Former President and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has suggested a number of new proposals during recent campaign trail appearances, surprising some by suggesting the elimination of income tax on tips for waiters and waitresses and also the “automatic” granting of green cards to immigrants upon graduation from college.
Both of these pitches are at first glance unusual lanes for the Trump campaign –Trump’s tax cut history has tended to favor the top income brackets, not the working class, and his stated position on immigrants gaining citizenship and worker status has very much not been one that makes that path easier. (He has promised mass deportation on “day one” of a second term.)
[NOTE: These proposals, clipped from focus groups and powerful business interests, respond to concerns over low-wage workers battling inflation and also big tech’s need for educated talent from other nations — a different demographic than the migrants arriving in mass at the border, seeking asylum.]
Trump is also pushing more familiar issues on the trail, continuing to align himself with Christian evangelicals and speaking at the Faith & Freedom conference in Washington. Evangelicals have done well by Trump, getting three conservative justices on the Supreme Court during his term, which helped overturn Roe v. Wade, one of their top priorities.
Trump: Who likes The Ten Commandments going up in schools? Has anybody read the thou shalt not steal? I mean has anybody read this incredible stuff? pic.twitter.com/o7HFNymLfX
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 22, 2024
The evangelical movement, which contends that America should be seen as a Christian nation, recently notched a victory in Louisiana, where Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed a law making the display of the Ten Commandments — a foundational text in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition — mandatory in all public schools, including colleges.
Above, Trump addressed the controversial law, treating the Ten Commandments as more common sense advice than religious doctrine, as others have done in defending the decision.
Trump dismissed those who protest the Ten Commandments mandate, even as that protest respects a long American tradition of separation of church and state.
“They think it’s such a bad thing,” Trump said. “I said has anyone read these.. thou shalt not steal…I mean, has anybody read this incredible stuff? It’s just incredible [and] they don’t want it to go up [in the schools].”
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a consistent Trump antagonist, was among those questioning Trump’s sincerity on the issue and suggesting that Trump comes late to the Ten Commandments mission. Below, Swalwell asks why Trump never displayed the text during his time in the White House.
If you support public displays of The Ten Commandments, ask Donald Trump why he never displayed them during his four years in the White House. https://t.co/tsD4eBvNH9
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) June 22, 2024