Our Fellow Americans:

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The Harvard Republican Club (HRC) is the nation’s oldest collegiate Republican organization. Over the course of our history, we have participated in our party’s many fights for American values and the great victories we have won in the name of liberty, justice, and prosperity. As such, we embrace our duty to carry on the mission to keep our nation thriving.

 

The 136th Board of the Harvard Republican Club proudly endorses Donald J. Trump to be the 47th President of the United States.

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We look forward to seeing him back in the White House, where he can Make America Great Again. When President Trump took office in 2017, the U.S. economy was expected to enter a recession [1]. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the U.S. unemployment rate would hike in early 2017 [2]. Despite this, through the onset of the pandemic, President Trump led our economy to create 6.6 million net jobs (twice CBO’s projections), reducing the unemployment rate to a 50-year low of 3.5% [3]. Beyond job creation, real wages jumped by 3.5% annually under President Trump [4]: in 2019, the bottom-earning quartile saw their wages rise by 4.2% annually, and the top-earning quartile saw their wages rise by 3.1% for the top-earning quartile [5]. This brought median household income to increase by 9.2% from 2017-2019 – the best three-year period within a single administration in around twenty years – and to jump 7%, or $4,400, in

2019 alone – a number not reached in more than fifty years [6]. Median household wealth also rose

to its highest levels in U.S. history, increasing by more than $5,000 (to $65,000) in three years

and doubling the gains from the last decade [7]. The poverty rate hit a record low of 10.5% [8] with

seven million Americans lifted out of poverty [9].

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These accomplishments were grounded in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the deregulation of the Trump era. The former took the U.S. from a 35% corporate tax to 21% [10]. Given that 33 of the other 34 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had an average corporate tax rate of 24% [11], multinational companies were disincentivized from investing in the U.S. President Trump reversed that trend, reducing taxes on business investments and bringing investments and jobs back to the US [12]. And the CBO now estimates that Trump’s tax cuts are poised to usher in more tax revenue [13] than it projected before the law’s passage, indicating that the policies essentially paid for themselves [14].

 

Beyond the tax cuts, President Trump also presided over a slew of deregulation, cutting nearly eight regulations for every new, significant regulation between 2017 and 2019: after five to ten years, this is expected to increase U.S. real incomes by $3,100 per household annually as a result of the increased competition brought about by decreased government regulation [15].We hope to see another term marked by decreased government regulation, decreased spending, decreased deficits, and more

tax cuts.

 

By contrast, President Biden’s economic policy is headlined by the CHIPS Act, which prioritizes

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) over comprehensive economic reform [16]. The policy drives chip factories out of the U.S. because of the unnecessary diversity and economic burdens they

are compelled to comply with [17]. Biden’s term has also been marked by the inflationary Inflation

Reduction Act, which includes a tax on natural gasses and methane emissions (making energy

less affordable) [18]. Biden’s Treasury department borrowed $3 trillion from the markets, shooting

up interest rates and crowding out private investment [19]. These policies have culminated in an economy under President Biden where mortgage rates hit 6.8%, the highest range since 2008,

making homes unaffordable to average Americans [20]. The 10-year Interest rate (at 5%) and the

federal funds rate are at their highest points since 2008 [21]. These numbers take a high toll on

American consumers. In a world where 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck,

higher interest payments and housing prices are the last things that they need.

 

Just as he did in his first term, we are confident that a second Trump administration will rebuild

the American manufacturing sector, improve wages for working-class Americans, and restore the

vigor and energy of America’s innovators who are set to take our country back to the moon and

beyond. The future will be built in the next ten years, and President Trump will ensure it is built

in America.

​

Beyond the economy, we applaud President Trump’s focus on curbing illegal immigration and building the border wall, 452 miles of which were completed by the end of his first term, with more to come during his second [22]. We support his continued calls to close the border and to stop the flow of crime and drugs. In December 2023 alone, there were over 302,034 illegal immigrants encountered at the southern border, which is a 300% increase from December 2020 [23]. Beyond that, in 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection also seized over 27,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl – in addition to over 200,000 pounds of other illicit drug substances at our southern border – enough to kill millions of Americans [24]. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of more pounds of illegal substances are expected to successfully enter the U.S., a phenomenon that must be stopped by securing our southern border. Joe Biden has shown himself

unwilling to deal with this existential threat to America’s Constitution and way of life. After all,

Biden’s immediate dismantling of the Trump-era border policies, using 94 executive actions in his first 100 days, induced this record-shattering illegal-immigration crisis [25]. The HRC and the

vast majority of Americans support President Trump’s approach and look forward to his solutions to a problem that policymakers in Washington have willfully neglected for decades.

 

Furthermore, Donald Trump’s commitment to protecting the Second Amendment is essential to

safeguard American liberties. He opposed numerous gun control measures, emphasizing addressing America’s cultural crisis and improving school security instead of restricting gun ownership [26]. Additionally, he rescinded an Obama-era regulation that would have “effectively stripped the Second Amendment rights of any person who checked a particular box on a form submitted to the Social Security Administration” [27]. These actions reflect Trump’s comprehensive approach to ensuring that the Second Amendment remains a robust protector of American liberties, advocating for the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms while resisting efforts to impose restrictive gun control measures. 

 

Donald Trump was also the first American president since Ronald Reagan not to start a war [28]. Notorious ISIS terrorists were brought to justice, and corrupt military regimes were held

accountable for their actions [29]. And the world was safer for Americans as our allies, at Trump’s

insistence, learned to pull their own weight. Four years have passed. Russia invaded Ukraine, China continues to threaten an invasion of Taiwan, Hamas continues to terrorize innocent civilians in Israel, and the Red Sea is unsafe for trade because of mountain-dwelling terrorists. Biden commanded a historically embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan. His blunders killed 13 American troops, left 9,000 Americans behind, and handed the country—and billions of dollars worth of American weapons—to the Taliban and ISIS. And last year Mr. Biden sat on his hands watching as the Chinese Communist Party flew a spy balloon across the U.S. America’s enemies have pounced on Joe Biden’s weakness. We need a strong leader in the White House who will stand up to our enemies and restore order abroad without unnecessarily sending

Americans to die on foreign soil for foreign interests. 

 

President Trump has also embraced an America First Energy Plan, prioritizing the American people and national security over lopsided multinational climate agreements that have historically put Americans last. The Biden administration’s attack on the fracking industry has left thousands of Americans without jobs, depleted strategic oil reserves, and caused the U.S. to be dependent on foreign countries [30]. The Trump administration will support our energy industry and the millions of jobs and lower prices it generates for all Americans. America’s cities are in chaos. Crime is skyrocketing all over the country (often hidden by deceptive underreporting) [31], and Joe Biden and the Democrats have prioritized keeping criminals free — through negligent bail “reform” and non-prosecution — over protecting innocent, law-abiding citizens [32]. We recognize the devastating toll that crime has taken on our nation; President Trump will put criminals in jail and stop the crime-supporting Democrat DAs from releasing rapists, murderers, and other violent criminals via loose bail laws that leave them free to continue hurting our fellow citizens [33]. Our streets need to be clean so that ordinary Americans can go about their lives unmolested by the drugs, crime, and chaos that Democrats allow to reign on our streets.

 

In just four years, Donald Trump appointed fifty-four conservative judges to the appellate courts, and his three Supreme Court nominations solidified a six to three conservative majority in the highest court [34]. This historical reshaping of the American judiciary will ensure the lasting defense of the Constitution, and it has already resulted in landmark cases that reflect the HRC’s core values. We celebrate cases like Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which prioritizes

merit over unfair racial quotas; Biden v. Nebraska, which curtails executive overreach; and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’ s Health Organization, which left the decision to regulate abortion to the states. We look forward to President Trump’s second term, knowing that he will continue to appoint justices who put the Constitution – and interpret it the way it was written – first. Since he first stepped off the elevator in 2015, Democrats have launched corrupt and politically motivated investigations against President Trump, weaponizing the justice system in an attempt to slow him down [35]. From Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis, who used her prosecution to funnel government money to a fellow attorney with whom she was having an

affair [36], to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who ran on a promise to prosecute Trump [37], to Justice Juan Merchan, who, though supposedly unbiased, donated to Democrats — money that may have ended up in the pockets of his daughter, a Democrat operative — and proceeded to

attempt to strip Donald Trump of the ability to defend himself both in the court of law and that of

public opinion through numerous gag orders.38 The same can be said about the investigation into

President Trump’s ties with Russia, a corrupt investigation, started by the Clinton campaign, that entrenched interests used to hijack part of his first term [39].

 

Finally, as Thursday’s debate showed, Donald Trump is the only candidate with the mental capacity to run our country. Even liberal media outlets were amazed at Biden’s poor performance and bemoaned his repeated stumbling, loss of words, and inability to properly discuss his own policies [40]. Millions of Americans – including this Board – are left wondering: under a Biden presidency, who is really running the country? Democracy demands leaders who are accountable, which means leaders who actually lead their administrations. President Trump is a man with long experience being in charge, making the tough decisions, and standing by them himself. Joe Biden has shown that he cannot do the same. For the safety, security, and dignity of our nation, we must vote President Biden out of the White House.

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Most Americans would answer with a resounding “no” [41]. 

 

Clearly, America needs to change its course and put President Trump back in the White House. For all the aforementioned reasons, we endorse President Donald J. Trump.

 

Endnotes

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1. cbo.gov/publication/52370

2. Ibid.

3. manhattan.institute/article/even-liberals-have-to-admit-trump-had-real-successes-on-the-economy

4. atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker.aspx?panel=1

5. atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker.aspx?panel=1

6. www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/270/tableA2.xlsx

7. thehill.com/opinion/finance/535048-donald-trump-had-an-economic-record-that-will-be-remembered/

8. www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/tables/time-series/historical-poverty-people/hstpov2.xlsx

9. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000009

10. nypost.com/2022/09/04/democrats-for-all-their-promises-didnt-dare-repeal-trump-tax-cuts-after-all/

11. stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLE_II1

12. dailysignal.com/2022/05/26/cbo-forecasts-an-economic-nightmare-for-all-americans/

13. Ibid.

14. taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/gross-collections-type-tax-and-state-0

15. caseymulligan.blogspot.com/2019/07/comparing-presidents-reagan-and-trump.html

16. thehill.com/opinion/4517470-dei-killed-the-chips-act/

17. nationalreview.com/magazine/2023/05/29/why-the-chips-act-will-fail/

18. taxfoundation.org/blog/inflation-reduction-act-energy-tax-increases/

19. jec.senate.gov/public/vendor/_accounts/JEC-R/2024RepublicanResponse.pdf

20. wsj.com/articles/mortgage-rates-hit-6-02-highest-since-the-financial-crisis-11663250402

21. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDS

22. bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46748492

23. cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters

24. cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics

25. wsj.com/articles/trump-is-now-the-candidate-of-normalcy-policy-law-election-8bde1a01

26. heritage.org/firearms/commentary/second-amendment-grade-president-trump-so-far

27. heritage.org/firearms/commentary/second-amendment-grade-president-trump-so-far

28. reuters.com/article/world/fact-check-which-us-presidents-led-the-nation-into-new-wars-idUSKBN2A22QR/

29. trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/national-security-defense/

30. wsj.com/articles/biden-moves-to-reverse-trump-environmental-policies-11611182893

31. foxnews.com/politics/fbis-data-is-faulty-as-crime-proliferates-in-big-cities-report

32. heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/its-not-just-rising-crime-rogue-prosecutors-are-huge-problem

33. newsweek.com/want-criminal-justice-reform-dont-like-new-york-opinion-1761735

34. pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/

35. nationalreview.com/news/andrew-cuomo-says-alvin-braggs-trump-prosecution-was-politically-motivated/

36. bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68568382

37. cnn.com/2021/12/20/politics/bragg-new-york-trump/index.html

38. bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65182727

39. edition.cnn.com/2023/05/15/politics/john-durham-report-fbi-trump-released/index.htmlvvv

40. nytimes.com/2024/06/28/opinion/biden-election-debate-trump.html

41. apnews.com/article/biden-trump-voters-pandemic-era-economy-inflation-597f4f2f2b2e32d8933802e37ef66913