Donald Trump’s Lays Out His Platform On ’60 Minutes’

Last night, Scott Pelley interviewed Donald Trump on 60 Minutes. Pelley attempted to clarify Trumps platform. Whether or not Donald Trump rose to the challenge was debatable, but he did reveal several substantial details about his platform, outlined below.

1. Impose heavy tariffs on China if they don’t agree to cut it out with quantitative easing. Trump may intend to impose tariffs on China even if they do agree. Trump has been talking about 25% tariff on China as far back as 2011. Interesting fact: Donald Trump happens to be in accord with the U.S. Steelworkers Union on this issue. Could Trump secretly be a “union man?” (A: No.) Do the United Steelworkers support, Donald Trump? No, actually, but they are among the strongest supporters of Bernie Sanders’ campaign. As far as Trump goes, they think he talks funny.
2. Drop income tax for both rich and poor, while aggressively paying off US debt with increased revenue from all of the economic growth we’re going to experience. This has been attempted before by Reagan and Bush II. Reagan and Bush II followed through with tax cuts. They did not follow through with paying off debt. National debt increased by 189% under Reagan, and 86% under Bush II. The graph below illustrates the resulting debt-hikes.
3. Repeal NAFTA. Apparently, Donald Trump is an advocate of fair trade not free trade. Read directly from the transcript here, with a sample of the transcript below.
   Donald Trump: Let’s say Ford– let’s say Ford moves to Mexico. If they want to sell that car in the United States they pay a tax. Here’s what’s gonna happen, they’re not going to build their plant there. They’re going to build it in the United States.

   Scott Pelley: But there is a North American Free Trade Agreement.

   Donald Trump: And there shouldn’t be. It’s a disaster.

   Scott Pelley: But it is there.

   Donald Trump: OK, yeah, but–

   Scott Pelley: If you’re president, you’re going to have to live with it.

   Donald Trump: Excuse me, we will either renegotiate it or we will break it. Because, you know, every agreement has an end.

   Scott Pelley: You can’t just break the law.

   Donald Trump: Excuse me, 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.

   Scott Pelley: It’s called free trade–

   Donald Trump: No it’s not.

   Scott Pelley: –and it is a plank–

   Donald Trump: It’s not the–

   Scott Pelley: –of the Republican platform.

   Donald Trump: Scott we need fair trade. Not free trade. We need fair trade. It’s gotta be fair.

   Here’s another point where Trump seems to be in agreement with Bernie Sanders, as printed in the Vermont Times.
   

4. Repeal Obamacare BUT everybody still has to be covered by healthcare. This is generally consistent with Donald Trump’s longstanding support of universal healthcare.
5. Deport all illegal immigrants and build a wall along the Southern border between the United States and Mexico. Israel is still in the process of a similarly scaled wall-building project. These projects combined would likely come with a price-tag of roughly $120-130 billion U.S. dollars.
6. Put military boots on the ground to stop ISIS.

[Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images]