Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican rival Donald Trump both touched on pocketbook issues like inflation and taxes in their speeches at their party conventions.
In Harris’s address in Chicago on Thursday, her promises included one to “end America’s housing shortage.” When Trump spoke more than a month ago in Milwaukee, his promises included one to “end the devastating inflation crisis immediately.”
So how might they actually deliver on those pledges?
Here’s a guide to key aspects of each White House hopeful’s economic plans, as reported by MarketWatch journalists.
Inflation
- Harris this month has centered her inflation-fighting efforts on preventing price gouging by big companies, though that stance has faced pushback from skeptics. The vice president has proposed a federal ban on price gouging on groceries and other food items , along with close scrutiny of proposed mergers between big food companies.
PBJ
2.07% - Trump has promised to fight elevated prices in part by unleashing U.S. energy production, although domestic oil
XLE
1.49%CL00
0.17%production has already reached record levels under the Biden-Harris administration. The former president and his fellow Republicans also have pledged to combat inflation through deregulation and eliminating wasteful spending.BRN00
0.09%
The biggest surge in U.S. inflation in 40 years came during the Biden-Harris administration, helping to keep President Joe Biden’s approval ratings at low levels, even as inflation has eased this year. Economists cite several drivers for the increase in inflation, including massive government spending, first by Trump and then by Biden, to cope with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic; supply-chain problems during the pandemic; the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates too low for too long; and stimulus policies enacted in other countries.
Taxes for companies and paper profits
- Harris and her fellow Democrats are calling for a 28% corporate tax rate and for quadrupling the 1% tax on stock buybacks — echoing proposals made by Biden. Her campaign has said she supports the tax increases put forth in Biden’s most recent budget proposal, which included a controversial plan to tax unrealized capital gains as income for those with wealth of more than $100 million.
- Trump’s signature legislative achievement while in office was a 2017 tax-cut package that padded corporate profits, dropping the corporate tax rate to 21%, and helped power stocks to record highs. As MarketWatch has reported, if he’s elected again, investors may well be treated to a sequel, given that Trump has proposed cutting the corporate tax rate to 15%.
SPX
1.15%
Whether it’s Harris or Trump, the next president is expected to negotiate with Congress over how to address a range of 2017 tax changes for corporations and households that are set to sunset in 2025. “I view the 2025 expiring tax provisions as this hurricane we already see on the radar,” one expert told MarketWatch.
Tariffs
- The Biden-Harris administration has maintained many Trump-era tariffs and rolled out new levies on Chinese products, such as on that nation’s electric vehicles
NIO
2.26%. At the same time, the Harris campaign has criticized Trump for proposing 10% to 20% tariffs, an apparent escalation of his prior plan for a 10% across-the-board tariff, saying they would cost U.S. families around $3,900 a year, even as households are already dealing with elevated prices.LI
-0.61% - Trump — known while in office for his trade fights with China and other nations that often weighed on markets — said last week during an economic speech in North Carolina that he would aim for “10% to 20% tariffs on foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years.” In addition, the former president has proposed 60% levies on Chinese imports. Some Trump allies have said they’re concerned because any tariffs would ultimately be paid by American consumers and businesses, and they’ve expressed hope that levies would simply be used as leverage to get better trade deals with other nations.
- Harris has called for the construction of 3 million homes over the next four years, powered in part by a tax incentive for builders of starter homes and a new $40 billion innovation fund. In addition, she wants to give $25,000 to first-time home buyers, even as critics say such aid would boost demand and drive prices higher.
- Trump on Monday reportedly said he might offer aid to prospective home buyers who are struggling to afford a down payment. He and his fellow Republicans have called for helping home buyers in part by opening up limited amounts of federal land to development, as well as by cutting regulations that raise housing costs. “On the Republican side, there’s more of a recognition that this is a state and local issue,” one expert told MarketWatch.
Price of gas and other fossil fuels
- Harris mentioned the pain of paying for gasoline and other essentials during an economic speech last week, but she hasn’t said a great deal about fossil fuels in her first month as a presidential nominee. The Harris campaign has said she no longer opposes fracking after she came out against the drilling technique during her run for president in 2019. Even so, a Harris administration is widely expected to have a more restrictive stance on offshore and onshore production of oil and natural gas than a second Trump administration, as Cornerstone analysts have noted. But a top economic adviser to the Biden-Harris administration talked up the administration’s track record on energy last week, noting that officials responded to rising gasoline prices
NG00
0.32%with the largest-ever release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — and also coordinated reserve releases by other countries.RB00
0.22% - The head of a lobbying group for the U.S. oil and gas industry last month praised Trump’s track record on supporting extraction, even as he expressed worries about a second Trump administration’s tariffs. “The broad policy that President Trump brought to the table was a real focus on increased American development of our resources, and I think the opposite has been true of the Biden administration,” Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, told MarketWatch.
$7,500 EV tax credit
- Harris this month has said she was proud to cast the deciding vote in the Senate for the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which delivered federal tax credits of up to $7,500 for buyers of electric vehicles. The Biden-Harris administration has made support of EVs
KARS
1.21%a key part of its policies and rhetoric, such as by backing a tailpipe emissions regulation that Republicans have attacked as an “EV mandate.”DRIV
3.03% - Trump said Monday that he hasn’t made any final decision yet on whether he would repeal or limit the $7,500 EV tax credit but reiterated that he plans to rescind the emissions regulation. Trump has criticized the driving range of EVs but has also described EVs as “incredible,” while adding that the U.S. must also have gasoline-propelled cars. He has praised Elon Musk, the CEO of EV pioneer Tesla , who has endorsed Trump in the 2024 campaign.
TSLA
4.59%
Child tax credit
- Harris last week proposed expanding the child tax credit to $3,600 per child from $2,000, as MarketWatch has reported. She also wants to ramp up the credit to $6,000 for families with children under the age of 1.
- Trump’s running mate, GOP Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, has floated expanding the credit to $5,000 per child per family. His suggestion came days before Harris’s proposal, during an interview with CBS.
No taxes on tips — or Social Security?
- Harris this month called for eliminating taxes on tipped income, with her move coming two months after Trump proposed no taxes on tips. The Harris campaign has offered some details to distinguish her proposal, emphasizing that it would exist alongside a push to increase the minimum wage. In addition, any change in law for such an exemption would apply to income taxes, but payroll taxes would still be assessed, according to a MarketWatch report.
- Trump proposed not collecting taxes on tips during a June rally in Nevada, a swing state with a large number of voters who are tipped workers. Before Harris announced her support for that change, one prominent Trump ally, GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said he thought Trump would win Nevada “on that one issue alone.” The former president has offered another proposal in the same vein, saying three weeks ago that seniors shouldn’t pay taxes on Social Security benefits.
Drug costs and medical debt
- Harris has stressed that the Inflation Reduction Act featured provisions that capped out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 a month for seniors and out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors. She has proposed the same caps for everyone, not just seniors — and has promised to work on canceling medical debt.
- Trump deserves some credit for $35 insulin, but he has claimed it’s all because of him. In fact, experts have said his administration’s program offering $35 insulin applied to around 800,000 Medicare beneficiaries, while the Inflation Reduction Act’s provisions apply to more than 3 million.
A few weeks ago, multiple tech investors asked a partner at an early-stage venture capital firm if she would sign onto VCs for Kamala, an advocacy group to elect Kamala Harris as president. She didn't sign, not because she doesn't support Harris (she does) but because she sees no upside in broadcasting her political intentions.
"We're here to manage your money and make you a lot more of it. We're not here to comment on anything else," said the partner, who asked to remain anonymous because she said it felt "off brand" to comment on politics.
Political advocacy, especially for Republicans, used to be largely taboo in tech, which is centered in some of the bluest areas of the country; more than 85% of San Francisco voters went for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
"The majority of Silicon Valley, whether entrepreneurs or investors, has always been and remains broadly liberal," said David Hornik, an investor at Lobby Capital and August Capital. "I have no reason to believe any of that has shifted."
What has changed is the minority of Republicans in tech — whether motivated by concerns about regulating cryptocurrency or support for Israel — have become more emboldened to share their views, which in turn has caused Democrats to amp up their support for Harris.
"There's been an airing of grievances that we don't normally see out there," said Leslie Feinzaig, founder of VCs for Kamala.
No one has been more emblematic of the shift than Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump last month and hosted a rambling interview with him last week on the social media platform, X. The former president has also received endorsements from famous VCs Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Doug Leone, and David Sacks.
After hand-wringing Silicon Valley had gone red, liberal voices like LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and venture investor Ron Conway affirmed their support for Harris. More than 800 investors have signed onto VCs for Kamala.
But even Feinzaig, whose day job is managing the early-stage firm Graham & Walker, is not entirely comfortable being an advocate. She would much rather be spending her time making deals and helping founders.
"I cannot believe that I, of all people, became a political spokesperson," said Feinzaig. "We had a no politics rule at Graham and Walker. We try to just respect all views."
Everyone BI spoke to for this article stressed business still comes first. However, many also acknowledge politics can't help enter into decisions about how founders choose to fund their companies.
"If their values are not aligned, or in this particular case, if they know a particular VC is MAGA, they're less inclined to have them on their cap table," said Divya Kakkad, a partner at Graham & Walker. (Another VC pointed out many liberal founders would love to get a term sheet from Sacks' Craft Ventures or Thiel's Founder's Fund.)
Some VCs also blamed the election for an unusually slow summer of dealmaking. The constant chatter has also dragged down the performance of some companies, according to Jesse Middleton, a general partner at Flybridge, an early-stage AI-focused firm.
"The surrounding noise can be a major distraction for founders, affecting their morale and productivity," said Middleton. "This distraction extends to both fledgling and established startups, potentially destabilizing their growth trajectory."
All the attention on the election has also been a factor in companies delaying their plans to go public until after November, according to Cameron Lester, global co-head of technology, media, and telecom investment banking at Jefferies.
"This is a really noisy time with the election," said Lester.
ServiceTitan, a Los Angeles-based startup that makes software to help tradespeople manage their businesses, was originally targeting this fall to go public. Now, executives are waiting until after the election concludes to make any decision, according to a source familiar with the matter. (ServiceTitan did not respond to a request for comment.)
Limited partners are 'irritated'
The outspokenness of VCs is also causing consternation among the limited partners who fund venture firms, according to two sources.
"I've always wanted our VCs to just shut their mouths and do their job and not be political unless they're defending the startup ecosystem," said an LP who has backed many prominent VC funds in the Bay Area and New York. "Other than that, they shouldn't be posturing for a political candidate."
Publicly supporting candidates has no upside for LPs, especially considering many LPs have their own agendas, added a VC.
"I know LPs are very irritated," said the VC. "If I hired you to be a mechanic, I just wanted you to fix my car and not spend your time being a political advocate."
He pointed out a pension fund for union workers cannot be thrilled with a VC who endorses Trump, who has spoken out against unions.
"What most LPs worry about is the headline risk for you as a reporter to write an article and mention one of their general partners, and then they have to answer to their board," said the LP. "It stresses them out."
Still, according to another VC, for all their dismay, most LPs are unlikely to do anything beyond voicing their displeasure in a phone call.
"If you're making money for LPs, they don't care what political persuasion you are," said the VC.
Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination “on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth.” America, Barack Obama thundered, “is ready for a better story.” JD Vance insisted that the Biden administration “is not the end of our story,” and Donald Trump called on fellow Republicans to “write our own thrilling chapter of the American story.”
“This week,” comedian and former Obama administration speechwriter Jon Lovett said Thursday on NBC, “has been about a story.”
In the discourse of American politics, this kind of talk from both sides is unsurprising — fitting, even. Because in the campaign season of 2024, just as in the fabric of American culture at large, the notion of “story” is everywhere.
This year’s political conventions were, like so many of their kind, curated collections of elaborate stories carefully spun to accomplish one goal — getting elected. But lurking behind them was a pitched, high-stakes battle over how to frame the biggest story of all — the one about America that, as Harris put it, should be “the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”
The American story — an unlikely one, filled with twists that sometimes feel, as so many enjoy saying, “just like a movie” — sits at the nucleus of American culture for a unique reason.
Americans live in one of the only societies that were built not upon hundreds of years of common culture but upon stories themselves — “the shining city upon the hill,” “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” “all men are created equal.” Even memorable ad campaigns — “See the USA in your Chevrolet” — are part of this. In some ways, the United States — not coincidentally, the place where the frontier myth, Hollywood, and Madison Avenue were all born — willed itself into existence and significance by iterating and reiterating its story as it went.
The campaigns understand that. So they are putting forward to voters two varying — starkly opposite, some might say — versions of the American story.
How the two parties are using stories
From the Republicans comes one flavor of the story: an insistence that to “make America great again” in the future we must fight to reinvigorate traditional values and reclaim the moral fiber and stoutheartedness of generations past. In his convention speech last month, Trump invoked three separate conflicts — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II — in summoning American history’s glories.
To reinforce its vision, the GOP deployed the likes of musician Kid Rock, celebrity wrestler Hulk Hogan, and Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA.” Trump genuflected to the firefighting gear of Corey Comperatore, who had been killed in an assassination attempt on the candidate days earlier. Vance spoke of “villains” and offered up the Appalachian coming-of-age story he told in “Hillbilly Elegy.”
The Republicans, as they often do, leaned into military storylines, bringing forth families of slain servicemen to critique President Joe Biden’s “weak” leadership. And they made all efforts to manage their constituencies. Vance’s wife, Usha, who is of Indian descent, lauded him as “a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy” — a classic American trope — while underscoring that he respected her vegetarian diet and had learned how to cook Indian food for her mother.
“What could I say that hasn’t already been said before?” she said, introducing Vance. “After all, the man was already the subject of a Ron Howard movie. ”
And the Democrats? Their convention last week focused on a new and different future full of “joy” and free of what Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called “Trump’s politics of darkness.” It was an implied “Star Wars” metaphor if there ever was one.
It was hard to miss that the Democrats were not only coalescing around the multiracial, multicultural nation that Harris personifies but at the same time methodically trying to reclaim the plainspoken slivers of the American story that have rested in Republican hands in recent years.
The flag was everywhere, as was the notion of freedom. Tim Walz entered to the tune of John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” an ode to the vision of America that Republicans usually trumpet. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota expounded upon the regular-guy traits that Walz embodies — someone who can change a car light, a hunter, a “dad in plaid.”
The former geography teacher’s football coach history was mined as well, with beefy guys in Mankato West Scarlets jerseys fanning out across the stage to the marching-band strains of “The Halls of Montezuma.” They even enlisted a former GOP member of Congress to reinforce all the imagery by saying the quiet part loud.
“I want to let my fellow Republicans in on the secret: The Democrats are as patriotic as us,” said Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican critical of Trump.
Bringing it all together
Watching the videos and testimonials at both conventions, one storytelling technique stood tall: what journalists call “character-driven” tales. Whether it’s advocating for abortion rights warning about mass illegal immigration or channeling anger about inflation, “regular” Americans became the narrative building blocks for national concerns.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson put it this way about the DNC in her Substack, “Letters from an American,” this past week: “The many stories in which ordinary Americans rise from adversity through hard work, decency, and service to others implicitly conflates those individual struggles with the struggles of the United States itself.”
In the past generation, the tools of storytelling have become more democratic. We are all publishers now — on X, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Truth Social. And we are all storytellers, telling mini versions of the American story in whatever ways we wish. Perspectives that have been long silenced and suppressed are making their way into the light.
Putting aside questions of truth and misinformation for a moment, how can a unifying American story be summoned when hundreds of millions of people are now able to tell it differently and from their own vantage points? Democratization is beneficial, but it can also be chaotic and hard to understand.
“A people who cannot stand together cannot stand at all,” poet Amanda Gorman said in her remarks at the DNC. But with so many stories to sort through, is unity more difficult than ever? Is there even a single, unifying “American story” at all? Should there be?
In the end, that’s why this election is about storytelling more than ever. Because the loudest, most persuasive tale — told slickly with the industrial-strength communications tools of the 21st century — will likely win the day.
In the meantime, the attempts to commandeer and amplify versions of that story will continue to Election Day and beyond. As long as there is an American nation, there will be millions of people trying to tell us what it means — desperately, angrily, optimistically, compellingly. Stories are a powerful weapon, and a potent metaphor as well. As Walz said about leaving Trump and Vance behind: “I’m ready to turn the page.”
The Democratic convention is over, and so is Donald Trump's counter-convention tour - but the former Republican president's struggle to keep up with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris goes on.
During a week-long tour of battleground states, it became clear that Trump must continue trying to define Harris, defend himself against mockery from Democrats, and deal with the fact that the incumbent vice president is pulling higher poll numbers than President Joe Biden did before his exit last month from the 2024 White House race.
Friday marked Trump's latest attempt to swing back.
On social media, the GOP presidential nominee tried to defuse the abortion issue by proclaiming that his administration "will be great for women and their reproductive rights." His comment drew even more mockery from Democrats who recounted how Trump's three appointees to the Supreme Court helped overturn Roe v. Wade and also pointed out that a large part of his political base wants to ban abortions.
As Trump conducted week-ending events in Nevada and Arizona, he also welcomed an endorsement from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, an independent who announced he'd be suspending his own run for president.
Now comes the post-convention phase of the campaign, one that figures to last at least until the first Trump-Harris debate, scheduled for Sept. 10 less than a mile away from the historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
In the meantime, Trump's to-do list includes:
Making up ground
Trump campaign officials expected Harris' poll numbers to rise in the wake of the Democratic convention. Now they will try to close the margin in the weeks ahead by playing up what Trump calls her "radical" record.
How best to do that is a dispute even within the Trump campaign, a subject the candidate has brought up in public.
Throughout his post-convention tour, Trump did cite inflation, immigration, wars in other countries, and the overall economy as big issues in the campaign against Harris; he has also kept up some of the most strident attacks ever made by a major party candidate, routinely labeling Harris as a "communist" and a "Marxist," language reminiscent of "Red Scares" of the past.
Make it personal? Policy? Both?
Some Republicans fear that Trump's stridency is turning off swing voters; Trump himself seems unsure.
The former president has spoken about the intra-party dispute over how to approach Harris and running mate Tim Walz.
During an event Wednesday in Asheboro, N.C., Trump said people often advise him to be nicer - “'Please, sir, don’t get personal; talk about policy'" - and he asked the crowd of supporters two questions: "Should I get personal? Should I not get personal?"
The crowd responded overwhelmingly in favor of "personal."
After joking that "my advisers are fired," Trump then told supporters: "No, we’d rather keep it on policy. But sometimes it’s hard when you’re attacked from all ends."
Fence-mending
Moving past the Democratic convention, Trump is also trying to mend relations with some of the Republicans he has fought with over the years, particularly Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
During a recent rally in Atlanta, Trump attacked Kemp at length (again) for refusing to back up his protests of Biden's win in Georgia in the 2020 election. Many Republicans questioned Trump's agitation, given the fact that Kemp supervises an effective get-out-the-vote operation in a closely contested state.
On Thursday, just minutes before Harris' acceptance speech at the convention in Chicago, Trump reached out to the Georgia governor via Truth Social: "Thank you to #BrianKempGA for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country. I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump later said he commented after watching a positive Kemp interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Trump also made up with Kennedy, a former opponent he has also described as radical. During a Las Vegas event for his "no tax on tips policy," Trump thanked Kennedy for "a very nice endorsement."
Playing defense
Trump also spent Democratic convention week playing defense, and that doesn't figure to stop anytime soon.
In Chicago, Harris, and other Democrats repeatedly hit the Republican nominee over efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, his hush money trial conviction, the sexual abuse judgments against him, his threats to use the power of government to investigate political opponents, and conservative plans to cut essential services and restrict abortion rights.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man," Harris said in her acceptance speech. "But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious."
Trump, who live-tweeted his reactions to Harris in real time, posted at one point: "IS SHE TALKING ABOUT ME?"
The former president also found time this week to push back on an allegation lobbed at both him and running mate JD Vance: That they are "weird."
In kicking off his counter-convention tour in York, Pa., Trump referred to Biden and said: "You know, he said, we’re weird ... that JD and I are weird. I think we’re extremely normal people, like you, exactly like ... He’s weird."
Abortion
Trump did express particular concern about one issue: Abortion rights.
As his tour wrapped up Friday, Trump posted a cryptic comment on Truth Social saying: "My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights."
Democrats quickly pointed out that, when he was president, Trump nominated three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to reverse the Roe v Wade abortion rights ruling. Trump has said that states should decide on abortion policy, expressing implicit support for new laws that ban the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.
"Donald Trump waged war on women’s reproductive freedom," said Ammar Moussa, rapid response director for the Harris campaign. "Now he’s trying to run away from his record. It won’t work."
Well before the Republican and Democratic conventions, Trump often mentioned the political risks for Republicans over abortion - and that's not going away during the last two-and-a-half months of the campaign.
Get ready to protest the 2024 election
Democrats in Chicago also expressed concern that Trump would contest the vote if he loses in November, as happened four years ago when his protests led to the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
In television interviews, Trump said he would not protest the election if it is "free and fair." Four years ago, numerous officials told him the election was fair, but he pushed lawsuits and pressured lawmakers to change the outcome anyway.
"I think if I lose, this country will go into a tailspin, the likes of which it's never seen before - the likes of 1929 - but if I do, and it's free and fair, absolutely, I will accept the results," Trump told CBS News.
Trump said he believes there are "many problems" in the 2020 election, but added: "I think things have been done over the last four-year period that will make this a free and fair election."