VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS’ OPPORTUNITY AGENDA WILL DELIVER FOR LATINO MEN
She Will Support Latino Men in Starting Businesses, Building Wealth, Taking Care of Their Families, Getting Good-Paying Jobs, and Buying a Home
Vice President Harris will build an Opportunity Economy where everyone—including Latino men—has the opportunity to not just get by, but get ahead. Her policy agenda will equip Latino men with more tools and opportunities to reach their aspirations and provide for themselves and their families.
As President, she will fight to lower costs for Latino men and their families, and she will support them in attaining the American dream of homeownership, starting their own businesses, and more.
Today, Vice President Harris is outlining how her policy agenda will tap into the ambition and potential of Latino men, and invest in their success and future. She will:
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- Help Latino men and other entrepreneurs startup and expand small businesses with no interest loans or deferred loan repayments, as well as provide $20,000 in forgivable loans to Latino and other entrepreneurs who have a good idea but do not have the capital or connections to get it off the ground.
- Foster additional opportunities for the economic success and well-being of Latino men by supporting new training opportunities like registered apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, removing unnecessary degree requirements, investing in veterans readiness and employment programs, allowing construction workers and registered apprentices to write off the expenses of tools and equipment, and cutting red tape—helping 2 million workers get good-paying jobs and get ahead in their careers.
- More than double the number of first-time Latino homeowners each year, to nearly 600,000.
Donald Trump has long shown that he does not care about Latino men and their families, and he spent his presidency serving himself and his rich friends. Even as violent crime and murder hit record-breaking highs in Latino communities, Trump cut funding for public safety in these communities just so he could pay for another tax break for his rich friends. When he was President, thousands of Latino men lost their jobs and thousands more lost their lives to COVID-19. If Trump is re-elected, he will make life for Latino men even worse. He promises to slap a Trump Tax on everything from food to gasoline, raising costs on the average Latino family by around $4,000 or more. And he also promises to cut support for Latino small businesses to give big tax breaks to his corporate buddies.
Donald Trump is a serious threat to the security and livelihood of Latino men and their families. As President, instead of doing his job to help and protect Latino men and their families, he spent his time trying to overturn a free and fair election, and encouraged his followers to march on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, leading to the deaths of police officers. Now, he wants to sow chaos and disorder in America by promising to be a “dictator on day one” and threatening to deploy the military to do his political bidding and take revenge on those who oppose him. Donald Trump will also enact an extreme, nationwide abortion ban which would put the lives of many women—including the mothers, sisters and daughters of Latino men—at risk.
Donald Trump has shown that he has no respect for Latino men and the important job they have of providing for their families and their communities. He has consistently used fear and hate in the way he speaks about Latino men—which has made Latino men and their families targets of hate and violence. As a landlord before he was President, he outright refused to rent to Latino tenants. He launched his first presidential campaign by labeling Mexican immigrants drug dealers, criminals and rapists. And on the campaign trail this year, he has called immigrants “animals” who have “bad genes” and are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Lowering Costs for Latino Men and Families and Making Billionaires and Corporations Pay Their Fair Share
Vice President Harris knows that too many Latino men are struggling to cover the cost of food, gas, and housing, leaving little room for emergency expenses or for building wealth. That is why she has a plan to lower costs for Latino men and help ensure the wealthiest Americans and the largest corporations pay their fair share:
- Revitalizing competition in food and groceries and enacting the first-ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging on food and groceries—benefitting Latino families, who spend more on groceries than other demographic groups.
- Lowering rent. Vice President Harris has a comprehensive housing plan that will lower rents for millions of Americans, including Latino renters. Her plan will lower rents by building 3 million additional housing units in her first term. And she will go after price-fixing schemes that raise housing costs for Latino men and their families and end unfair practices that help large corporate landlords dramatically raise rents.
- Protecting the 1 in 5 Latino Americans with preexisting conditions—like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer—and ensuring they can keep access to affordable health care by strengthening the Affordable Care Act.
- Keeping health insurance premiums down so that Latino men and their families can see a doctor and get treated without breaking the bank.
- Expanding the Child Tax Credit for 18 million Latino children. Vice President Harris will support Latino men who are working to provide for themselves and their families by expanding the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $3,600 per child and $6,000 in the first year of a child’s life when new parents need to purchase cribs, diapers, clothes, car seats and other essentials. In 2021, the expanded Child Tax Credit helped working families with 18 million Latino children and cut Latino child poverty nearly in half.
- Lowering child care costs for families by thousands of dollars and expanding access to high-quality child care options.
- Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for 3 million Latino workers—including many young Latino men. When this policy was previously enacted in the American Rescue Plan, for which the Vice President cast the tie-breaking vote, it provided up to $1,500 to 2.9 million Latino workers.
- Helping Latino men provide care for their aging parents and grandparents. More than one-third of Latino families have a family caregiver and Latino men spend about 38% of their yearly income on caregiving expenses. Vice President Harris will help Latino men with caregiving needs by, for the first time ever, covering the cost of home care services through Medicare so seniors can get care they need while staying in their homes.
- Providing 5.5 million Latino households support for reliable, low-cost internet access, by reenacting the Affordable Connectivity Program. Vice President Harris will reenact this popular program to ensure that Latino men and their families throughout the country are able to connect to the internet and obtain the financial, educational, and employment opportunities that come from reliable internet access.
- Increasing access to bank accounts and lending for Latino men. Vice President Harris has spent her career fighting bad actors to ensure that everyone has access to a fair, safe, and stable financial system. As President, Vice President Harris will fight to ensure that Latino men and others currently locked out of the banking system because of high fees and other barriers have access to affordable banking options to save, invest, and build credit. She will crack down on banks that charge hidden fees for basic services, and stand up for Americans who are exploited by predatory lenders by requiring credit reports to exclude bad debt resulting from predatory lending practices.
Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda would raise costs and increase the racial wealth gap for Latino men and their families.
- Trump wants to raise the prices of household goods, from clothing to groceries to medicines—costing a typical family nearly $4,000 a year or more—by slapping hidden taxes on goods coming into the United States.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will give tax windfalls to big corporations and the wealthy, including a $3.5 million yearly tax break for each billionaire, while raising taxes on middle-class families.
- Trump will cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—as he tried to do in every one of his budgets. Latinos are more likely to rely on Medicare and Medicaid, and for 38% of Latinos aged 65 or older, Social Security is their only source of income.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will repeal price caps for prescription drugs and end Medicare price negotiation—policies that have helped Americans save thousands of dollars each year.
- Under Trump, over 350,000 Latino children lost health insurance. He now promises to “terminate” the Affordable Care Act, ripping insurance from over 4 million Latino Americans and raising costs for millions of Latino families.
Helping Latino Men Start and Build their Own Businesses to Secure Prosperity for Their Families, Now and for Generations to Come
Vice President Harris knows how to support the entrepreneurial spirit of the Latino community. As a Senator, she led the effort to secure $12 billion for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which is projected to lead to nearly $58 billion more lending for Latino communities over a decade. Now, she is creating an environment where Latino entrepreneurs can reach for their dreams—last year, average monthly business applications were 50% higher than during 2019. To continue this small business boom, she will:
- Help Latino workers get start-up funds to start their own business. Vice President Harris wants to ensure that Latino men and others with good ideas—whether in building or finance—are not denied the ability to start a new business due to lack of access to capital. Studies suggest that Latinos are more likely to be denied large loans by banks, even when they hold less debt and have credit scores similar to white Americans. Experts and Latino entrepreneurs have identified limited access to capital as the most important factor that limits the creation and growth of Latino-owned businesses. To meet these needs, Vice President Harris will:
- Provide one million forgivable loans of up to $20,000 for Latino entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs who want to start a business or are seeking an additional source of income. Latino entrepreneurs could use these loans to buy equipment for a landscaping business, purchase a truck to become a commercial driver, or buy software to open an accounting firm.
- Expand start-up deductions. Vice President Harris will enact a historic expansion of the tax deduction for small business start-up expenses from $5,000 to $50,000.
- Support growing Latino businesses. Vice President Harris wants to ensure that successful start-up businesses have the capital and confidence to expand, whether that means becoming a prime contractor or adding franchises and new stores. To support the continued success and growth of Latino-owned businesses, Vice President Harris will:
- Provide interest free or low-interest loans or deferred loan repayments for Latino men and other entrepreneurs working to expand their small businesses. Vice President Harris wants to ensure that Latino men and others have the financing they need to grow their business, including contractors seeking to buy major tools for a new project, tech entrepreneurs seeking to develop new software, restaurant owners seeking to start a second restaurant, and trucking companies seeking to expand. She knows it can take time to generate new revenues while the loan payments start immediately. To address this issue, Vice President Harris will start a new lending fund through community banks, CDFIs and others with a proven track record, allowing Latino men and others expanding or starting new small businesses to defer payment and interest on loans for two years or get interest free loans for at least four years.
- Channel federal contracts to small businesses, providing sustained funding to them to re-invest and grow. She will ensure one-third of federal contract dollars go to small businesses—including a commitment that 15% will go to small businesses started up by disadvantaged Americans. This would likely result in over $100 billion in investments in those businesses, which are disproportionately owned by Latinos.
- Cut unnecessary red tape that makes it harder for small businesses to grow, including making it easier to file taxes and hire a reliable workforce, while incentivizing state and local governments to reduce burdensome regulations for small businesses, like simplifying business licensing and zoning processes.
Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda will make it harder for Latinos to start and grow small businesses.
- Trump has a long history of stiffing small construction companies who he hired but then refused to pay—showing his contempt for hard-working construction workers.
- Trump made it easier for predatory lenders to charge sky-high interest rates to small businesses.
- Trump tried to raise the fees on federal loans for small businesses that want to keep and create jobs.
- He tried to cut programs that support small businesses and innovative startups.
- During the pandemic, Trump shortchanged many Latino-owned businesses and left Latino families behind. Two months into the pandemic, a national poll of all Latinos found that 68% were concerned that they would not be able to pay for basic expenses like housing, utilities, or food due to lost jobs or income. Instead of addressing these needs, Trump gave special treatment to large, well-connected companies.
Expanding Opportunity For Latino Men to Good-Paying Jobs by Investing in Training Programs and Cutting Through Red Tape
Since Vice President Harris took office, 5.1 million more Latinos have jobs—this is 3.1 million more Latino workers who have jobs than before the pandemic. Latino unemployment saw its fastest one-year drop under Harris and reached the lowest rate over a two-year period in history. As President, she will make sure that Latino men have the resources and investments needed to succeed, including through new efforts to expand registered apprenticeships and opportunities for good-paying jobs for Latinos without a college degree. Vice President Harris will:
- Create opportunities for 2 million workers—including Latino men—to move up and get good-paying jobs in skilled trades and emerging industries. The Vice President’s ambitious housing construction goals, her American Forward strategies to invest in manufacturing and critical industries of the future, and implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act will create good-paying jobs. She wants to ensure that these jobs are filled by diverse workforces—including Latino men—in the communities they are designed to benefit. She will ensure that all workers have every opportunity to move up, get ahead, take home larger paychecks and be able to start their own businesses if they choose. She will:
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- Invest in high-quality sector-based training programs, a proven model, that lead to good jobs in all 50 states through partnerships among businesses, unions and worker centers, community colleges, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, trusted organizations such as UnidosUS, and faith-based groups. These partnerships can provide pathways to high-demand jobs that offer opportunities for career advancement—like those in finance, health care, advanced manufacturing, the electrician trade, and tech jobs—through high-quality training, while also providing needed services like child care and transportation to help workers fully participate and successfully complete their training. Her administration will directly fund, incentivize, and support these partnerships, as well as launch a job opportunity innovation fund for local government leaders to enable their own communities to meet the job demands created by major investments like the Vice President’s initiatives to incentivize the private sector to build 3 million affordable homes and bolster the nation’s industrial strength in critical industries of the future.
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- Double registered apprenticeships and fund other high-quality workforce training programs. In particular, Vice President Harris will set a goal to double the number of registered apprenticeships in America—which provide quality training in high-demand industries with a clear pathway to good-paying jobs for Latino men, from the trades like electricians, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, health care, other STEM fields, teaching, and commercial driving. She will incentivize the use of registered apprentices to fill the jobs created by her new investments like American Forward tax credits, significantly increase funding for pre-apprenticeships leading to registered apprenticeships, and boost other quality on-the-job training programs and labor-management partnerships. And, she will fight for the right to join a union, leading to better training and higher-quality jobs.
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- Fund programs like small business boot camps, business mentoring and navigators, and support community colleges, to give Latino men and others the tools to start a business or take a more managerial job. Many workers—including Latino men—have the experience, expertise and entrepreneurial energy to start their own business and be their own boss. Yet, some need resources to develop a business plan and get the financing they need. Vice President Harris will support proven small-business boot camp models and industry-community college partnerships that are designed to give aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners the tools they need to succeed as a small business owner or executive. She will also seek to expand small business navigators that help small business owners learn how to access the financing they need from the Small Business Administration and financial institutions.
- Expand innovative high school-to-career partnerships in 1,000 high schools to reach hundreds of thousands of students. Across the nation, there is a rise of high school career academies, and innovative partnerships with companies, hospitals and colleges, that allow young people to start working toward a good career while they are in high school—whether through a guaranteed job at a participating employer or through a head start on a college or a technical degree. Students across the country are gaining skills in the technology, health care, and other STEM fields to give them a head start on high-demand jobs. Vice President Harris will provide funding to support the expansion of 1,000 high school partnerships with employers, unions and institutions of higher education to give Latino young men and other high school students a faster and more clear path toward a rewarding career— by opening up access to Advanced Placement courses, dual enrollment, and career-credentialing opportunities.
- Cut more red tape to help people find the right training program and get jobs faster, including by:
- Eliminating unnecessary degree requirements and promoting meaningful job opportunities and pathways for Latino men without college degrees for 500,000 federal jobs—while encouraging the private sector to do the same.
- Reducing unnecessary occupational licensing requirements by providing grants to states to expand multistate licensing agreements to recognize substantially similar credentials, and speed implementation of multi state or universal licensing recognition.
- Working to coordinate and consolidate workforce programs which are fragmented across the federal government—65 programs across 15 agencies—to make it easier for Latino men and other workers to identify and take advantage of workforce training opportunities.
- Help individuals navigate training programs and careers by investing in expanded career services through the federal workforce system.
- Expand bilingual education and adult literacy. Language barriers can diminish economic opportunities for some Latino men and their families, but Vice President Harris knows that bilingualism is a tremendous competitive advantage. That is why she will ensure Latinos can harness these advantages by investing in high-quality bilingual education and English language acquisition programs while also supporting adult literacy programs from early childhood education to adulthood.
- Support pathways to college, including by supporting Hispanic-Serving Institutions, which Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will defund, and creating a path to doubling college and career guidance counselors in low-income schools.
- Unleash a construction boom across the country. To make sure that Latino men and all communities are sharing in the jobs and economic benefits of the construction boom, Vice President Harris will:
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- Subsidize construction tools. Vice President Harris will push Congress to pass the bipartisan Tools Tax Deduction Act, so that registered apprentices and construction workers can write off the expense of the tools and equipment—from hand tools to personal protective equipment to stationary power tools—to reduce barriers for young Latino men to enter building trades professions.
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- Provide America Forward Tax Credits. Vice President Harris will increase the construction boom that is already underway through her “America Forward” tax credits, which will bring new business to the over 70,000 Latino-owned U.S. construction firms across the country as companies build and improve facilities that will power critical industries of the future, like data centers.
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- Build more, faster. It takes too long and costs too much to build in America. Vice President Harris will be laser focused on accelerating projects and unleashing the full potential of the American construction industry by cutting red tape that slows projects down, including through permitting reform that ensures projects are built quickly and efficiently, reflect public input and public priorities, and protect our environment and public health while taking all steps needed to protect and improve worker safety.
- Enable Latino men and other workers to profit when company executives profit. Right now, Latino employment rates are near all-time highs, but too many Latino Americans do not have assets, such as stocks or homes, that allow them to build wealth. Vice President Harris will help Latino men own more assets by reforming our tax laws to encourage more employers to participate in employee stock ownership plans, profit-sharing plans, and other similar arrangements that have the necessary guardrails to make sure that participants actually benefit from these policies. Giving low- and moderate-income workers a stake in the business has been shown to close the racial wealth gap and fuel business growth—a win-win proposition.
Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda would abandon Latino workers.
- Under Trump, jobs disappeared and unemployment spiked to over 17% for Latinos, including 16% for Latino men.
- While in office, Trump created new incentives for big corporations to move overseas—at the expense of Latino workers.
- Moody’s Analytics finds that Trump’s plan would cause a recession by mid-2025, cost 3.1 million jobs, and add over 1 percent to inflation.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would defund 600 education institutions for Latinos that are currently receiving funding as HSIs from the Department of Education.
More Than Doubling the Number of First-Time Latino Homeowners Each Year
Although home ownership is a key engine of wealth building in America, less than 50% of Latino households own their homes—a figure that is nearly 25 percentage points lower than white households. As more Latino men and their families strive to break into the ranks of American homeowners, they know that the impacts of homeownership extend well beyond their bank accounts. Studies show that promoting first-generation homeownership is associated with not only building wealth but also improved health and educational outcomes for children in the home. To address this problem, Vice President Harris has proposed an ambitious plan to make it easier for all Americans—including Latinos—to afford a home and obtain the American dream. She will:
- More than double the annual number of new Latino first-time homeowners to nearly 600,000 to expand wealth and security for Latino men and their families. To make this ambitious proposal a reality, Vice President Harris will build 3 million new affordable homes, creating thousands of construction jobs across the county. She will also provide $25,000 in downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers who lack inherited wealth—lowering the cost of both renting and buying a home for those who have historically been shut out of this market.
- Lower housing prices by preventing abusive practices by corporate landlords and cracking down on predatory investors. Latino men and their families are not just facing the pressure of a uniquely tight housing market, they are also competing with unrestrained corporate investors who buy up homes in their neighborhoods and jack up prices on homebuyers and renters alike. In fact, some of the housing markets with the most significant investor activity are also the most popular markets for Latino homebuyers and renters, including the Phoenix and Las Vegas metropolitan areas. Vice President Harris will go after price-fixing schemes that raise housing costs and end unfair practices that help large corporate landlords dramatically raise rents.
- Fight to end racial bias in home appraisals. Research shows that homes in more majority-Latino neighborhoods are more than twice as likely to be appraised below the contract price than those in majority-white neighborhoods, limiting wealth building opportunities for Latino families interested in selling their homes in a strong market. To address these disparities, Vice President Harris took on appraisal bias by ensuring consumers can appeal a low appraisal and by providing greater training and professional development for appraisers. As a result, the rate of difference between Latino and white home values has declined nearly 40%. As President, she will ramp up efforts to root out racial bias in home appraisals to make it easier for Latino men and Latino Americans to build wealth for their families.
Donald Trump would drive up the cost of housing and gut critical protections against housing discrimination that give Latino men and their families a fair shot.
- While president, Trump did nothing to address the worsening shortage of homes—tightening the housing crunch that enabled his wealthy friends to profit and losing countless construction jobs on which many Latino men rely.
- Trump would move homeownership further out of reach for first-time homebuyers. His Project 2025 agenda would increase mortgage insurance premiums on many Federal Housing Administration-backed loans—loans with a small down payment that many first-time Latino homeowners rely on.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would cripple the independence of the agencies that protect homebuyers, making it easier for private equity firms and corporate landlords to engage in unfair practices and price-gouge renters.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would oppose efforts by state and local governments to increase their housing stock and improve affordability.
Honor Our Sacred Commitment to Latino Veterans and Others Who Have Served Our Nation
Vice President Harris recognizes the profound contributions of Latino service members and veterans. She is committed to ensuring the nearly 1.5 million Latino veterans and 240,000 active duty Latino service members across the country have access to economic opportunities and the benefits they have earned. She will:
- Significantly expand workforce development and career pathways for Latino and other veterans. She will significantly expand funding for pathways to new jobs and careers for our veterans—from VET TECH, Skillbridge, Helmets to Hardhats, and the Veterans Readiness and Employment Program, to the Special Employer Incentive program, Transition Assistance Program, and other initiatives to help veterans access a range of new job and career pathways—from federal law enforcement to tech jobs. She will also collaborate with Veterans Service Organizations, trusted community partners, and state and local governments to promote the hiring of veterans in public service jobs.
- Expand further protections for veterans. Vice President Harris worked with President Biden to pass the PACT Act, the most significant expansion of benefits for veterans in over 30 years. As President, she will work with Congress to pass the Veterans Exposed to Toxic (VET) PFAS Act, which will provide benefits to thousands of Latino veterans exposed to forever chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at military installations.
Donald Trump treats the military community with disdain and disrespect, and his Project 2025 agenda will strip Latino veterans of the benefits they earned.
- Trump has called those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country “losers” and “suckers,” and he publicly attacked a Gold Star family.
- Trump tried to exclude wounded veterans from a 2018 military parade because “nobody wants to see that,” and refused to be seen in the presence of wounded service member and veterans because “it doesn’t look good for me.”
- Trump tried to cut critical programs that veterans depend on for their health care and basic economic security.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda for a second term tries again to privatize and tank the quality of veterans’ healthcare, cut their disability benefits, and eliminate public service loan forgiveness for those who serve.
Investing in the Safety and Security of Latino Communities
Vice President Kamala Harris believes that every Latino family deserves to live in a safe community and knows what it means to prioritize public safety. Through her leadership, violent crime is at a 50-year low and Latino communities across the country are safer today than they were when Donald Trump left office. She will work tirelessly to ensure this success continues, so that no one has to live in fear of gun violence, gangs, or illicit drugs in the places they call home. Through her plan, she will:
- Vice President Harris will crack down on cartels operating in the United States, including the Sinaloa, Gulf, and Juarez cartels. To do so she will create a joint task force to coordinate federal agencies in their critical efforts to find, apprehend, prosecute, and eliminate the cartels with a presence in our communities. This task force will also surge federal resources to local strike forces—led by local U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and FBI field offices—located in the communities most affected.
- End the police shortage. In the White House, Vice President Harris helped deliver the largest investment in public safety ever, investing $15 billion in supporting local law enforcement and community safety programs across 1,000 cities, towns, and counties. As President, she will work to end the shortage of police officers by hiring 100,000 new police officers across the country and giving existing officers a raise.
- Combat gun violence. Vice President Harris passed the first major gun safety law in nearly 30 years, which included funding to hire and train over 14,000 school mental health professionals. As head of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, she spearheaded policies to expand background checks and close the gun show loophole. When elected, she will ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines—like those used in Uvalde and El Paso— require universal background checks, and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
- Invest in proven Community Violence Intervention programs. Vice President Harris will continue to invest millions of dollars in proven Community Violence Intervention programs made available through the Safer Communities Act to support local community-based organizations that are working with law enforcement to reduce violence and crime, empower local communities, and strengthen neighborhood services.
Donald Trump left Latino families less safe than when he took office, and he will do it again if given the chance.
- In office, Trump presided over a nearly 30% surge in homicides, the largest single-year increase ever recorded.
- Trump repeatedly sought to slash the federal program that funds local police hiring, which would have left law enforcement agencies without critical resources.
- Trump wants to repeal the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and supports legislation that would force states to allow violent offenders to carry hidden, loaded guns—despite warnings from law enforcement that it would increase gun violence.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would roll back federal oversight of the gun industry and calls for the prosecution of companies that refuse to facilitate gun sales without background checks.
- Trump oversaw a 35% spike in hate crimes during his term, as he pitted Americans against one another.