Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday at the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention.
In her pitch to voters, Harris read a laundry list of complaints and accusations about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Some of the attacks on Trump hinged on inaccurate interpretations about the former president’s platform and policies, while others were outright false.
Trump and Project 2025
“We know what a second Trump term would look like,” Harris told Democrats on Thursday. “It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers, and its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back.”
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage on Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
Portrayed as a blueprint for a future Republican administration to restructure many parts of the U.S. government, Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, launched in April 2023 and is not directly associated with Trump’s campaign.
The Trump campaign has never endorsed the policy project, which was compiled by the Heritage Foundation — though several former members of the Trump administration did contribute to the document.
“They know I have nothing to do with it,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” Thursday. “I had no idea what it was. A group of people got together. They drew up some conservative values, very conservative values, and in some case, perhaps they went over the line. Perhaps they didn’t. I have no idea what Project 25 is.”
“Agenda 47 and President Trump’s RNC Platform are the only policies endorsed by President Trump for a second term,” Trump campaign spokesperson Danielle Alvarez told Fox News Digital last month, accusing the Democratic Party of “lying and fear mongering” by tying the platform to the former president.
Social Security and Medicare
“When you read [Project 2025], you will see — Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Harris claimed in the DNC address.
The Project 2025 policy plan does not advocate for cuts to Social Security.
Former President Donald Trump laughs while responding to a question from a reporter after his remarks at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
Trump himself began his campaign with inconsistent rhetoric about his intentions for Social Security and Medicare, saying he was open to significant reforms of the system and claiming “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.”
His spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, told NBC News earlier this year, “President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term.”
Since early 2024, Trump has been consistent about not cutting either program.
His official policy platform now states his intention to “fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.”
He has also proposed not taxing Social Security benefits.
Nationwide abortion ban
“[Trump] and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication, abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress,” Harris said in her speech.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly affirmed that a future administration intends to leave abortion policy decisions to the states.
This intention to back off from the abortion issue following the overturn of Roe v. Wade is reflected in the official Republican Party platform published last month.
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A planned parenthood mobile van offers free vasectomies and medicinal abortions alongside a taco truck and an inflatable IUD by the group Americans for Contraception Education Fund, near the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois. (Fox News Digital)
“We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights,” the draft reads.
However, for the first time in 40 years, the document makes no mention of a federal abortion ban, which Trump has emphasized that he opposes.
Instead, the new platform stresses, “We will oppose late-term abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control and IVF (fertility treatments).”
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller, Paul Steinhauser and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.
