On January 10th, five days before the Iowa caucus, the fifth Republican primary debate was held in Des Moines, Iowa. Out of the five candidates in the running as of the last debate, only three qualified for this round, with Donald Trump declining yet again, making the debate a two-person show with Ron DeSantis and Nikkey Haley. Donald Trump, however, held his own separate event in Iowa’s townhall the same night, consisting of a two-hour interview. From our analysis, we will be evaluating the stances provided by all three candidates.
Trump’s Townhall interview overlapped with the Republican debate for one hour, perhaps as a way of drawing away the competition from DeSantis and Haley’s debate. We will also be including stances from the townhall in this article. However, since Trump tends to be vaguer in his statements, there will be a greater focus on DeSantis and Haley.
Comparisons of Stances and Issues
Candidate Eligibility
With the candidates in running narrowed down to a final three, Haley and DeSantis battle to prove their dominance over each other, and over Trump. In the following section, they discuss Trump’s eligibility for the presidency, a popular and contentious topic considering Trump’s arrest in August 2023 and his four indictments, also criticizing each other for their perceived shortcomings while mentioning their own past achievements in an effort to gain support.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Trump | “We beat ISIS, knocked them out. It was supposed to take four years. I did it in literally three months.”
“We didn’t have chaos. We got the biggest tax cuts in history, the biggest regulation cuts in history. I had no wars… we had tremendous success. And frankly, until COVID came along, and then we did a great job on that too. We never got the kind of credit that I got on the economy. But we had the greatest economy in history.” |
| Haley | “Well, I think the next president needs to have moral clarity. I think you need to have moral clarity to understand that it’s taxpayer money, not your own money. I think you need to have moral clarity to understand that when you’re dealing with dictators in the world, that we always have to fight for democracies and human rights and protecting Americans and preventing war. And so when you look at Donald Trump, I have said, I think he was the right president at the right time… but his way is not my way. I don’t have vengeance. I don’t have vendettas. I don’t take things personally… So I don’t think that President Trump is the right president to go forward.”
“[Trump] needs to be defending his record. Right now he’s not defending the fact that he allowed us to have $8 trillion in debt over four years… The fact that he didn’t deal with China when it came to stealing intellectual property. The fact that they gave us COVID.”
“If leadership’s about getting things done, how did you blow through $150 million in your campaign and you were down in the polls? You are not a manager.”
“Leadership is the fact that I went into South Carolina that had 11% unemployment rate. Leadership is the fact that we turned it into an economic powerhouse. Building planes, building cars, building tires. We were named the Beasts of the Southeast. We moved the 11% unemployment down to 4%. We announced jobs in every county in the state. We moved 35,000 people on welfare to work. We changed our prison system to where we now have the lowest recidivism rate in the country. We passed voter ID. We passed tort reform. We did pension reform. We paid down our debt, we cut taxes. We made sure that people were proud again. We did E-Verify in the first six months, not five years like Ron. So don’t go and pick on school choice and say that that’s leadership. When I got to the UN, we cut a billion dollars off the top and we took the kick me sign off of our backs in America was respected again at the UN. I know what leadership is.” |
| DeSantis | “Well, I’m running because I’m the guy that’s going to be able to engineer a comeback for this country. I appreciated what President Trump did, but let’s just be honest, he said he was going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, he did not deliver that. He said he was going to drain the swamp, he did not deliver that. He said he was going to hold Hillary accountable and he let her off the hook. He said he was going to eliminate the debt and he added $7.8 trillion to the debt.”
“I’m also the only one running that has beaten the left time and time again. We beat the Teacher’s Union on universal school choice. We beat Soros on crime. We beat Fauci on COVID. We beat the Dems on election integrity, and I beat the left by banning China from buying land in the state of Florida. Now, Nikki Haley is running, we don’t need another mealy mouth politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear just to try to get your vote then to get into office and to do her donors bidding.”
“Nikki Haley has this tactic. If you hold her accountable to her record, first, she’ll say, ‘I never said that’… The reality is Nikki Haley is not somebody that has been willing to stand in and fight on behalf of conservatives. She ran for governor saying she was going to do universal school choice and she caved to the Teacher’s Union. She didn’t deliver that. In Florida, I delivered the largest expansion of school choice in the history of the United States. I beat the Teacher’s Union and you know what the results are? When she was governor of South Carolina, she was rated 50th in education, dead last. You know where Florida is under my watch? Number one in the nation.”
“We’re also number one for net in migration, number one for GDP growth amongst large states, number one for talent development, number one for new business formations and on and on it goes.” |
In summation, Haley and DeSantis both believe that Trump is not a good candidate for the presidency due to his lack of deliverance on his presidential promises in the 2016 election season. Also, Nikki Haley mentioned moral and ethical concerns for Trump being president while Desantis focused more on his own record.
In regards to each other, however, Haley and DeSantis both criticized their opponent of having failed to deliver on gubernatorial promises, as well as lying about their stances on topics of political importance.
Trump, on the other hand, spends most of his time defending his own record, citing COVID as the reason that his presidential term did not go entirely as planned.
The Economy
Next up was the economy, specifically Bidenomics, and the activities of the government that have caused us to be where we are today.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Trump | “The economy is horrible except the stock market’s going up. And I think the stock market’s going up because… I’m leading Biden in all of the polls… if I wasn’t leading, the stock market would be 25% lower. And I think frankly, if I didn’t win, I think the stock market would crash, I believe.” “We were starting to pay down debt. We were going to pay down a lot of debt. When COVID came along, if I didn’t inject this country with money, you would’ve had a depression the likes of which you’ve never seen… We gave businesses that were going bankrupt, temporarily bankrupt, but they needed money.”
“Biden drove up the cost of energy. That’s what caused inflation… When they talk about New Hampshire, New Hampshire has the highest price of energy, the highest cost of energy of any state in the nation. They should vote for me because I’m going to cut their energy price in half.”
“We have a lot of [cost cutting to do].” |
| Haley | “They’ve done all of this wasteful spending, they did a $2.2 trillion Covid stimulus bill that expanded welfare that’s now left us with 80 million Americans on Medicaid, 42 million Americans on food stamps… I think it’s time we have an accountant in the White House. We have to have someone that respects taxpayer dollars…Instead of 87,000 IRS agents going after Middle America, we’ll go after the hundreds of billions of dollars of Covid fraud… If 8% of our budget is interest, quit borrowing, cut out the credit cards. I had to balance a budget as governor, you have to balance a budget every day. Why is Congress the only group that refuses to balance a budget? We’ll stop the spending… And then we want to make sure that we allow the middle class to breathe. We’re going to eliminate the federal gas and diesel tax in this country and cut taxes on the middle class and simplify those brackets. And then we want to make the small business tax cuts permanent.” |
| DeSantis | “Well, I disagree with Ambassador Haley. We don’t need an accountant in the White House. We need a leader in the White House… Yes, I’m going to battle the spending… We’re going to open up all energy for production, because that will be deflationary. Nikki Haley, when she was governor, she promised she would never do the gas tax, then she tried to raise the gas tax on hard-working South Carolinians.”
“Actually, if you think, the last year we have numbers for, the federal government took in the highest percentage of taxes from the economy since World War II, and yet they’re going deep into debt… The way I view it is, okay, and you’d exempt people, so you would pay no tax for working-class people… So you would have no tax up to a certain point and then it would just be a single rate.” |
Haley and DeSantis, while disagreeing over whether or not to create the role of a government accountant, agree that tax reform is necessary. In addition, Haley critiques wasteful government spending as the reason for the trillions of dollars of debt the government has accumulated, suggesting that the government cut its expenses. Trump suggests tax cuts as well and criticizes inflation for the US’ economic troubles.
Undocumented Immigration
Trump, who famously ran for the presidency on the promises of reducing undocumented immigration and “building a wall” between Mexico and the United States, has often been criticized by Republicans, who view illegal immigration as a serious issue, for not following through. In the following discussion, DeSantis and Haley state what they would do to solve the issue while Trump defends his record.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Trump | “I’d finish up the wall. We built over 500 miles of wall… And I would just say we’re going to just keep expanding.”
“We are going to have the largest deportation effort in the history of our country.”
“Remember this, many [undocumented immigrants] come from jails and prisons. Many of those people come from mental institutions and in insane asylums, and many of those people are terrorists.” |
| Haley | “What we need to do is not just ban a wall, we need to put 25,000 border patrol and ICE agents on the ground and let them do their job. We need to defund sanctuary cities once and for all. No more safe havens for illegal immigrants… Instead of catch and release, we need to go to catch and deport.”
“You have to do more than build a wall. It was having the wall and everything else.” |
| DeSantis | “We will build the wall. We will actually have Mexico pay for it in the way that I thought Donald Trump was. We’re going to charge fees on remittances that workers send to foreign countries. Billions of dollars will build the wall.”
“They’re coming from all across this world, not just from Central American. Fact, you’ve got them from China, Iran, Russia, the Middle East… They’re of course going to be terrorist cells that have come in. It’s like the lowest cost way to be able to harm this country, just send people across the southern border.”
“We cannot do an amnesty in this country… So federally, no benefits, no enticements to come in. And then the states, we’re going to crack down on sanctuary states and sanctuary cities.” |
DeSantis, Haley, and Trump, despite seeming to disagree, hold similar opinions on illegal immigration, supporting a harsh crack-down on undocumented immigrants, withholding amnesty, and increasing border patrol, with Haley and DeSantis discussing the viability and efficacy of building a wall.
Foreign Policy
Ukraine
The question of whether the government should extend more help to Ukraine or withdraw its aid has been a topic of controversy in the Republican Party. While Haley has suggested in the past that Ukraine should be given aid continuously, DeSantis isn’t so sure.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “I don’t think we should give cash to any country, friend or foe, because you can’t follow it, you can’t hold it accountable. I don’t think we need to put troops on the ground and Ukrainians want to win this themselves. But dictators always do what they say they’re going to do. China said they were going to take Hong Kong. They did. Russia said they were going to invade Ukraine. We watched it. China says, Taiwan is next. We better believe them. Russia said once they take Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. Those are NATO countries and that puts America at war… If we support Ukraine, that’s only 3.5% of our defense budget… We’ve got to make sure that we’re having the backs of the right friends”
“If we support Ukraine and Israel, that’s only 5% of our defense budget.”
“I did not support the aid package. I support equipment and ammunition going to Ukraine.” |
| DeSantis | “It’s an open-ended commitment. They want another $108 billion. They will not tell you when they have achieved their goal and this is going to go on maybe hundreds of billions more into the future. I think a lot of people have died, we need to find a way to end this… people like Nikki Haley care more about Ukraine’s border than she does about our own southern border, which is wrong. But we also have to look at what’s the top threat to this country, it’s the Chinese Communist Party.” |
Israel
Over the topic of the war in Gaza, DeSantis and Haley are largely united in their support for Israel, except for their disagreements on how peace should be sought out, arguing over whether or not a two-state solution would be viable or if Haley really did advocate for it.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “If you would’ve listened to what I said at the United Nations, a two-state solution wasn’t something that was possible because Israel would always come to the table and the Palestinians wouldn’t.” |
| DeSantis | “We’ve got to support Israel”
“We also have a disagreement, Governor Haley and I. When she was at the UN, she supported the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs… under no circumstances as president, am I going to pressure Israel to risk their security to do a so-called two-state solution.” “So as president, I am not going to tell them to do that. I think there’s a lot of issues with that. But if they make the calculation that to avert a second Holocaust, they need to do that. I think some of these Palestinian Arabs, Saudi Arabia should take some, Egypt should take some. They’ve never been willing to accept any of these folks in their own neighborhood.” |
Iran
In other world news, the Houthis, an Iranian-backed organization recently relisted as a terrorist organization, launched 21 missiles and drones, which were shot down by the US Navy. As Iran is supportive of Hamas, which is currently at war with Israel, tensions are high and the possibility of a war with Iran seems closer than ever.
And as of January 17th, a week after this conversation took place, Iran carried out a missile strike in the village of Sabz Koh, just outside the Iranian border.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “When it comes to Iran, what we have to understand, there would be no Hamas without Iran. There would not be Houthis without Iran. There wouldn’t be Hezbollah without Iran. And when you look at the strikes that are happening in Iraq and Syria, that is because of Iran. They’re pulling the puppet strings… We need to go and take out every bit of the production that they have that’s allowing them to do those strikes.” |
| DeSantis | “Iran is behind this. They fund Hamas. They fund Hezbollah… The root of this is Biden came into office and he relaxed the sanctions on Iran.” |
China
As the two countries with the greatest GDPs and the strongest global economies, the US and China have long shared a mutual economic codependency. However, due to disagreements on other fronts, the relationship between the two countries is tense. Republicans, who are strong supporters of economic independence, are in favor of loosening ties with China, especially considering that China exports three times as much to the US as the US does China, making for an imbalance of power. DeSantis and Haley discuss their stances on the matter.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Trump | “As opposed to COVID, it is the China virus… It came out of Wuhan”
“I can tell you one thing I got along with President Xi, but I took in $400 billion in tariffs and taxes from China, and one of the reasons China’s not doing so well today is because of those tariffs and Biden wants to cut them.” |
| Haley | “China is our number one national security threat… The first thing we have to do is we have to make sure we stop selling them any land and we take back the land they already purchased. We need to go to our universities and we say, ‘You either take Chinese money or you take American money, but the days of taking both our over.’ We need to stop all of the technologies that are going to China… We have to tell them we’re going to end all normal trade relations with them until they stop murdering Americans with fentanyl. And we need to make sure we build up our military… We will move that trade to where we have friends. We will go and build partnerships, India, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, Israel. We will go and move that trade over. Right now, you can ask our farmers, when they go and they buy from China, China orders, cancels the order, then goes and tries to buy it cheap. That’s what China does. Our farmers deserve better than that. We will get them trade deals.”
“What I will tell you is, we need to focus on what we’re going to do to become less dependent on China, and we need to make sure that we look at it through a national security lens. When we had COVID, everybody told you to wear a mask, it was made in China. They told you to take a COVID test, you turned it over, it was made in China. If you go down the drugstore aisle, all those medicines are made in China. We need to make sure we’re getting medicines made here or we need to get it from our friends so that we’re not in any way threatened.” |
| DeSantis | “The way you deal with China is threefold. One, we need more hard power in the Indo-Pacific… We need more sea power. We’re going to build that up and we’re going to have a strategy to deny their ability to invade Taiwan or to get beyond the first island chain… Second, we got to decouple our economy, particularly things that are nationally significant to our national survival and you got to be methodical, strategic about it… And then also… as governor in Florida, I banned China from buying land and we kicked them out of our universities. That’s what you want to do.” |
In terms of Ukraine, neither DeSantis nor Haley are in support of providing purely financial aid to Ukraine, citing lack of transparency in how the money is being spent. However, unlike DeSantis, Haley is still in favor of providing material aid in the form of weapons and ammunition. Secondly, on the topic of Israel, both candidates support the country and their role in the war. Despite a brief accusation from DeSantis that Haley was in support of a two-state solution, the statement was quickly dismissed as Haley stated that she was not in favor of it. As for the rising tensions in Iran, both Haley and DeSantis agree that it is not a good thing, but do not state what they would do about it. And, lastly, regarding China, all three of them are in accord with their beliefs that the US is too dependent upon China and should cut ties, although Trump maintains a more aggressive stance on the issue.
Role of Government
Traditionally, Republicans favor small government, or less government interference, while Democrats see the government as a tool and support more government control. However, there are certain exceptions. Republicans tend to support government control when it comes to LGBTQ+ topics such as hormone treatment or sex ed in schools, which, being popular topics of discussion, ended up being one of the only topics discussed.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “I have always fought to protect kids… we shouldn’t have any gender transitions before the age of 18.” |
| DeSantis | “The proper role of government, if it means anything, it’s to protect our kids… It’s wrong to tell a kindergartner, like Disney wanted to do, that you can change your gender or tell a third-grader that you’re born in the wrong body.”
“So number one, we need term limits for members of Congress. Number two, we need a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution. Number three, we need to give the president a line item veto. And number four, when you see all these congressmen making a killing in the stock market like Nancy Pelosi, she could run a very lucrative hedge fund, we need a 28th amendment to the Constitution that says very simply, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting the citizens of the United States that does not also apply to members of Congress themselves.’” |
Education Policies
As a topic that has not been covered much in the past primary debates, it should come as no surprise that it was brought up now. With South Carolina ranking near the bottom of the 50 states when it comes to education, Haley is questioned on her educational policies as former governor of the state.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “I want to take as many federal programs from DC as we can and send them down to the state level. Think education. We can move a lot of K-12 programs down to the state level, reduce the strings that are attached and that way states can handle it themselves… Secondly, parents should decide what types of education their children get, what mode of education. And we should have complete transparency in the classroom. No parent should ever wonder what’s being said or taught to their child in the classroom. That’s why we’ll have all of the curriculums online for every parent to see. And we need to start putting vocational classes back in our high schools.” |
| DeSantis | “I don’t want a nationalized curriculum. I think that that’s a bottom-up thing. I want to get rid of the Federal Department of Education, get that weight off the backs of the state and local governments, but we are going to do nationwide scholarships through corporate tax credits and that’s going to bail out a lot of poor kids throughout this country.”
“We’re going to work on workforce education. Not everyone needs to do a four-year brick and Ivy University. That’s not the best way or only way for people to succeed. We’re going to do skilled trades. We’re going to do vocational.” |
Social Security
Due to a decline in birth rates following the baby boom of the 1940s-60s, Social Security funds are running out. Numerous suggestions have been made over how to amend this issue. Among them include raising taxes, lowering retirement age, although this is a matter of contention, finding new sources of money to supplement the shrinking number of workers in the program, and cutting benefits.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Trump | “DeSantis wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. Nikki Haley wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. Nikki Haley wanted to raise the age from 65 to 74, 75 or 76… They say [they’ll only raise the retirement age] for young people… And then it doesn’t work for young people and they end up getting up to people that are of the age where it matters. No good.” |
| Haley | “What we do is we go to those in their 20s and say we’re going to change the retirement age to reflect life expectancy instead of cost of living increases, we do increases based on inflation. We limit benefits on the wealthy and we expand Medicare Advantage plans”
Q: “Just a clarification, Governor Haley, in 15 seconds, should voters in their 20s plan on having to work until they’re 70?”
A: “They should plan on their retirement age being increased, yes. We’re going to change it to reflect more of what life expectancy should be.” |
| DeSantis | “I am not going to mess with seniors’ benefits… We’re going to get inflation down. We’re going to get energy costs down. There’s going to be a lot of things that are going to help seniors, but I think seniors should know, a promise made will be a promise kept… I would never raise the retirement age in the face of declining life expectancy.” |
Abortion
The overturning of Roe v. Wade, which has long been something Republicans have been aiming for, has resulted in a relative lull in discussion over abortion. The candidates, having achieved their main goal, understand that pro-life is a priority, but are now focused on how to support individuals and situations.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Trump | “They’re the radicals because they’re willing to kill the baby in eight months, nine months, or even after birth.” |
| Haley | “I’m unapologetically pro-life… [But] we’re going to treat it like the respectful issue that it is… There is legislation right now that would put a woman in jail if she got an abortion. That’s why I said that.” |
| DeSantis | “Republicans need to do a better job of lifting up folks who are having children. It’s very difficult to raise kids in this environment. You need to help with medical care, you need to help with affordability, and we need to help with education choice. You got to be pro-life for the whole life” |
Healthcare
Affordable healthcare is a prominent issue in the United States. The amount of money spent per capita is twice the average of other wealthy countries such as Germany or Australia, yet the quality of our healthcare is relatively similar and does not reflect the high price. DeSantis and Haley discuss what should be done.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “We’re going to open it all up from the hospitals to the insurance companies, to the doctor’s offices, to the pharmaceuticals, to the PBMs. Make them have to show us everything… Right now you have insurance companies and hospitals deciding what it is for us. We’re going to take the patient out of the backseat and put them in the driver’s seat… The second thing is we’re going to pass tort reform around this country. I did that in South Carolina. Doctors don’t give you those 10 tests because they want to. It’s for the 90% chance they’ll get sued. Then we’re going to go and eliminate certificate of need in this country. I did that in South Carolina as well. That basically says if you have a hospital here, you can’t have another hospital for X number of miles. They do the same thing for surgical centers, for nursing homes. We’re going to put competition back in healthcare so that healthcare is fighting for the patient, that way services go up and costs go down.”
“So the problem with Medicaid is, it needs to be sent down as block grants. Governors can best decide how to do that, whether they need to use it towards mental health, whether they need to use it towards support services. Right now, I would send all of that down to the states. The problem is, they’re only sending a small portion of it. They need to send more of that so the states can better take care of it.”
“We don’t have enough mental health therapists. We don’t have enough mental health treatment centers. We don’t have enough addiction centers. If you happen to be lucky enough to get one of those three, insurance doesn’t cover it… we need to have more telehealth so that people can get the mental health care they need right when they need it. We need to have mental health counselors in schools… that’s again why I want to move those federal programs down to the state level because states know they need more mental health support.” |
| DeSantis | “We’re going to put a big emphasis on mental health… I’ve actually delivered on some of these things in Florida, we got accountability for the pharmacy benefit middlemen that are causing your drug prices to go up, so we have transparency and consumers pay less. I just beat the federal government to allow the state of Florida to buy prescription drugs from Canada, which is 25 cents on the dollar what our prescription drugs cost… Then finally, we need to upend this COVID and medical authoritarian regime that we saw going around this country during COVID. It’s wrong to force vaxes like the COVID shot and say people are going to lose their jobs.”
“I think what you do is you block grant [Medicaid] and then let states run the way they see fit to do.”
“So we’re going to use the VA to link veterans with resources that are throughout our country. For example, in Florida, we have an organization that trains service dogs to be able to be paired with veterans with post-traumatic stress. They understand the symptoms, they mitigate it, and you know what? The suicide rate is close to zero as a result of that. We got to think bigger than these bureaucracies and we’ve got to be there for our vets and their mental health.” |
Climate Change
Due to concerns about the impact of climate change on the US, Biden has made efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption. However, Haley argues that the way he is doing it is not feasible. DeSantis, on the other hand, argues that there is little problem to begin with in regard to climate change and riles against economic consequences.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “We’ll roll back all of Biden’s green subsidies because they’re misplaced. Rather than putting anything towards innovation on what we can do on nuclear fusion and other things that reduce emissions, which there are things out there, to go and have everybody have to drive an electric car by 2035, that’s not even smart… If we’re going to do it, innovate it, transition and do it the right way, not in extremes.” |
| DeSantis | “So on day one, as president, we take Biden’s Green New Deal, we tear it up and we throw it in the trash can. It is bad for this country. We have to have reliable energy. Here’s the thing… Joe Biden has said that global warming is worse than a nuclear war… he wants to mandate electric vehicles. That’s going to be more costly. I think the car companies would go bankrupt, but it’s going to hurt liquid fuels, which is very, very important… We cannot have these mandates and they’ll be gone the day I’m president.” |
Crime
Crime rates are currently on the downturn, yet 63% of Americans believe crime is a serious or very serious issue, making it an important topic of debate, especially as the candidate pool slims down.
| Politician | Quote/Stance |
| Haley | “What I would do is first of all, defund sanctuary cities. It’s hugely important that we do that. That’s where we’re seeing a lot of crime. The second thing is our law enforcement is demoralized right now because if they go and they arrest someone for having a stolen gun, it’s demoralizing when they go through all that effort, put their lives at risk and then you turn around and let that criminal go the very next day. Prosecutors need to prosecute according to the law, and we’ve got to start holding them accountable.” |
| DeSantis | “Now, Nikki Haley and I have a disagreement on the BLM stuff too because she tweeted during this period of time that the death of George Floyd should be, quote, “personal and painful for each and every American.” People in Iowa had nothing to do with that or Florida, or South Carolina. She was virtue signaling to the left. She was accepting the narrative and she was trying to impress people who were never going to like us. I never bought in to going after the police. We back the blue to the hilt in the state of Florida. We’re about lower crime as a result of that.” |
What’s Next
So what do the candidates propose should be done? They wish to continue supporting Israel in the Israel-Hamas war. Haley wants to continue providing aid to Ukraine while DeSantis advocates for noninterference. And, as mentioned in the previous debates, they wish to increase border control and rely less economically on China.
They also wish to decentralize education, healthcare, the government in general, and crack down on crime. DeSantis proposes reducing inflation to deal with the rapidly dwindling supply of money for Social Security, while Haley hints at raising the retirement age to solve the issue, which Trump strongly disagrees with.
More information about each of the individual candidates, their political bias, and policy ratings, can be found in Biasly’s Politician Ratings.