On Tuesday the Republican Committee signed off on language that echoes presumptive Republican Presidential candidate nominee Donald Trump’s criticisms of US foreign policy, free trade and immigration. The proposed Republican platform slammed current trade deals as killing American jobs and also supported the efforts to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico.
The proposed platform, which will be voted on at the Republican convention next week, is a “guiding foundation of conservative principles” that can be used by all Republican candidates in elections in the fall, according to one of the committee chairs, Mary Fallin, who is also the Governor of Oklahoma. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, another chair, read a preamble invoking the campaign slogan of Donald Trump, saying that Republicans want the United States to be “great and united again”.
Tuesday’s sessions saw the committee putting the final touches to the document and featured fewer arguments over Trump’s likely securing of the nomination next week and more on gay rights, an issue not even mentioned in the platform. Proposed platform language agrees with Trump’s statements on US manufacturing being undercut by free trade agreements, and changed the term “illegal immigrants” to “illegal aliens” to reflect the billionaire’s views on immigration.
Republican members have also given their endorsement to a proposed law for mandatory prison sentences for immigrants that have already been deported from the country who then come back and are apprehended again.