Trump vs. himself: The ex-president's flip-flops

Donald Trump has called Kamala Harris "the greatest flip-flopper" on policy issues. But if he's re-elected president, Trump plans to backtrack on several positions he took during his presidency.

Why it matters: Trump's flip-flops — like Harris' — appear calculated to appeal to key groups of voters in what's expected to be an election decided by razor-thin margins.

• Trump has chided Harris for changing her positions on issues such as fracking and immigration as she's moved off several of her liberal stances — and as she's been reluctant to say whether she's changed her views on other issues.
• But Trump also is fighting his own positions from the past, as he's tried to boost his support in key states — and particularly among young, tech-conscious voters.

Trump's flip-flops:

SALT caps: One key piece of legislation Trump signed into law as part of his 2017 tax cut package was a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions.

• Now, he's saying that if elected he would "get SALT back," per a post on his Truth Social account earlier this month. By this Trump means he'd seek to lift the cap on those tax deductions.
• The SALT cap drew criticism from some lawmakers, particularly in states with high taxes and higher costs of living. A few of those states — New York and New Jersey, for example — could play a major role in deciding which party wins control of the House in November.

TikTok ban: Trump took a hard-line stance on the platform while in office, including supporting a ban on the platform over national security concerns because TikTok is owned by Beijing-based Bytedance.

• In August 2020, he signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the app.
• But he expressed support for TikTok earlier this year, amid a bipartisan push in Congress to force divestment from TikTok.
• "If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business," Trump said on Truth Social in March, referring to the tech giant Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

Legalizing marijuana: Trump's Justice Department in 2018 rolled back an Obama-era policy that loosened prosecution of federal marijuana laws in states that had already legalized or decriminalized the drug.

• But this month, Trump signaled that he supports loosening marijuana laws. He said on his Truth Social that he'd vote for a ballot measure in Florida that would legalize adult use of marijuana.
• He also said that "it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use."

Vaping: Trump in 2019 proposed a sweeping crackdown on flavored vaping products, then walked back parts of his proposal at the urging of his 2020 presidential campaign manager.

• Earlier this month Trump went further, vowing to "save vaping" in a post on Truth Social.

The filibuster: During his administration, Trump criticized the filibuster, a bill-delaying tactic in the Senate that allows unlimited debate that can be stopped only by a super-majority vote of 60 senators.

• "If Republican Senate doesn't get rid of the Filibuster Rule & go to a simple majority, which the Dems would do, they are just wasting time!," Trump wrote on X in 2017.
• But during a 2021 podcast interview — at a time when Democrats had the Senate majority — Trump said removing the filibuster and allowing debates to be halted by a simple majority vote would be "catastrophic" for Republicans, echoing the view of many of his GOP colleagues.

Crypto skepticism: Trump wrote on his social media platform this year that the U.S. "must be the leader" in cryptocurrency. He also invited supporters who had purchased Trump "Mugshot Edition" NFTs to his Mar-a-Lago residence in May and spoke at a Bitcoin conference in July.

• Trump's embrace of the industry — and its donors — comes after he expressed wariness about crypto as president.
• "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air," Trump wrote on X in 2019.

What they're saying: Trump's campaign is trying to cast Harris' flip-flops as political opportunism, while deflecting on Trump's own flip-flops.

• Harris' flip-flops "aren't "flip-flops; they are flat-out lies," Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said. "Kamala Harris is too weak to defend her record because it is indefensible.

The other side: Harris' campaign has accused Trump of "brazen flip-flops" on marijuana, reproductive rights and his support for the Child Tax Credit.

• "Trump must be held accountable for his brazen flip-flops wholly at odds with how he governed as president," Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams wrote in a memo last month.

Go deeper: Inside Trump's TikTok flip-flop