ABORTION: Mr. Trump, who in the past was a supporter of abortion rights, now says he isn’t, although he’s been somewhat inconsistent in his campaign statements on abortion. Numerous anti-abortion leaders, initially wary of Mr. Trump, now support him because of his pledge to nominate Supreme Court justices who are open to curtailing abortions and his choice of Mr. Pence, a staunch abortion foe, as his running mate.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Mr. Trump tweets that global warming is “mythical” and a “hoax,” and calls attempts to remedy it “just a very, very expensive form of tax.”
EDUCATION: Mr. Trump rails against the Common Core academic standards adopted in more than 40 states, calling them a “total disaster.” He’s pledged to do away with them if elected, even though the standards were created and adopted by states, not the federal government. Mr. Trump says he wants to see more local control of education. He’s vowed to give students choice, let charter schools thrive and end tenure policies “that reward bad teachers.”
ENERGY: Mr. Trump vows to “unleash American energy,” allowing unfettered production of oil, coal, natural gas and other sources to push the U.S. toward energy independence and create jobs. He would sharply increase oil and gas drilling on federal lands and vows to revive the struggling U.S. coal industry. He also would open up offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and other areas where it is blocked.
GUNS: Mr. Trump casts himself as an ardent protector of the Second Amendment and proclaims that if more “good guys” were armed with firearms there would be fewer gun tragedies. He even went a step further than the National Rifle Association after the Orlando nightclub shooting, suggesting that if it weren’t a gun-free zone, a patron would have been able to stop the bloodshed. Mr. Trump has vowed to end gun-free zones at schools and on military bases. He also supports reciprocity among all 50 states for concealed-carry permits.
IMMIGRATION: Mr. Trump vows to build a wall along the Mexican border complete with a “big, beautiful door.” He says Mexico will pay for the wall; Mexico says it won’t. Mr. Trump has repeatedly pledged to deport all the people living in the country illegally. Now he’s focused on deporting people who have committed crimes beyond their immigration offenses. As for the rest, he’s proposing no path to legal status while they are in the U.S.
ISLAMIC STATE: Mr. Trump promises to “bomb the hell” out of IS and level the oil facilities it controls. He has provided no details, including whether he would increase U.S. airstrikes or commit ground troops. U.S. airstrikes have already been doing precision bombing of oil facilities for some time. Mr. Trump has also said he believes in enhanced interrogation techniques, which can include waterboarding and other types of torture that are against the law and that many experts argue are ineffective.
ISRAEL: Mr. Trump raised eyebrows during the primaries by saying he would be “neutral” in trying to resolve the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has since said he loves Israel and he would be “somewhat neutral” in pursuing what he calls “probably the hardest negotiation there is.” A businessman who prides himself on his negotiating skill, Mr. Trump says he would try to get peace talks back on track but has offered no specific proposals on how he would do it.
JOBS: Mr. Trump wants to spur more job creation by reducing regulations and cutting taxes to encourage businesses to expand and hire more. He also says badly negotiated free trade agreements have cost millions of manufacturing jobs. He promises to bring those jobs back by renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, withdrawing from a proposed Pacific trade pact with 11 other nations, and pushing China to let its currency float freely on international markets.
LGBT: Mr. Trump says he would be a better president for gays than Mrs. Clinton, yet major LGBT-rights groups strongly oppose him. Among the reasons: He has balked at endorsing same-sex marriage, his evangelical advisory board has included prominent opponents of advances in LGBT rights and his running mate, Mr. Pence, last year signed a law that critics said would allow businesses to deny service to gay people for religious reasons.
MINIMUM WAGE: Mr. Trump has been difficult to pin down on the issue. Last fall, he opposed any increase in the minimum, saying that overall wages were too high in the U.S. In July, he said the minimum wage should be $10, but added that states should “really call the shots.”
RACE AND POLICING: Mr. Trump describes himself as the “law and order” candidate. He has said some of the videos and photos depicting the deaths of people of color at the hands of police were “hard to witness,” but has called police “the most mistreated people in this country.” Mr. Trump endorsed a former New York City police policy called “stop and frisk” after unrest in Charlotte, North Carolina, over the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. A federal judge ruled the procedure violated the rights of minorities.
RUSSIA: Mr. Trump advocates improved relations with Russia and has been strikingly complimentary of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s strong leadership style, contrasting it favorably with that of U.S. President Barack Obama. Some of Mr. Trump’s current and former top advisers have been criticized for being too close to Mr. Putin, and Democrats have accused the businessman of pandering for Russian praise. Mr. Trump, however, is not the first politician to champion better U.S. ties with Russia.
SOCIAL SECURITY: Unusual for a Republican, Mr. Trump has promised not to cut Social Security. His campaign has suggested he’d revisit the program after his tax-cut plan boosts economic growth.
STUDENT DEBT: Mr. Trump promises a “great” student debt plan, details to come. He appears to view student debt as inflating college costs to levels that are only worsening the problem.
SUPREME COURT: Mr. Trump has released a list of 11 conservative state and federal judges whom he would consider nominating if elected.
TAXES: Mr. Trump trotted out an initial plan but has pared it back twice so far. He’d slice individual income taxes across the board: the current seven brackets, which peak at 39.6 percent, would collapse into three tiers with a maximum 33 percent rate. The corporate tax rate would fall from 35 percent — which few companies pay because of deductions — to a maximum 15 percent. There would be new tax breaks for some expenses for caring for children or the elderly. And he’d eliminate the estate tax, which hits inheritances exceeding $10.9 million this year for married couples. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says the proposal would likely bestow “outsized benefits” to the wealthiest families, but it lacks sufficient detail to be too specific.
TRADE: Mr. Trump vows to tear up existing trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, and to slap huge tariffs on Chinese imports. He traces America’s economic problems to bad trade deals reached by clueless U.S. negotiators outfoxed by craftier foreigners. The author of “The Art of the Deal” says he can do better.
VOTING RIGHTS: Without offering specifics, Mr. Trump has emphasized the dangers of voter fraud, calling America’s electoral system “out of control” with people who are “voting many, many times.” He has said — without evidence — that dead voters helped elect President Barack Obama. Mr. Trump opposes same-day voter registration, saying it could allow people to “sneak in through the cracks.”
WALL STREET: Mr. Trump wants the financial overhaul law to be repealed, or at least mostly dismantled. He embraces the view held by Republicans and business interests that the regulations have increased costs and smothered growth. He calls the law a “disaster” and a “disgrace.”