How Trump is changing the Republicans’ 2016 platform
Initial drafts of the platform hold the conservative line on social ideas, but Trump’s economic stances are making a strong mark.
.. While the party platform now bends toward Trump in some areas, other traditional planks of party orthodoxy remain firmly in place. Religious conservatives — without specifically swiping at Trump — rejected efforts by social moderates to soften the party’s stance against same-sex marriage.
.. Although Trump has blamed Bill Clinton, and by extension Hillary Clinton, for the North American Free Trade Agreement, the pact was actually negotiated by the Republican administration of George H.W. Bush and built on the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement that was concluded during the administration of Ronald Reagan.