Project 2025 aligned well with Agenda 47; however, Trump repeatedly disclaimed it in 2024. As of June 2024, Project 2025 had reportedly caused some annoyance in the Trump campaign which had historically preferred fewer and more vague policy proposals to limit opportunities for criticism and maintain flexibility. Some commentators have argued that Project 2025 is the most detailed look at what a Trump administration would look like. Agenda 47 and Project 2025 share many themes and policies, including expanding presidential power such as through reissuing Schedule F, cuts to the Department of Education, mass deportations of illegal immigrants, the death penalty for drug dealers, and using the US National Guard in liberal cities with high crime rates or those that are "disorderly".
The plans include constructing "freedom cities" on empty federal land, investing in flying car manufacturing, introducing baby bonuses to encourage a baby boom, implementing protectionist trade policies, and over forty others. Seventeen of the policies that Trump says he will implement if elected would require congressional approval. Some of his plans are legally controversial, such as ending birthright citizenship, and may require amending the U.S. Constitution.
Many of the proposals are contentious. One Agenda 47 proposal would impose the death penalty on drug dealers and human traffickers, as well as placing Mexican cartels on the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The campaign website's layout has changed. As of September 2024, there is a new section called "Platform," where a synthesis of the main policies can be found.
As of September 2024, the policies are detailed in 46 videos, the first one uploaded on December 15, 2022, and the last one on December 22, 2023. The videos are usually accompanied by a transcription and often by complementary material regarding the policy in question, as exemplified by the proposition Agenda47: Rescuing America's Auto Industry from Joe Biden's Disastrous Job-Killing Policies, which contains links to reports and articles from entities such as the America First Policy Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and The Harris Poll, news articles from entities like Reuters, The American Oil & Gas Reporter, and Fox Business, and related propositions in the campaign website.
Propositions relating to the economy include:
Tariffs were a policy in Trump's first term, centered on China, and later extended to the European Union, Canada, and Mexico. They led to retaliatory tariffs imposed by the affected countries, and to a trade war with China, which "raised the price for items such as baseball hats, luggage, bicycles, TVs, sneakers, and a variety of materials used by American manufacturers." They also caused loss of jobs and hurt manufacturers and farmers. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that "those tariffs on Chinese goods have “imposed more harm on consumers and businesses” than on China."
Trump's new economic proposals drew criticism from 16 Nobel prize-winning economists (Trump's campaign and supporters rebuked the laureates' critiques.), Wharton School (Trump's alma mater), Goldman Sachs, and Moody's Analytics, among others.
According to The Nation, "Many experts in higher education have begun to sound the alarm that such actions may infringe on academic freedom and institutional autonomy – two cornerstones of American higher education", whereas Trump’s National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, "By increasing access to school choice, empowering parents to have a voice in their child's education, and supporting good teachers, President Trump will improve academic excellence for all students."
According to Politico, "[u]sing the federal government to create an entirely new educational institution aimed at competing with the thousands of existing schools would drastically reshape American higher education", adding that this policy would likely need U.S. Congress approval, and that it targets the over "40 million Americans who have some college but never completed their degree", similarly to some of the student debt relief efforts by the Biden administration, but differing in the source for its financing.
Trump's plan to expand presidential powers is based largely on a controversial and not widely-held interpretation of the constitution known as the unitary executive theory. The plan includes:
According to the Associated Press, the proposal of moving some 10,000 federal employees from Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia: "it’s causing a lot of anxiety, a lot of discomfort within the workforce, as you are faced with these strong, negative, anti-federal worker stances and this uncertainty of what might happen to your job, your home and your livelihood." Larry Hogan, former Governor of Maryland, stated that the relocations, "would be devastating to the region, the state of Maryland and bad for the federal government." The measure is seen as retaliatory and damaging to the states' economy. Filipe Campante, a Bloomberg Distinguished professor at Johns Hopkins University, stated: "I think it is a positive factor for accountability that you have civil servants also operating as a check on political appointees, and this would be weakened by moving these people away from where the center of the government is, so I think from that perspective it would reduce accountability. Obviously, then, it depends on whether you think this accountability is good or not."
The Washington Post has said that this policy "could upend the balance of power between the three branches of the federal government", "could provoke a dramatic constitutional showdown, with vast consequences for how the government operates", and that "legal scholars" say it "could violate the Constitution and usurp congressional authority by consolidating more power in the executive branch". It also stated that "unilaterally zero[ing] out any program he doesn't like, or whose recipient has angered him, regardless of Congress's instructions" would be illegal, even if Trump gets the Impoundment Control Act repealed. The New Republic called it a "fascist plan". On its part, The Hill stated that, on the contrary, impounding is "common sense", and "a key tool for the president to pursue U.S. foreign policy and protect national security".
During the 2024 campaign, Trump developed his propositions, adding: sending troops to Mexico to attack cartel leadership and infrastructure (with the possibility of bombing it), seeking to deport all "resident aliens" who are Hamas sympathizers, and pulling out of the Paris Agreement.
After Trump's electoral victory, the possibilities of invading Mexico, annexing Canada, retaking the Panama Canal, and buying Greenland, or taking them by force, were discussed. Trump also declared his intent of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.
An increase in chronic conditions in children and youth has been observed. Yahoo! News observed that Trump does not mention vaccines in the video discussing this policy, but it was a dog-whistle to anti-vaccine voters, as he was facing Ron DeSantis during the primaries, and the possibility of having Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a challenger for the presidency. On its part, Axios said that Trump's message could undermine public health, that its language was reminiscent of Robert Kennedy Jr., and that the mentions to Big Pharma appeared in other policies related to education, gender-affirming care, and dismantling the deep state.
Ever since, it was repeatedly reported that Trump said he would cut federal funds from schools with masks and vaccine mandates, raising concerns about whether he referred to COVID-19 exclusively or to all vaccines, since all 50 states and Washington, D.C. have laws requiring specific vaccines for students, including measles, rubella, chickenpox, tetanus, pertussis, and polio. Trump's spokespeople said it was only about COVID-19, for which no student vaccination mandates exist.
In July 2024, an accidentally leaked call from Trump to Kennedy showed the former president questioning the safety of childhood vaccines. It was also reported that Trump and Kennedy had been in conversations about Kennedy giving his endorsement to Trump in exchange for an appointment in his cabinet. In an interview with Chris Cuomo, Kennedy talked about having conversations with Trump, but denied that he was seeking an appointment.
On August 23, Kennedy suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. In a rally in Arizona on the same day, Trump presented Kennedy, and repeated his "pledge to establish a panel of top experts working with Bobby to investigate what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic health problems and childhood diseases, including auto-immune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility, and many more." Kennedy told how he got in contact with Trump via "safe food advocate" Calley Means, and said, "Our children are now the unhealthiest, sickest children in the world. Don't you want healthy children?"
After his electoral victory, Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his Secretary of Health and Human Resources; he also selected Dr. Mehmet Oz to be administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
JAMA Health Forum commented on the possible outcome of the 2024 election, saying that it "will have momentous consequences for the future of health care". After comparing the records of Trump and Biden regarding the high price of prescription drugs and health care services, it said, "[h]ow Trump would approach drug price negotiations if elected is unclear. Trump supported federal negotiation of drug prices during his 2016 campaign, however, as president, he did not pursue drug price negotiation and opposed a Democratic price negotiation plan. ... Even though Trump has been inconsistent in his positions on drug prices, his public comments suggest the possibility of bipartisan cooperation."
CNN commented, "[s]hould Congress refuse to fund the operation, Trump could turn to a tactic used in his first term to secure more funding for a border wall – redirecting funds from the Pentagon, the source confirmed." After describing the record of Trump's immigration policies from the standpoint of healthcare, JAMA Health Forum said, "[they] had a chilling effect on access to care and benefits among immigrants, including those lawfully present ... Trump has continued these themes in his current campaign, saying that 'welfare is a gigantic magnet drawing people from all over the world.'" He has also promised mass deportations, especially in the context of the Springfield pet-eating hoax.
CNN criticized this policy for the lack of details of how would it be financed, "what 'baby bonuses' would amount to or who would qualify", and for how these plans differ from Democratic policies like the "enhanced child tax credit" whose extension beyond 2021 was blocked by Republicans.
During his term, Trump made false or misleading statements, which often were spread via social media, resulting in social media banning him after the events of January 6, 2021. Contemporary academic publications discussed freedom of speech, the fake news phenomenon, disinformation, and Trump's relationship with them.
On August 25, 2018, PJ Media published a story reporting that 96% of Google search results for Donald Trump were left-leaning.
On March 21, 2019, Trump signed an Executive Order "aimed at improving transparency and promoting free speech on college campuses:" "Every year the federal government provides educational institutions with more than $35 billion dollars in research funding, all of that money is now at stake. That's a lot of money. They're going to have to not like your views a lot, right?" Trump said. "If a college or university does not allow you to speak, we will not give them money." The order received praise from Charlie Kirk, Sarah Ruger, then director of the toleration and free expression division of the Charles Koch Institute, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Liberty University, and criticism from Janet Napolitano, then president of the University of California, the American Council on Education, and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others. It was also reported that the Trump administration sought to censure scientific research related to climate change, and that he downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic.
On May 15, 2019, the White House announced the launch of a "Tech Bias Reporting tool" for people to report instances of perceived social media bias, that was met with criticism. After Trump stated on Twitter that mail-in voting would lead to massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election, moderators marked the message with a "potentially misleading" warning, linking the post to fact-checking websites. On May 28, 2020, Trump signed the "Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship" (EO 13925), an executive order directing regulatory action at Section 230. After considerable controversy, the order was later rescinded by President Biden.
In July 2021, after being deplatformed by social media companies, Trump sued them arguing they had violated his First Amendment rights to speak freely. These events elicited discussion about censorship in social media. In February 2022, Trump launched Truth Social, and in May, his lawsuit was dismissed.
Trump has repeatedly mentioned the idea of building an Iron Dome in his rallies, assuring it will create many jobs. Regarding this policy, Forbes commented that it would have "limited overall utility. At least 10 Iron Dome systems make up the lower tier of Israel's multilayered air defense, designed to intercept rockets, mortars, and artillery shells at a maximum distance of under 50 miles." An American Iron Dome would require hundreds of systems to cover the continental United States and its major population centers, and it would be inadequate to intercept large intercontinental ballistic missiles. However, it could be useful for the defense of military bases (specifically the overseas ones), and critical infrastructure. Haaretz called it a "fantasy", and after mentioning similar technical issues as Forbes, concluded that "[b]eyond all this, the United States has already spent hundreds of billions in missile defense research-and-development, and any upgrades similar to the ones Trump is vowing would need congressional support – something he failed to obtain for his border wall."
The China Initiative was launched in November 2018 to address Chinese economic espionage. Of the 28 prosecutions brought under it, four were against professors of Chinese descent, of whom none were convicted for espionage or theft.
On January 5, 2021, APA Justice, the Brennan Center for Justice, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice sent an open letter to then president-elect Joe Biden, stating that a "consequence of these mandates has been that the FBI and federal agencies have put pressure on grant makers, universities and research institutions to participate in racial, ethnic and national origin profiling, collectively leading to discriminatory and stigmatising investigations of people of Chinese descent."
In September 2021, 177 Stanford University faculty members sent an open letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the termination of the initiative, stating that "these actions do not just affect the prosecuted faculty but affect the many more university researchers who are targeted, investigated and feel threatened by inquiries initiated without prior evidence of significant wrongdoing".
Bloomberg stated that by December 2021, "[m]ore than 1,600 scholars and administrators from more than 200 universities have petitioned Garland to end the China Initiative, saying it disproportionately targets researchers of Chinese origin."
In February 2022, more than 150 University of Pennsylvania faculty members addressed an open letter to Attorney General Garland, "urging the U.S. Department of Justice to overturn the 'China Initiative' which they allege disproportionately targets researchers of Chinese descent."
On February 23, 2022, Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced the initiative "was being cast aside largely because of perceptions that it unfairly painted Chinese Americans and U.S. residents of Chinese origin as disloyal", but he "insisted that the decision amounted to a reframing and recalibration – not an abandonment – of a muscular law enforcement response to the national security threat posed by the People’s Republic of China", and said that "department officials had concluded that the enforcement program singling out China was ill-advised and better reframed as part of a more wide-ranging effort to counter threats posed by Russia, Iran and other countries."
Commenting on the possibility of a second Trump administration, Axios said, "close allies want to dramatically change the government's interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on 'anti-white racism' rather than discrimination against people of color", and quoted Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung: "As President Trump has said, all staff, offices, and initiatives connected to Biden's un-American policy will be immediately terminated."
According to Snopes, the expenses for housing immigrants waiting to be expelled were $86.9 million during a period of six months in 2021. The places used were "family residential centers", "contracted shelters", and "hotels", like the "Quality Suites in San Diego; Hampton Inns in Phoenix and in McAllen and El Paso, Texas; a Comfort Suites Hotel in Miami; a Best Western in Los Angeles; and an Econo Lodge in Seattle". The funds were managed by the non-profit Endeavors, which also serves veterans. "Migrant families were similarly housed in U.S. hotels under the Obama and Trump administrations." Trump made a similar claim during the debate on June 27, 2024, which was fact-checked as false.
The Advocate called these policies "devastating for LGBTQ+ Americans and other marginalized communities", adding "that [they] threaten the LGBTQ+ community, spanning across education, health care, and the military". LGBTQ Nation qualified Trump's agenda as "troubling", ending with "[w]hether that agenda encompasses Project 2025 or Agenda 47 or both, the results would be disastrous."
Anthony Zurcher of BBC News said "some of [Trump's] pronouncements border on the fantastical" and "others are controversial." Margaret Hartmann, writing in New York magazine, described some of the ideas as "unhinged". Frankie Taggart, writing for Barron's, argued that Trump's plans lack coherence and that some could exacerbate existing divisions in American society. He questioned the feasibility and practicality of some ideas, such as the promise to improve cities with classical architecture and create tent cities for the homeless.
Prominent economists and investors criticized the economic agenda of Trump as inflationary, especially noting his proposed 10% universal tariff.
Some columnists have described Agenda 47's plans as fascist or authoritarian.