Trump to counter Harris with competing economic agenda rollout

Former President Donald Trump is countering the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ recently unveiled economic agenda, by laying out his own plan to boost the U.S. economy, the Republican’s campaign said Monday.

The announcement is just the latest indication of the Trump campaign’s efforts to refocus his message on policy after Harris became the Democratic nominee, neutralizing many of Trump’s attack lines against his former opponent, President Joe Biden.

Trump will announce a plan “to unleash American energy and lower costs for American families,” the campaign said in a press release Monday morning.

That agenda includes preserving the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, the release said. Those reforms are set to expire after 2025.

Trump more recently has championed a slew of tax-cutting measures, including eliminating taxes on service workers’ tips and ending taxes on Social Security for seniors.

He has also promised to slash Americans’ energy prices in half, and he recently suggested implementing sweeping tariffs of up to 20% on imported goods.

He has not detailed how these policy goals will be implemented or how they will be paid for. The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy taxes, meaning any plan to overhaul the tax code will have to go through the legislative branch.

Trump is scheduled to hold an economy- and energy-focused campaign event at an equipment manufacturer in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday at 3 p.m. ET.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, will also speak about energy and the economy earlier Monday afternoon, in Philadelphia, the Trump campaign said.

The bulk of Monday’s press release was focused on attacking Harris, rather than outlining Trump’s economic agenda.

Among other claims, the campaign accused Harris of wanting to let the Trump-era tax cuts expire and of seeking to ban gas-powered cars.

Both accusations included links to articles from 2019, when Harris was a Democratic presidential candidate. The Biden administration does not seek to ban the sale or ownership of cars with traditional gas engines.

The Trump and Harris campaigns have each claimed that the other’s plans would raise costs on average Americans.

“Donald Trump may hope that no one notices his plan to increase costs on middle- and working class Americans while he lies about Vice President Harris’ agenda, but he needs to be held accountable for it,” said Brian Nelson, a Harris campaign senior policy advisor, in a statement to CNBC.

Nelson’s statement cited a recent study from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a progressive advocacy group, that Trump’s tariff plans would amount to a $3,900 tax increase on middle-income families.

Trump delivered a speech in North Carolina last week billed as remarks on how he would handle the economy if given a second term in the White House. But his attention frequently strayed and he spoke at length about immigration and other issues, while lobbing personal insults at Harris.

At a press event at his New Jersey golf club days later, Trump spoke in front of tables filled with grocery items that were put on display to demonstrate how prices have risen during the Biden years. But he once again veered far off topic.